Description: This paper presents considerably detailed death rates according to smoking habits and health status, based on the American Cancer Society Cancer Prevention Study I, which constitutes the largest body of data currently available for the study of smoking habits. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1987, Vol. 39.

Description: This 1979 session is about recent advances in Prediction Theory. Topics included: 1. Statistical methods to predict path properties of a Time Series. 2. How and to what extent Box-Jenkins Time Series methods can be modified to predict two or more time series simultaneously. 3. Workable techniques that are already being successfully used in practice.

Description: This discussion covers an update on mortality research. Specifically, it highlights the long term conditional survival of cancer patients, recent trends in the mortality of the aged, parametric models for life insurance mortality data, and shares an exposure draft of the derivation of the 1983 table A for individual annuity valuation. From Record of the Society of Actuaries 1981, Volume 7, No. 4.

Description: In this paper the authors discuss the official decennial Unites States Life Tables for 1979-81, presenting age-specific mortality rates and expectations of life. Mortality trends are examined going back to the first decennial tables published at the beginning of the century, and brief comparisons with mortality in other industrialized countries are made. The paper includes written discussion. From the 1985 Transactions Vol. 37.

Description: Documents the error in the Smoker/Nonsmoker CSO Tables accepted by the NAIC, and the expected approval of the NAIC to accept use of both the erroneous and the correct mortality rates for all regulatory purposes.

Description: This is a book review of 'Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices' by Peter F. Drucker, considered by some to be the high priest of management. The book is divided into three parts- The Tasks, The Manager and Top Management. The last named contains much food for thought, not just for top management but for the underlayer as well. The first two parts reveal Drucker’s knowledge of and insight into what is good management and what is not. Repeatedly, he makes his point by citing real cases and describing real companies. His occasional comments on the life insurance industry are pointed. The book is also noteworthy for giving us another law to stand alongside those of Parkinson, Murphy and Peter- Drucker’s Law: 'If one thing goes wrong, everything else will, and at the same time.'

Description: This paper presents blended 1980 CSO and Commissioners Extended Term CET Smoker and Nonsmoker mortality tables using the same methodology and pivotal age as used in the composite blended tables and for the same percentages of male to total, viz., 80, 60, 50, 40, and 20 percent. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1987, Vol. 39.

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: In session 142OF of the Washington Annual Meeting panelists discuss key existing research projects as well as suggestions for new projects. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 23, No. 3.

Description: Book Review: The First Immigrants From Asia, A Population History of the North American Indians. 'Actuaries reading this book will add to both their knowledge of history and of applying common sense judgements to assumptions, results, and conclusions drawn.'