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: The Risk Management Task Force polled the Risks & Rewards readers and asked the following questions related to Monte Carlo models: 1 How many scenarios do you run? 2 How did you determine the number? and 3 What confidence interval does your result have? The results are summarized in this article.

Description: Feature article discussing numerical short cuts, rules of thumb, estimators, modeling tips, etc. The featured problem is fitting the intermediate points for a real-world stochastic model of interest rates.

Description: This is the first year for appointed actuaries in the United States ot review X factors and evaluate actual morality experience that is emerging. This article atempts to provide a simpified explanation of how Monte Carlo simulation can be used by a small company to evaluate its mortality experience.

Description: This article poses the question, why doesn't the teaching of life contingencies start with the premise that the rate of investment income is a random process in a similar manner to the random nature of the time until death? The article suggests some methods for doing so.

Description: Recently completed research projects from the Society of Actuaries.

Description: A summary of Modeling Section-sponsored sessions at the 2016 Life/Annuity Symposium, covering model risk management, model governance, and model efficiency.

Description: A review of the Johns Hopkins Data Science Specialization courses with special emphasis on how they may be useful to actuaries.

Description: This article describes how different types of regression models used for fund modeling can affect the variable annuity's risk exposure report and attribution report.

Description: A discussion on how to avoid bias when choosing research topics.