Description: This paper examines tandem levels of salary and interest rates and finds that the absolute level of each assumption as well as the differential are significant cost determinants for defined benefit pension plans. In forming best-estimate salary and interest rate assumptions, the actuary must reconcile the difference, if any, between the currently observed rates and the valuation assumptions. Common practice is to choose expected long-term rather than observed rates for valuation purposes. The error in this procedure is analyzed and found to be tolerable for strictly temporary discrepancies between observed rates and valuation assumptions. For situations where these discrepancies are expected to persist for some time, a need is shown for nonuniform, calendar-year assumptions or their equivalent in order to develop best-estimate assumptions. Followed by several discussion papers submitted

Description: This paper presents the general notion of a periodogram, following Elphinstone's approach. The paper then goes on to examine symmetric linear operators and their periodograms in preparation for the end discussion of periodograms of graduators.

Description: The insurance reserve for an individual contract can be pictured as a quantity which changes continuously from moment to moment in response to the forces of interest and mortality. A different mathematical model arises for each method of defining the death benefit, and in this paper a number of such mathematical models are analyzed. Followed by discussion papers submitted by several authors

Description: Article describes how to write effective model documentation

Description: This article includes a description of robotic process automation as it relates to actuarial departments. Robotic process automation is becoming more prevalent in actuarial departments as different regulatory changes cause the processes to be more complex. As robotic process automation takes over more jobs, actuaries will have to enhance and evolve their skillsets to better complement the new tools. This article provides an introduction for actuaries to inform them what they should expect, and how they can adapt to these changes.

Description: This paper studies the statistical theory underlying minimum surplus required to protect a group insurer from the insurance, or C2, risk. Followed by 2 submitted discussion papers

Description: Read the August 2020 issue of The Modeling Platform published by the Modeling Section. Newsletters provide practical information for the working actuary, articles on trends that impact sections and news about section activities.

Description: This article contains best practices on actuarial modeling based on the author's personal experiences and provides useful advice for actuaries to consider in their daily work.

Description: This article summarizes a method for measuring the credibility of a prediction from a logistic generalized linear model (GLM).

Description: The cloud inspires awe and fear in equal parts these days. There is a need to learn more, but there’s much information to learn and it may be difficult to know what to learn next. In this session, we’ll carve off a small corner of the cloud and make it your own. Setting up a Data Science Virtual Machine on Digital Ocean will be demonstrated. It’s the fastest way to get a data science development environment setup for your own use. Many of the topics and ideas covered will apply to almost all other cloud offerings. What use cases Digital Ocean is good for, and what use cases you should look elsewhere for, will also be discussed.