Description: This is the Demographic Perspectives on the Rise of Longevity paper authored by Marie-Pier Bergeron Boucher, James W. Vaupel and Francisco Villavicencio for Session 4A of the January 13-15, 2020 Living to 100 Symposium in Orlando, Florida.

Description: The COVID-19 pandemic has not simply changed the way we live. It has caused most of us—whether we want to or not—to reassess the way we think and feel about our world. Most in the general public have been looking to political and medical leaders to better understand the implications to health and wealth. Likewise, we as actuaries look to business leaders and key volunteers for their insights into the impact on our profession. We recently conducted a series of interviews with such leaders in the Canadian actuarial profession. This article addresses their insights into the evolving set of skills we need in this rapidly changing world.

Description: What does leadership look like within the actuarial industry, what are some variables, and what practical advice can we learn?

Description: The always popular Medicaid Hot Topics session is back with discussions from an expert panel on the most riveting Medicaid topics of the year. These could include the following: • Medicaid Fiscal Accountability Proposed Regulations• Tennessee's Block Grant Proposal• ACA court battles: What are the potential impacts on Medicaid? • Pass-through payments are converting to directed payments: What is changing?• And more current topics of interest to Medicaid actuariesMedicaid is dynamic and it is difficult to stay current on all of the changes. This session provides insightful discussion into the major changes that impact actuaries and their companies or state clients.

Description: Read the June 2020 issue of The Stepping Stone published by the Leadership & Development Section. Newsletters provide practical information for the working actuary, articles on trends that impact sections and news about section activities.

Description: Many new and innovative companies are leveraging technology to improve the effectiveness of the care provided to patients. They are employing better tools to identify patients who can benefit from specific programs that best meet the patient's need. They are also dramatically increasing the use of these programs by guiding plan members through the maze of offerings to match them with the programs that will be most beneficial to them. Employers are making these third party programs available to their members and Medicare Plans are using these new tools to identify emerging health risks for early intervention and more accurate risk scoring. This session will explore some examples of these programs, how they are being effectively integrated into the operations of health plans and how the results of these programs are being measured.The speakers will be:Raj Behal, MD, MPH,Chief Quality Officer, One Medical. Raj leads the quality and safety, value and innovation, and data science teams at One Medical. One Medical is changing the way primary care is delivered with a concierge approach with technology seamlessly woven into their offering. This includes booking appointments on line, virtual face to face care, accessible medical records and health reminders.Mylea Charval,Ph.D., CEO and Founder, Savonix. Savonix is a next generation cognitive assessment platform that brings clinical, evidence-based, and all mobile digital assessment of cognitive and emotional function. These capabilities are critical for early identification of the onset of dementia and for the proper risk assessment of seniors enrolled in Medicare Advantage Plans.Ed Cymerys, FSA, Advisor. Ed will serve as moderator. Over the last six years Ed has served as an advisor to a number of early stage technology companies looking to improve the way health benefits are being delivered.Dave Sotelo, FSA, MAAA, Actuarial Manager, Collective Health, Inc. Collective Health is an integrated solution that allows self-funded employers to administer their health plans, control costs, and take care of their people -- all in one place. They have effectively integrated more than 70 distinct third party solutions for self-funded employers and are rigorously assessing the impact of these programs

Description: User guide for 2021 Health Care Cost Model

Description: 2020 candidate questionnaire for Ronald Klein

Description: 2020 candidate questionnaire for David Sandberg

Description: Read the June 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 demonstrates how to implement DevOps for data using Moody's Axis. This was described as Model as Data (MAD). It described how extract turn-around documents from the model so they could be loaded back into the model. This feature allows continuous integration, continuous deployment and continuous testing of the model, which are important concepts in DevOps. This will allow the actuaries to speed up the model development cycle.

Description: View the CFE – Foundations of CFE Exam Introductory Overview Note.

Description: View the ERM – Enterprise Risk Management Exam Syllabi.

Description: View the Group and Health—Finance and Valuation–Canada Introductory Study Note.

Description: View the ERM – Enterprise Risk Management Exam Introductory Study Note.

Description: View the GH – Finance & Valuation Canada Exam Segments A and C Syllabi.

Description: View the QFI – Portfolio Management Exam Syllabi.

Description: View the QFI – Investment Risk Management Exam Syllabi.

Description: View the CFE – Strategic Decision Making Exam Syllabi.

Description: View the QFI – Quantitative Finance Exam Syllabi

Description: View the Life ALM and Modeling Syllabi.

Description: A collection of essays in response to a call for essays aimed to gather perspectives, opinions and data on how to advance the state of effective retirement planning tools, products, and strategies to assist individuals, financial advisors, employers, and other stakeholders.

Description: While our ability to access and analyze large quantities of data is better than ever, many long-term products suffer from sparse data in critical risk areas, such as deep in-the-money lapse experience and long-term utilization rates for income guarantees. The presenters will explore industry-level annuity experience data for these types of situations, and discuss quantitative approaches to addressing them in pricing and other applications.

Description: There has been significant discussion of PBR for Life Insurance, but there has also been progress in development of PBR for annuities; including VM-21, VM-22, and future VM-23. The presenters will look at the progress in PBR for annuities and what the future may hold.

Description: The presenters in this classic session will explore protection and accumulation products as well discuss the current state of the hybrid Life/LTC market. They will also examine the latest trends and the challenges to innovation and highlight key factors impacting the product actuary including the impact of technology, regulation and competitive environment. 

