Description: Investment opportunities are driven by events in the economy and how participants in the financial markets react to those events. This keynote address will highlight current economic themes and their impact on investment opportunities.

Description: The investment grade corporate bond market continues to expand in size and is now nearing record levels. The Bloomberg Barclay’s U.S. Corporate Bond Index, representative of the U.S. corporate bond market, now measures over $5 trillion, nearing its all-time high compared to its $2 trillion mark in 2008. The BBB-rated segment of the index has experienced significant growth, and now represents more than 50% of the corporate bond market. Corporate bond market risk has increased beyond what the ratings indicate. Today's investing landscape of relatively low yields, higher corporate leverage and a later-stage credit cycle presents challenges for both insurance and pension portfolios where corporate bonds are a core investment. <br> <br>With representation from a U.S. portfolio manager, Canadian portfolio manager and an investment consultant, attendees will get a full perspective of the North American environment and how to apply this information when making client recommendations.

Description: This session from the 1995 SOA Boston Meeting reviews one and five year returns in the stock and bond markets, fund expenses for retail funds versus insurance dedicated funds, revenue sharing arrangements between mutual funds and insurance companies, the suitability of a variable annuity, recent developments with the SEC and NASD and how arrangements are structured between insurance companies and investment companies. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 21, No. 4b.

Description: This discussion is on asset management for an insurance company, including issues of varying investment strategies for different product lines through various asset segmentation approaches, management of the assets supporting surplus, and asset/liability risk management considerations

Description: 1990 Valuation Actuary Symposium luncheon speech that discusses the demine of the junk bond market and other asset value problems.

Description: 1994 SOA Spring Meeting, Orlando. The first report on a study of bond investment results of life insurance companies with high-yield bond portfolios was presented at this session. The study, covering years 1986-92, was commissioned by the Society of Actuaries Ufe Insurance Practice Research Committee.

Description: 1993 SOA Annual Meeting in New York. This session is about an intercompany study on credit risk of private placement bonds and commercial mortgages. The development of the study, results for the 1986-1989 period, ongoing nature of the study, and company leverage were discussed.

Description: This teaching session will examine option-pricing techniques, binomial models, lattice, the hedge portfolio and considerations and reasons for discounting at the short-term rate. It will also include biased probabilities, option-adjusted duration and convexity option-adjusted spread. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 21, No. 1.

Description: This session from the 1995 SOA Boston Meeting discusses synthetic GICs, an overview of what a wrap is, the product development and investment implications, and the current regulatory environment. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 21, No. 4a.

Description: What is the impact of aging populations on economic growth and interest rates?” “Are low interest rates and inflation a short-term phenomenon?” “How will returns from different asset classes be impacted by future demographic trends?” “What are the differences between different countries and regions around the world?”