Description: A committee chaired by former Prime Minister, Sir Harold Wilson, has published its findings from a study on the functioning of British financial institutions and their value to the economy. This article reports on five of the report's topics that are of special interest to actuaries.

Description: This is a digest of reports on topics of current interest including: 1. Future Outlook Study, 2. Mortality Investigation on Individual Lives, and 3. Legislative Matters of Interest to Actuaries. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1968, Vol. 20 Pt. 2, No. 56.

Description: In May 1981 the Academy distributed an exposure draft, “Qualification Standards To Sign Statements of Actuarial Opinion on NAIC Annual Statement Blanks.” In it we read, with pleasure, the following bit of proposed wording: “Before considering himself or herself qualified, the actuary should have sufficient experience . . . With that experience the actuary should have . . . developed a healthy skepticism concerning data and other information proffered by others . . .” This article describes that the healthy skepticism was removed in the future language and the editor's disagreement with the ommission.

Description: This is a discussion about agency matters such as: new agents, experienced agents, general agents and managers, agent survival rates, etc. Also discussed is the impact that Medicare will have on private health insurance business. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1966, Vol. 18 Pt. 2, No. 50.

Description: This is an informal discussion on legislative effects on compensation and compensation modifications and the issues resulting from the requirement to integrate agents' pension plans into Social Security. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1950, Vol. 2, No. 3.

Description: This paper has two functions: first, to present briefly the results of some recent investigations into the behaviour of a price index in the United Kingdom in order to gain some insight into the possible future progress of inflation secondly, to present the arguments in favour of the linking to a price index of financial instruments, in particular government stocks, life assurance contracts and pension fund benefits.

Description: This is a panel discussion about H.R. 10 pension plans, i.e., tax deferred retirement savings plans for the owners of an unincorporated business and its employees. The following questions are addressed: To what extent is coverage under H.R. 10 being provided under individual policies and under group contracts? What problems are presented in each approach? If special plans are used, what provisions must be included? If normal contracts are used, what modifications or endorsements must be made? What plans are generally used? If split-funding is not used with normal contracts, how are increases in contributions handled? To what extent are trust or custodial accounts being used? From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1964, Vol. 16 Pt. 2.

Description: This article is a book review of 'Adventures and Misadventures in the Stock Market' by retired actuary, James G. Bruce, who talks about his personal finances. Asked by the reviewer why he believes that actuaries might appreciate his book, Mr. Bruce mentions that actuaries have curiosity about how people, especially fellow actuaries, reason, act and react that they may relish judging how wise or foolish he’s been and that comparisons of his views with those of others may prove useful.

Description: This 1978 teaching session provided a basic primer on the design of the OASDI benefit formula. Areas covered included: 1. The Decoupling issue 2. The Average Indexed Monthly Earnings 3. The Primary Insurance Amount formula 4. The Indexing procedure 5. Transition arrangements 6. The Short Service problem 7. Replacement Ratio considerations 8. Impact of Wage Base changes 9. The Retirement Age and Retirement Test.

Description: Discusses movement of the SOA's book collection from the Library of the Insurance Society of New York to SOA offices.