Description: This is the second report in a series on the current state and future opportunity of the retirement market in China. In this report, edition two of the series, you will see results stratified according to city tier and location landscape. Also included in this edition is a description of the differences in retirement age between men and women, and those from different educational backgrounds.

Description: The SOA's Competency Framework for Actuaries is a tool to help actuaries make decisions related to their individual professional development and career management plans. It applies systematic, sound approaches to selecting professional development opportunities, focusing on the skills needed to go beyond technical and specific actuarial analysis. This is an Excel file that facilitates that process by providing a personal planning workbook.

Description: This article argues that using Economic Capital as a metric does not capture all of the risks. The author suggests an alternative that better meets a corporation's overall risk management needs. This is value-based ERM, which is an approach that makes the quantification of enterprise value central to all aspects of the ERM process. It is a combination of two techniques—enterprise risk management and value-based management, and it captures all of the risks in a single metric.

Description: This article is about the need for actuaries and technical professionals to develop critical leadership and other soft skills, and highlights the ways the SOA Leadership & Development section provides tools to develop those skills.

Description: Panel discussion focused on the Effective Use of Capital. Topics included: 1. Definition of capital 2. Appropriate level of capital and surplus in a life insurance company 3. Alternatives for deploying capital 4. Returns a life company should demand on invested capital 5. How much a company should charge for lending its capital in reinsurance transactions

Description: The editor previews the articles in this issue.

Description: Book review of the latest edition (4th) of Life, Health, and Annuity Reinsurance by John Tiller, Jr and Denise Fagerberg Tiller

Description: Baseline and what-if/stressed projections of cash flows, financial statements and capital requirements are critical inputs to a range of business purposes, including forecasts, risk management, liquidity management, strategic decision making, etc. Forward looking projections have historically been inefficient and performed in silos making it difficult to scale the process as CFOs and CROs ask for more. In this session we discuss challenges of the forecast process and opportunities to meet desired future capabilities. We will also discuss “what-if” analysis and ways to support production of forward looking projections for “what-if” analysis in an efficient way.

Description: The objective of this presentation was to evaluate the different pricing techniques as to their effectiveness in capturing and quantifying the varied risks associated with the sale and administration of life insurance and annuity products. The results of a 2002 company survey about pricing were presented in support of this objective.

Description: Big data, predictive analytics, machine learning and AI will likely transform the insurance market and the actuarial profession. The actuarial profession is seeing changes many markets, including health and property and casualty. This article describes these trends and provides an introduction into what companies and the Society of Actuaries (SOA) are doing to adapt and capitalize on these trends.