Description: Presented at May 1985 Spring Meeting. This session discussed: How investment policy should be developed, Role of the actuary and the investment officer, Role of the pricing actuary and the valuation actuary, Liquidity considerations, Tax considerations, Capital loss constraints, Process for changing strategy as the economy and company circumstances change.

Description: 1998 SOA Spring Meeting, Maui. Panel discusses the some of the newer outlets that portfolio managers have been using for their investable cash. Topics discussed: 1. New risk classes. 2. Update on insurance and catastrophe risk bonds. 3. Capital-efficient structured notes. 4. Leveraged debt and equity plays. 5. Other risk/reward enhancement techniques.

Description: This presentation is a concurrent session from the 1991 Meeting of the Society of Actuaries, held April 18-19 in New Orleans. The panelists discuss determining an optimal investment strategy in the current economic environment, taking into account prospects for the future, and how investment decisions are affected by product features. From the Record of Society of Actuaries, Volume 17, No. 1.

Description: In this paper we discuss the link between the price of a contingent claim and its replicating strategies. We compute the replicating strategies for some contingent claims when the price of stocks are modeled using either the Wiener process or the Poisson process. These replicating strategies are essential knowledge if one wishes to implement a dynamic trading strategy.

Description: This session from the 1984 SOA Salt Lake City Meeting discusses how investment policies and strategies for pension funds are often developed independently of liability considerations. This session looks at the probable mismatch of asset and liability cash flows, the extent of problem, the actuarial concern with certification of assets and structuring the fund to recognize the relationship between assets and liabilities.

Description: Investment Fallacies: The Misconceptions of Retirement Risks

Description: Much of the push for ERM has come from regulators and rating agencies, but it is being applied in internal company decision-making as well. This paper reviews the progress made and the needs still outstanding in two key areas of application: optimal capital level for an insurer and risk-adjusted profitability of business units. The basic conclusion is that progress has been made in these areas, but more is needed. Building models is not emphasized—it will be assumed that a state-of-the art model is available. The emphasis is on using such models in decision-making.

Description: There have been many examples of interest rate swap deals which have not produced the desired results for the end-user, largely due to unanticipated interest rate movements. While the authors of this paper strongly believe that derivatives, such as IR swaps, are powerful tools, which when used properly can effectively transfer risk and enhance the efficiency of markets, they also believe it is critically important to analyze the potential exposure to interest-rate risk. In this article, they provide the necessary background to measure this potential exposure.

Description: In this article the author notes that investment strategy development is fundamentally a communications exercise between the investment and actuarial functions. The article explores four questions with respect to investment strategy: 1 how to make money 2 how to avoid earnings fluctuations 3 how to avoid catastrophic loss and 4 how to choose a new investment idea.

Description: Interview with investment actuary Carl Hess, head of Towers Watson global investment practice, on his background and career path.