Description: Effective strategic decision-making helps insurance firms succeed by, among other things, enhancing profits and return on investment. Capital optimization is a crucial component for business leaders to consider when it comes to financial planning, new business strategy, and evaluating corporate structures. Actuaries have a vital role in evaluating and communicating key risks and impacts on the capital position for such strategic decisions. In this session we will be exploring in detail the range of practices when it comes to: Assessing the immediate impact to capital from corporate strategy and new product design Creating a forward-looking assessment of capital across the business planning horizon, including considerations with regards to the change in risk profile due to strategic action Keeping pace with internal demand to ensure that capital is part of the decision making process Providing analysis of sufficient quality to allow management understanding of key drivers of change and how their decisions influence results

Description: Panelists discuss new non-traditional investments, innovative assets and investment-management techniques, and their applications. From the 1987 Record of Society of Actuaries, Vol. 13, No. 2.

Description: Discusses innovative ways in which insurance companies can obtain capital for investment and new business. Includes purchasing collateralized mortgage obligations [CMOs]. From the 1987 Record of Society of Actuaries, Vol. 13, No. 3.

Description: The external actuary must balance the goals of the company with a realistic assessment of the chances of achieving them, uncovering hidden value while scaling back on aggressive targets to achieve a balanced, defensible end product with buy-in from the seller's team. From Actuarial Considerations in Insurance Mergers and Acquisitions, M-FI03-1.

Description: 1993 SOA Spring Meeting, Boston. This presenters in this session discussed the impact of lower interest rates. In 1993 the Moody's Aaa Corporate Yield were near 8%. Questions raised: • Are lower interest rates here to stay? • What are the product development implications? • What are the market share implications? • Are we recognizing the disintermediation risk?

Description: This session from the 1995 SOA New York City Meeting covers an overview of the market for acquiring blocks of business, the legal, regulatory and valuation issues involved, acquiring a block through assumption reinsurance or novation, and tax and legal considerations in the acquisition process. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 21, No. 2.

Description: In session 22 PD of the Montreal Spring Meeting panelists discuss a range of issues relating to equity-indexed annuities EIAs. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 23. Vol 2.

Description: In session 136 PD of the Washington annual Meeting panelists discuss various methods for measuring investment performance and benchmarking investment performance against liabilities. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 23, No. 3.

Description: This panel of session 3PD of the Washington Annual Meeting discusses a range of topics which fall under a new professional label of financial engineer, and how this role relates to the role of the actuary. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 23, No. 3.