Description: The Actuary Vol. 22 , No. 7. This articles explores the dangers posed by many guaranteed-return life insurance and annuity products.

Description: Author describes how he developed graduated policy-year withdrawal rates using crude withdrawal data that was available by calendar duration but that also was distorted by reporting lags.

Description: In physics and engineering education, Fermi problems require solutions based on good approximate calculations with little or no actual data, involving making justified guesses and deducing bounds without using sophisticated tools. The idea of Fermi problems are of particular relevance to today's actuaries, as pricing, reserving, and financial reporting involve more and more complex stochastic components. The paper discusses some approximate solutions developed in academia in the spirit of Fermi problems.

Description: Discussion of a direct writer survey and a reinsurer survey conducted in the fall of 2002 by the Society of Actuaries. The surveys asked a number of questions about underwriting criteria needed to qualify for preferred risk. They also asked questions about the percentage of issues in each underwriting category and the mortality assumptions for the different categories.

Description: Presenting the customer a measurable value of life insurance that makes the advice process transparent to both the customer and adviser.

Description: This article reports on a presentation given at the SOA Annual Meeting in October 2014 (Session #43). The presentation, entitled the “Current State of the COLI/BOLI Market”, addressed current developments and issued related to the Corporate-Owned Life Insurance (COLI) and Bank-Owned Life Insurance (BOLI) markets. The Greg Brandner from Munich Re served as moderator, and he along with Julie Decker from RGA and Kelly Rabin from Milliman were the speakers.

Description: In actuarial work, we are frequently confronted with problems with more than one apparently reasonable answer. This article deals with one of these, where the Federal DAC cost can be applied in an apparently reasonable, but incorrect, manner.

Description: This is the third and final installment of an article about using microeconomics and the concepts of embedded value to better manage and understand the profitability of direct marketing programs. The article illustrates how traditional asset share calculations are not appropriate in this case.

Description: Relationship of IRR to ROI on a Level Term Life Insurance Policy

Description: The limited availability of life and protection cover for people living with certain serious health conditions is starting to become a critical issue for insurers. The public perception is that insurers simply don’t offer cover, or that it is difficult to source affordable, tailored cover. This article discusses the considerations when trying to improve access to insurance.