Description: The frequent use and complexity of today's actuarial projection models has increased the importance of having efficient models. Model optimization can reduce both cloud costs and overall end-to-end clock times, thereby allowing companies to do more with less such as reducing close times, increasing controls, enhancing analysis, doing more complicated calculations, and/or improving employee workloads during the close. From design and data to execution and audit, come explore techniques that can be applied throughout the actuarial modeling process to optimize actuarial models for improved run-time, accuracy, and reliability. There will be a focus on techniques that don't rely on model compression. Topics covered include model design pitfalls, data handling, improving convergence on asset-liability projections, strategies for interacting with the cloud, and other tips for optimizing actuarial models.

Description: Health Insurers commonly face challenges regarding data including: Limited knowledge of how to handle large datasets Lack of a common language to discuss data challenge Limited understanding of how to use data and analytics to inform and facilitate decision-making We are seeing a turn in the market to use data and analytics to cultivate an insights-driven culture. But we are noticing a disconnect between the actuaries that are able to glean these insights and the new technologies required to handle the amount of data available to them. During this session you will look at moving from MS Excel to more advanced data handling and modeling tools (e.g., Alteryx), visualization tools (e.g., Power BI & Tableau) and expanding utilization of these tools and analytics. By attending this session, you will: • Understand data and analytics (D&A) concepts, methods, and fundamentals to help drive value. • Gain an appreciation for data privacy, protection protocols, and related ethical considerations when working with data. • Be able to identify of how to use data and analytics to inform and facilitate decision-making.

Description: Discover the rapidly developing health and wellness industry during the Use of Health and Wellness Data in L&H Risk Assessment webcast. Our discussion includes the maximization of data usage through several different means, including current risk selection, creation of a dynamic ongoing assessment offering or substitution of traditional underwriting information to shorten the underwriting process. Come explore these different approaches as they affect the health and wellness industry. We will express the importance of a constantly changing data usage environment in order to better prepare insurers to maximize their data and drive health and wellness forward.

Description: In this Determining Appropriate Sensitivity Tests webcast, explore sensitivity testing effectiveness, the important difference between sensitivity and stress testing and more. Understanding sensitivity testing is critical to actuarial work, especially in order to properly assess and evaluate risk factors. Come explore approached to sensitivity tests and effective evaluations of sensitivity test results in order to elevate your knowledge within the actuarial science field.

Description: This document is a Request for Proposals (RFP) issued by the SOA Research Institute focusing on advancing catastrophe modeling and sustainability in Asia, particularly in ASEAN markets. It outlines research objectives, proposal requirements, selection process, submission details, and other pertinent information for interested researchers.

Description: Python has become the fastest-growing major programming language in the world. It has surged in popularity over the last decade, following the development of its industry-leading capabilities in data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence, and it is now one of the most globally popular and widely used languages. In this article, I discuss some of the reasons for its popularity and explain why many actuaries and insurers have started using Python.

Description: Life and annuity markets around the world have seen increasingly complex investment-combined products, including universal life, fixed indexed annuities, variable annuities with a wide variety of guaranteed benefits and indexed variable annuities. Insurance companies are facing unprecedented exposure to financial risks in addition to traditional mortality and longevity risks. The risk assessment and modeling for such complex designs by conventional methods often focus heavily on their market competitiveness and profitability. However, there seems to be a lack of quantifiable and systematic approaches to assess investment risks associated with investment combined products. The objective of the proposed work is to develop a framework for quantifying and analyzing various forms of contractual designs and showcase different techniques to assess the trade-off between competitive contractual designs and their practical implications regarding the difficulty of risk management.

Description: In this article we examine the benefits and drawbacks of using a global surrogate of a black-box model. Are surrogates a comfortable middle ground that provide insurers high predictive power as well as model explainability?

Description: The Society of Actuaries (SOA), in a joint project with the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) and the Canadian Institute of Actuaries (CIA), are creating research projects and education materials on Modeling and Management of Longevity Risk.

Description: Insurance carriers are continually challenging to innovate and evolve emerging underwriting toolswisely. A growing number of new tools continue to emerge. Uncover insights and gaina technical understanding on two models from validation studies recently conducted. Find out more information on ways to evaluate models for bias an fairness. Perspectives will be shared from both a direct carrier and reinsurance standpoint. By attending the session, you will: Gain more insight into emerging underwriting tools and methods to evaluate them.