Description: Archive Spring 2023: Design and Accounting Exam US

Description: The article first tries to determine a consensus view of what social security should accomplish and then tries to measure how well the current level of benefits succeeds in meeting these goals. Assessing benefit adequacy is an essential element in putting the overall program on a sound financing footing.

Description: Winner of the Most Unique Actuarial Career of the Future award in the SOA's 2022 Speculative Spectacular Fiction & Art Contest.

Description: "Given the typical career trajectory of an actuary starts with increasing technical skill, we often overlook developing our communication skills, much to the determent of our overall career growth and business effectiveness. The only way that our work turns into business action is through communication, and business action is the sole purpose of our analyses. Come explore several ways to communicate more effectively by developing an understanding of our audience and what their “win” is, focusing on developing impactful messaging and outlining clear action, and how networking, especially broadly across the organization, can help us communicate more effectively. After this session you will be able to: Understand your audience and tailor your communication appropriately Develop clear messaging and explanations and deliver next steps Understanding how broadening your network can help you communicate more effectively"

Description: Enjoy an in-depth walkthrough of the facets of the lab testing world in this webcast. The agenda will include a discussion on genetic testing, which focuses on its general background, current trends and tests in the pipeline, as well as a focus on the approaches to achieve savings in lab testing. Finally, expect to check out sample actuarial analyses that will be used to identify areas of focus in lab management. Join us and take a deeper look into lab work in the actuarial health industry.

Description: Many states have recently introduced mandatory paid family and medical leave (PFML) programs, which require employers to provide PFML benefits to their employees. This session explores recent trends in PFML programs, including plan design, pricing, employee perception, employer challenges, and current activity in various states.

Description: Models are a staple of an insurance company's operations. However, models that are not appropriately governed may lead to underpriced products, under-funded reserves, unfairly treated customers, and potentially catastrophic operational, legal, and reputational risks. Model Risk Management (MRM), an essential component of an insurer's ERM function, needs to keep pace with the rapidly evolving model ecosystem to limit model risk and produce results that management can trust when employing company strategy. With the adoption of ASOP #56, emerging technologies, and regulatory changes such as PBR, LDTI and IFRS 17, it is increasingly important for MRM frameworks and processes to adapt, upgrade and evolve. Discuss insights on how to embed ASOP 56 into Model Risk Management (MRM) and assess the design, development, modifications, and validation of actuarial models, the advancement of analytics and technology that empower insurers for process optimization and automation, as well as the the key components, stakeholders, best practices, and strategic benefits of a comprehensive MRM framework. Go over use cases on enhancing MRM in the context of ASOP 56, technology, and model governance. Explore how automation and optimization of the MRM process will allow companies to realize the strategic benefits of MRM, ensure successful adoption of regulation changes, and the pros and cons of emerging technology on MRM. By attending the session, you will be able to: - Describe how ASOP 56 can help improve MRM processes. - Describe the key components, stakeholders, best practices, and strategic benefits of a comprehensive MRM framework. - Identify where and how to use technology to automate and optimize the MRM process. - Evaluate the impacts of emerging technology on MRM.

Description: Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) provides practitioners all of the tools necessary for assessing, quantifying, and managing risk on an aggregated, holistic basis. However, in practice it is often found that there is a tendency for company managements and even seasoned risk practitioners at times to navigate their risk exposures one at a time. This habitual approach produces sub-optimal results due to the oversimplification of risk events and understating the complexity of the world in which decision makers must navigate. At the heart of this sub-optimal behavior is the human predilection towards mental accounting. As with financial accounting, mental accounting employs a ledger function that mentally registers debts and balances. However, unlike a traditional ledger, the mental ledger is not precise, does not always sum debits to equal credits, and creates arbitrary categories for resources that are treated as independent, unrelated pools. These differences in function profoundly impact financial judgments and decision-making. Learn more about the long history of mental accounting, including examples from daily life to illustrate the principles involved. Discuss how mental accounting can arise during the ERM process cycle, with a special emphasis on its impacts on effectively quantifying risk and how this results in sub-optimal decision making. Discover behavioral tools specifically designed to mitigate the risk of mental accounting creeping into a company's ERM activities.

Description: With long duration targeted improvements in the U.S., and IFRS 17 in other countries, the insurance industry is currently undergoing the adoption of two of the most significant accounting changes in recent history. While the scale of these specific events are infrequent, change is the norm in the world of insurance and life of an actuary. We live in a dynamic environment that will continue to bring challenges in how companies make decisions in order maximize their value and return on capital. Capital management requires an ability for insurance companies to take corporate actions and understand the impact this will have on both the current and future available capital. Being able to make optimal decisions when the goal posts are subject to frequent and material shifts in accounting regulation is a difficult process. It requires holistic consideration of all tools available to manage capital and how KPIs can shift in their measurement under new regimes. By attending the session, you will: Discuss the challenges that companies have in managing capital in an ever evolving environment, what steps they have taken in managing the current scope of accounting change, and how they can be prepared for adjustments in the future.

Description: The use of longevity swaps are an area of growing interest in North America for insurers and pension schemes to manage their exposure to longevity risk. This growth is anticipated to continue as a consequence of the increased experience in the market and this maturity will encourage an improved affordability and ability for insurers to be flexible in this space. In Europe and Asia, longevity swaps are a much more established tool for risk transfer and optimizing asset-liability matching. From these markets, we can learn how to establish an effective framework in order to price, implement, and monitor performance of longevity swaps. By attending the session, you will be informed on the typical structure and modeling/valuation approach for longevity swaps including: - Understand longevity swap concepts, their benefits and common use. - Establish a basis for assessment such asmeasurement metrics, risk factors, and benchmarking principles. - Comprehend ongoing management such as basis risk, trigger points/pull-out clauses, potential operational issues, and asset transfer mechanisms. - Understand considerations and approach for valuing under US STAT and US GAAP.