Description: Discusses the influences that foreign economies have on the U.S. economy and the risks that those influences create for the U.S. life insurance industry.

Description: This report models and forecasts future mortality improvements in China, by geographical regions, as well as by causes of death. Deaths and population exposures data provided by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention was used for the period 2004–2019.

Description: This paper is the final report in a project commissioned by the Society of Actuaries Social Security Committee. The paper considers a variety of possible risk classification factors that could be used in estimating the value of any mortality based benefit for retirees. As many countries consider mandatory individual retirement accounts as their answer to a secure Social Security system, the question arises as to whether all workers can get true 'market value' annuities when they retire. It is clear today that private sector life annuities are priced assuming that the applicant is healthy-very healthy. Very little underwriting or risk classification now exists in the individual annuity marketplace. This paper reviews 45 recent research papers that look at factors that affect mortality after retirement. In particular, factors that seem to be important in predicting retirement mortality include: age, gender, race and ethnicity, education, income, occupation, marital status, religion, health behaviors, smoking, alcohol, and obesity. For each factor, this paper gives highlights relative to the named factor of the impact expected from that variable as described in the 45 reviewed research papers.

Description: We propose an age-shift model to modify the LC model and deal with the problem of parameters. The proposed method attains smaller estimation errors with respect to mean absolute percentage error or mean square error. We also apply the proposed age-shift model to the mortality rates of these four countries to evaluate the longevity risk in annuity products by measuring life expectancy.

Description: This presentation discusses pension plans provided by U.S. multinational companies, and focuses on issues such as nondiscrimination rules, how the plan benefits compare to those of other countries, benefit indexing and what happens when an employee transfers to another country. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries Vol. 18, No. 4B.

Description: This article describes a new pension accounting standard for multinational companies and compares its provisions to those of the U.S. accounting standards. From Pension Section News, April 1998, Issue No. 36.

Description: This panel addressed the multitude of issues companies face as banks and insurers become partners. Panelists discussed: 1. Legal issues surrounding mergers of banks and insurers, including the focus of federal regulators. 2. Recent applications by insurers for thrift charters and acquisitions of thrifts. 3. Successful bancassurance models in other parts of the world and best practices applicable in the U.S. 4. U.S. bank distribution models. 5. Financial implications of the manufacturers and distributors having the same parent, including impact on product development, underwriting, and transfer pricing. 6. Impact on carriers relying on banks for distribution when those banks merge with other carriers.

Description: "Minimum Social Security Benefit (s) and the Alone Stage of Retirement in the U.S.? – Lori J. Curtis, PhD., Douglas Andrews, FSA, FCIA, Ph.D., University of Waterloo The Importance of Cognitive Health – Gordon Woo,Ph.D., RMS LifeRisks"

Description: This article is a summary of a paper called Valuation of Final-Salary Pension Schemes by R. B. Colbran, F.I.A. submitted to the Institute of Actuaries in London last April. It includes a review of major ways in which United Kingdom and North American actuaries differ in their approaches of valuing these plans.

Description: This article presents a summary of ideas discussed in a 1999 symposium on the subject of the pros and cons of privatization as an element of the U.S. Social Security system. The four main topics addressed were: 1. Overview of Social Security reform. 2. Pros and cons of privatization. 3. Impact of privatization. 4. Practical issues of privatization. From: The Actuary, September 1999 – volume 33 - Issue 7.