Description: Obsolescence of physical assets and processes is a major component of operational risk for some companies. A simulation experiment shows that managers, who consider the retirement and replacement of individual assets in isolation, have rational incentives, due to risk aversion and uncertainty, to defer the replacement of assets past a time that is optimal from the perspective of the shareholder who owns the entire portfolio of such assets. This results in measurable wealth destruction, —and a demonstrable opportunity to significantly enhance a company’s value. A practical decision model for the replacement timing of fixed, physical assets, which creates wealth by minimizing the long-term consumption of scarce resources, is provided.

Description: This is the abstract for the paper on optimal reversible annuities to minimize the probability of lifetime ruin.

Description: This is the abstract of a paper about developing a model that will provide insight into the true inherent value of a property-liability insurance company from a market perspective.

Description: This abstract describes a presentation that describes the Canadian Institute of Actuaries’ University Accreditation Program, whose goal it is to provide exemptions for some preliminary examinations while maintaining the strong standards of the exam-based entrance to the actuarial profession.

Description: This is the abstract for the paper on the application of Esscher transform to the Regime Switching Model.

Description: Improving understanding of the complex relationships among financial entities is critically important for risk managers and for financial authorities charged with multiple policy objectives. High quality information is lacking at both the intra- and inter-enterprise levels and to support analysis of the financial network. Put simply, the current quality and quantity of relationship data is not sufficient to deliver on the ultimate objectives. For the purpose of this discussion we use a very generic definition of a term relationship somewhat similar to the definition used to describe human relationships. And like in the human relationships case we will not claim that only marriage and blood connection makes your relatives, but also loaning a book, loving, hating and sharing a flat. In the financial context, the relationships may be determined by accounting rules set, for example, by IFRS or US GAAP, as well as regulatory requirements in areas o f risk management, market integrity, know-your-client, network analysis and statistical consolidation. The financial industry and regulators have spent countless hours arguing and debating the definition of ownership. The problem lies in the question itself. We suggest that as part of any relationship data system the best approach is to put the question aside and avoid a conceptual and practical quagmire. Rather, we recommend collecting and storing less-subjective granular data on theactual legal and economic relationships between firms, which provides a flexibleframework from which any user can answer the question on corporate relationships he or she determines is appropriate at a given time. Encouragingly, technological solutions are available to accommodate this multiplicity of requirements in a single solution. The paper outlines where the practical challenges are that inhibit the development of high quality relationship data and how they can be overcome.

Description: the abstract for the paper Analysis of Trends in the Age-Specific Shape of Mortality Curves for Populations in the United States and Japan.

Description: This is the abstract of a paper that derives expressions for the moments of the distribution of the option payoff in a Black Scholes economy. These results are of interest from a purely statistical viewpoint. They may also be of interest given the current importance of value at risk calculations. The paper also derives formulae for the moments of barrier options and provides numerical examples.

Description: This is the abstract of a paper that presents an iterative procedure for computing the lower approximation of the Snell envelope - a value process of the American option. The method produces an increasing sequence of approximations of the Snell envelope from below, which coincide with the Snell envelope in discrete time after finite steps. Advantages of this method compared with other well-known traditional approaches are discussed first. Then, elaborate algorithm details associated with theoretical proofs are discussed. An example of constructing the lower approximation is available with numerical results, which are demonstrated in figures. Some characteristics of the implementation in the computational environment and an improvement are mentioned at the end.

Description: This is the abstract for the paper on optimal insurance under behavioral theory.