Description: Introduces terms and concepts of Takaful (Islamic) insurance and describes the processes, goals and constraints that apply to the investments of such insurers.

Description: A research report providing a primer on the mechanics and uses of the Hidden Markov Model for actuarial and financial applications.

Description: This paper uses the property-liability insurance companies as a research sample to investigate the relation between the enhancement of cost efficiency and the usage of reinsurance and financial derivatives as risk management tools. The stochastic frontier approach is applied to consider not only the mean of cost efficiency, but also its variance. The sample includes both organizational forms, namely, stock and mutual insurers.

Description: The models that seek to determine fair value for stocks use corporate earnings and a capitalization rate such as a price/earning ratio to arrive at fair value. Nearly all such models use interest rates to set the capitalization rate. Current interest rates are assumed to be fair, as if there were no emotions in the bond market. Interest rates themselves are never viewed as too high or too low. For the past 10 years [1984-1993] stocks have been viewed as too high, in relation to interest rates. In reality, interest rates have been too high.

Description: Panelists discuss: [1] how they determine appropriate issuer and concentration limits in a below-investment-grade portfolio, [2] the best techniques for monitoring and managing exposures as they improve or deteriorate, and [3] opportunities for managing credit risk through synthetic structures and derivatives. From the 2002 Record of Society of Actuaries, Volume 28, No. 3. Session 55PD of the Boston Annual Meeting.

Description: Institutional investors such as pension plans and insurance companies have enjoyed strong equity returns for a length of time with few historical precedents. Nearly a decade after the end of the financial crisis, strategies to provide downside protection remain expensive and the performance of traditional risk-managed funds has disappointed investors.

Description: In this session, senior pension and insurance investment professionals will share their thoughts on current investment topics. Attendees will hear about leading edge investment ideas and practices from industry leaders.

Description: Proposes a benchmark consisting of TIPs and deferred income annuities for retirement asset allocation decisions.

Description: ICP 16 and its requirement for an Own Risk and Solvency Assessment (ORSA) will offer opportunities for the actuarial profession to provide uniquely well-educated and professional assistance to this process.

Description: The article discusses the characteristics of the high-yielding bank loan asset class.