Description: Article Health Insurance in The Actuary, June 1979, Volume 13, Number 6

Description: This editorial notes that a letter, appearing in this issue of The Actuary,’ may not be alone in maintaining that the vagaries of our regulatory system handicap companies to the point that United States policyholders get poorer value for their premium dollar than do those in other countries.’ The article goes on to discuss guaranteed surrender values, the state regulatory system in the U.S and other topics in addressing this question.

Description: Describes the three types of HMOs and the progress they are making in lowering medical costs and gaining market share. Also discusses possible future developments with HMOs.

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

Description: This article summarizes the responses of nine readers who answered The Actuary’s April Query, on the assertion by two Harvard economists that government deficits are being exaggerated unless allowance is made for the declining value of the dollar.

Description: The author notes that “many considerations enter into the determination of investment strategy. Important among these considerations is the maximization of investment income on an after-tax basis rather than on a before-tax basis.” The article then discusses how starting in the early 1960’s insurers, using a marginal tax rate approach, invested heavily in tax exempt bonds. The author, expressing his belief that a major depression is likely to occur in the next 10 years, recommends insurance companies divest of their holding in tax exempt instruments, based on the macroeconomic analysis he presents.

Description: The author reviews and provides analysis of a report prepared by Douglas H. Carruthers, Q.C., as special legal counsel, to review the relationship between insurers and the public and in particular, the role of insurance intermediaries in the province of Ontario. The report was completed in 1975 and made public in 1976, and effectively recommends a new regulatory framework. The author of this article analyses and critiques the various proposals in the report.

Description: Feature article describing what makes a company a systemically important financial institution and the new rules those companies will have to follow.

Description: Feature article about the different types of retirement systems throughout the world and how watching what they do could help the U.S. retirement system.

Description: This article discusses that “the investment returns earned by life insurance companies over the past decade have permitted the sale of contracts guaranteeing relatively high rates of interest. The contracts have given rise to problems in the areas of the federal securities laws, of federal income taxes, and of state valuation requirements,” as insurers, starting in the 1960’s began issuing annuity contracts that provided for the allocation of contributions to separate accounts.