Description: In our rapidly changing world, it is becoming hopeless to try to arrive at a satisfying description of future conditions, even in the short run. Yet prices for new life insurance must somehow reflect one’s view of events even in the far distant future. futurism

Description: Health Watch, Issue 79, December 2015, Health Watch

Description: The author provides an overview of terms that have gained favor in sociology, physics, engineering and anthropology that should be of interest to actuaries.

Description: This article discusses steps to follow to ensure a more rational and productive approach to data analysis.

Description: Feature article discussing the difficult situation of actuarial forecasting with little or no date.

Description: This article describes a method that can be useful when re-fitting a risk score model to a population of only moderate size. Learn how to use concepts like ridge regression to train a model with partial credibility.

Description: A new health insurance pricing model takes external market prices into account, as well as regulatory rate restrictions and other traditional pricing factors. Rather than being assumed at the outset, lapse rates emerge from the model, along with assessment spiral & loss ratio projections. Under the model optimal pricing strategy depends on whether the class being rated has a healthier than average mix of risks.

Description: Although rate structures where low-cost cohorts subsidize high cost cohorts may be justified from a actuarial, marketing, or legal standpoint, the subsidization creates risks which must be understood and monitored. This article presents the concept of subsidization signature to measure and interpret the effects of rate subsidization, and to assess the sustainability of rating structures and the sensitivity of business mix assumptions.

Description: An update on the Capital Market Assumptions used for asset allocation maybe useful to actuaries given the parallels with the assumptions an actuary uses to measure plan obligations.

Description: Presenter offers ways in which actuaries might set credibility levels to be used by underwriters to set group health insurance expected benefits. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 24, No. 2.