Description: This article explores a study by the Actuarial Profile Research Project about personality differences between U.S. and Canadian actuaries.

Description: Table from an articel in The Actuary Magazine entitled A Strategic Analysis of hte U.S. Life Insurance Industry Part II: Products.

Description: This is an article that was written by the chairman of the committee that developed 1983 Table a, which NAIC has adopted for individual annuity valuation. This article compares the mortality rates in the 1983 Table a with those of two prior annuity tables.

Description: Franklin B. Dana's query at the close of his article in this issue prompted us to turn to several members who were active in Society affairs in the 1950s. We asked them what they recall of past efforts to promote the idea of having a Government Actuary in Washington, and how they see today’s prospects.

Description: In 1979 I was a catalyst in assembling an informal group-Chief Actuaries in Federal Service Coordinating Group-to discuss the question raised in the March Editorial, i.e., the desirability of creating a position of Government Awtuary at a high level in the Federal Government. There are now about fifteen Federal agencies or departments that employ actuaries.

Description: The article notes that the Society of Actuaries has been invited as one of four new members on the Joint Ad Hoc Committee on Government Statistics JAHCOGS, and tells Society members “if you use government statistics - if you would like data to be available to you before they are outdated - if you have doubts about the quality or accuracy of data and/or analyses - if you are concerned about costs to industry and taxpayers of information gathering - if you have ideas on how to improve any phase of government statistics - here is your chance to speak out.”

Description: This article discusses the relative merits of investing some Social Security assets in common stocks either by 1. Adjusting the retirement benefits and taxes, and investing part of the Social Security trust funds in the stock market [the 'defined benefit,' or DB, method], or 2. Reduce the basic retirement benefits further, and have workers invest part of their future contributions in individual accounts [the 'defined contributions,' or DC, method].

Description: A new mortality valuation standard, the 1994 Group Annuity Reserve Table, is being proposed for new group pension business. This article discusses the industry concerns with the change from a static table to a generational table based upon mortality improvement factors.

Description: The last of three articles on the 1983 Table a. The first two articles described the steps in contructing the 1973 Experience Table and the 1983 Table a. This article compares the reserves from the 1983 Table a to the 1971 IAM Table at various ages and by gender.

Description: This article describes a dramatic presentation by King Arthur's wizard, Merlin the Magician at the annual meeting. View photos of the meeting. Article from The Actuary, Volume 31, Issue 10