Description: This discussion note for many sessions at the 1980 Spring Meeting defines the theme of the meeting and sets the objectives under three scenarios. Objectives: 1. Recognize and reflect the basic concepts of futurism. 2. Identify the general direction of individual life and annuity business. 3. Paint a picture of what our business will look like by the end of the decade. Scenarios: 1. High inflation scenario 2. Incentive and investment scenario 3. Social democracy scenario

Description: This is the 1964 intercompany studies report of mortality under individual immediate annuities, covering the experience between 1958 and 1963 anniversaries.

Description: Traditionally, life insurance companies have depended on individual whole life insurance policies for their growth in assets. This has changed in recent years. Now, annuities, particularly individual annuities, have become the largest part of new individual premiums. Companies have responded by issuing a plethora of imaginative products. These are often founded on a variety of recently developed financial instruments, such as derivatives. This article is about the Actuarial Foundation's study of the risks of these new annuity products and the new financial instruments underlying them. The study will culminate in a scientific conference in New York in December 1998.

Description: The article summarizes several recent private letter rulings from the IRS addressing the "investor control" doctrine in the context of funds of funds.

Description: This article delves into a new line of statistical thinking of the author, that may be useful for product development actuaries. The key concept is how product design can produce products that diversify quickly, meaning that the company can be confident of a profitable product line, based on fewer sales than might be true for other designs.

Description: This research report on the ability to influence annuity purchases found the following contrast: • Pre-retirees’ intentions to buy a life income annuity appear to be impacted by the interventions tested in this research. There were stronger effects when pre-retirees were provided with basic information, such as life expectancy, and anecdotal evidence. • Retirees’ annuity purchase intentions do not appear to be impacted by the interventions used in the study.

Description: This is a panel discussion about H.R. 10 pension plans, i.e., tax deferred retirement savings plans for the owners of an unincorporated business and its employees. The following questions are addressed: To what extent is coverage under H.R. 10 being provided under individual policies and under group contracts? What problems are presented in each approach? If special plans are used, what provisions must be included? If normal contracts are used, what modifications or endorsements must be made? What plans are generally used? If split-funding is not used with normal contracts, how are increases in contributions handled? To what extent are trust or custodial accounts being used? From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1964, Vol. 16 Pt. 2.

Description: Credit Card Approach to Pricing by Ralph H. Gorter from Product Development News, August 2000, Issue No. 50. Examines the pricing of annuities including any bonus features.

Description: Panelists discuss the profitability of single-premium deferred annuities [SPDAs], variable annuities [VAs], and equity-indexed annuities [EIAs] over the last few years. From the 1997 Record of Society of Actuaries, Vol. 23, No. 3.

Description: This is a research report that highlights the characteristics of combination plans that serve to reduce the risks to insurers issuing life or annuity products linked to long-term care insurance. Observations are provided to assist in the understanding of the factors that explain the profit change sensitivity results and the natural hedging against major risks that inherently is present within the linked products.