Description: This article reviews some of the highlights of th 2010 SOA Annual meeting including the impact on pricing resulting from Solvency II, Market Consistent Valuation of New Business - MCVNB, the latest on mortality, Standards of Practice in product development, managing risk in product design and a regulation update.

Description: This article delves into a new line of statistical thinking of the author, that may be useful for product development actuaries. The key concept is how product design can produce products that diversify quickly, meaning that the company can be confident of a profitable product line, based on fewer sales than might be true for other designs.

Description: Summary of the SOA's Annuity Valuation with Dependent Mortality research report which examines the standard industry practice of assuming independent lives for insurance products that cover multiple lives.

Description: This paper studies how changes in the fractions of various groups of individuals, the survival probabilities of various types and the attitudes towards risks of the customers affect the equilibrium price of annuity contracts. From the Actuarial Research Clearing House ARCH 1989 Vol. 2.

Description: The first part of this article illustrates why long duration recurring premium products are particularly risky using the concept of fragility. The second part explores some ideas for antifragile products, which would enable the industry to benefit from the new banking requirements.

Description: The author's asserts that when estimating life expectancy, care should be taken to account for how trends in mortality can change over time change over time and that by assuming they remain constant, one can underestimate life expectancy and therefore undervalue annuity products.

Description: Discusses the influence of market-consistent pricing proponents.