Description: By necessity, attributions of financial processes require approximations. Tools used for approximations include Aumann-Shapley, time step, step-through, average step-through, partial derivative, and average partial derivative. Significantly non-linear paths can cause problems during attribution. Time (theta) and market factors must be handled concurrently. Typically contractual factors can be handled separately. Average Step-Through, Aumann-Shapley and Aumann-Shapley-3 points perform the best given the same time period. Attribution should be done with fairly small time steps as opposed to using a lot of points in the Aumann-Shapley calculation, but using Aumann-Shapley-3 points as a last step has some advantages.

Description: Reflections of a Regulatory Actuary by Larry Gorski

Description: A discussion of regulatory considerations for pension plans considering the use of longevity risk hedging contracts in Canada.

Description: The article recaps existing ideas for assessing credibility and describes questions remaining to be answered.

Description: Cassie He and Kabeer Jhaveri invite Michael Frank, a health, accident and life actuary with 24 years of experience, to talk about his career experience, his insightful views on the room to growth for actuaries and also the changes happening to the profession.

Description: This paper is from the Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1956 Volume 8, Number 20. It was presented at the 1956 Spring Meetings of the Society of Actuaries for discussion. The author presents an outline of how difficulties in the determination of a frequency distribution of the expected costs may be overcome by, in part, applying the concept of using a series of random numbers with a view of making mortality studies for each life in a group of annuitants. The paper also presents the results of some experiments which were designed to discover whether or not the concept could be conducted on an IBM 650 electronic data processing machine.

Description: Actuaries have been indebted to the Statistical Bureau of the Metropolitan Life for studies in vital statistics associated with the names of Dublin, Lew and Spiegelman and a recent study by Quint and Cody is in this tradition. It is headed Preeminence and Mortality and was presented to the Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association last November. This article shares further perspectives about longevity, and the characteristics of people who experience long lives.

Description: Identifies current trends and considerations when setting the mortality improvement assumption for individual life insurance in the US.

Description: This is an in-depth look at the root causes of the subprime mortgage crisis and ways actuaries can eliminate the problems. From the Actuary Magazine, April/May 2010 – Volume 7 Issue 2.

Description: This paper, in light of inadequate and misdirected ERISA reforms, offers a new direction in defined benefit plan regulation in the area of plan termination insurance, minimum and maximum finding rules, and plan design restrictions. From The Future of Pension Plan Funding and Disclosure Monograph, M-RS05-1.