Description: The presenters will review and discuss the recent trend of FIA and Structured Annuities new product development, illustrate the differences and similarities between these two types of products, and discuss how insurance carriers may effectively manage the capital market risk from derivative hedging perspective. Special emphases will be on (1) the performance of customized FIA indices during the recent economic cycles, relative to benchmark equity indices such as S&P 500, and (2) the latest product designs of Structured Annuities and offering rates by insurance carriers.

Description: The hybrid Life/LTC and Life / Chronic Illness market is an exciting market that is in its relative infancy. There are many new companies that have just entered, or are considering entering, the hybrid market. Hybrid sales have grown tremendously over the past decade and are still going strong, with annual premium revenue estimated to be above $4 billion per year. The young issue ages for these products, relative to when LTC benefits are paid, means that the claim experience in the industry for these products is still very limited. Additionally, there are many moving parts to these products that present correlated risks and assumptions. The new entrants to the market, limited experience, and the interactions of risks create an environment equipped for vibrant discussions on the product structure, risks, assumptions, and considerations for modeling these hybrid products. The presenters would provide insight into each of these topics through a conceptual discussion, supported by observational data from case study projections and sensitivities.

Description: This chart provides information for consumers and other audiences on retirement risks and strategies for managing these risks.

Description: Because of its complexity, ensuring the security of cyberspace is one of today’s most significant challenges. As the cyber environment becomes more integrated with the real world, the direct impact of cybersecurity incidents on business is also heightened. This study aims to develop a generic model that can be applied by any organization. For the validation of the developed cyber risk analysis method, simulations and sensitivity analysis will be performed.

Description: This paper analyzes climate change's impact on corn yield and insurance claims in Southern Minnesota through an analysis of how temperature and precipitation are expected to change over the next 30 years.

Description: The Casualty Actuarial Society, Canadian Institute of Actuaries, and the Society of Actuaries' Joint Risk Management Section and the Joint Risk Management Research Committee are pleased to make available a new report on the application of ERM. Authored by Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald, Sim Segal, Michael Wolfson and Heidi Walsh, the report provides a novel demonstration on how ERM can be applied to serve the Canadian public by informing decision makers on the risks facing the current and future delivery of long-term care.

Description: An overview of the objectives of outbreak modeling, and an examination of the various types of models used both to forecast an uncontrolled outbreak, and to estimate the effects of interventions intended to alter the outbreak’s trajectory

Description: Winning essays form the Actuarial Practice Innovation Call for Essays.

Description: The article describes the insurance industry's preparation for pandemic events and the public finance response.

Description: Read the May 2020 issue of Health Watch, published by the Health Section. Practical information for actuaries, articles impact sections, section activities.

Description: The 2019 Long-Term Care (LTC) Medical Symposium was a one-day conference that extracted the thinking of leading experts on historical and future trends that will influence LTC insurance (LTCI) claim expectations. The symposium focused on the ideas from experts outside of the LTCI industry for the explicit purpose of gathering fresh perspectives on the issues that LTCI companies face, such as expected timing of new claims onset, length of claim, life expectancy and cost of care. The 2019 symposium built on and complemented the first annual symposium held in 2018. The focus in 2019 was on aging of the brain and how technology will impact the future of LTC caregiving. The symposium is not intended to quantify historical or future trends or to be prescriptive or specific about long-term care actuarial assumptions. Rather, the symposium aims to provide the long-term care actuary with environmental context for considering morbidity and other macro factors that may impact LTC experience in the long term.

Description: Winning essays form the Actuarial Practice Innovation Call for Essays.

Description: This article introduces a non-traditional type of economic scenario generator that relies on dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models are complex macroeconomics models and have been increasingly popular in central banks for analyzing monetary policies.

Description: Read the April 2020 issue of Risk Management, published by the Joint Risk Management Section. Newsletters provide practical information for the working actuary, articles on trends that impact sections and news about section activities.

Description: Since the outbreak began in January, numerous research groups throughout the world have developed models to forecast the number of deaths that could result from COVID-19. Updated April 24, 2020.

Description: Read the April 2020 issue of Predictive Analytics and Futurism published by the Predictive Analytics and Futurism Section

Description: This paper introduces actuaries and others to dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models, a type of macroeconomic model. Authored by Kailan Shang, the paper illustrates how DSGE models can be used in economic scenario generation to reflect the cause and effect relationships that occur in the economic system.

Description: This paper introduces actuaries and others to dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models, a type of macroeconomic model. Authored by Kailan Shang, the paper illustrates how DSGE models can be used in economic scenario generation to reflect the cause and effect relationships that occur in the economic system.

Description: Read the April 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: Read the April 2020 issue of Product Matters! published by the Product Development Section. Newsletters provide practical information for the working actuary, articles on trends that impact sections and news about section activities.

Description: Read the April 2020 issue of Long-Term Care News published by the Long Term Care Insurance Section. Newsletters provide practical information for the working actuary, articles on trends that impact sections and news about section activities.

Description: Since the outbreak began in January, numerous research groups throughout the world have developed models to forecast the number of deaths that could result from COVID-19.

Description: Targeted Improvements provides a strong impetus for commitment by management to develop and maintain a set of appropriate assumptions. As even the best of assumptions will take time to season, the sooner the improvements in assumptions are made, the quicker the goal of stabilized earnings can be realized.

Description: April 2020 issue of The Stepping Stone by Leadership & Development Section. practical information for actuaries, trends that impact section, section activities

Description: 2020 Student Research Case Study Challenge submission

Description: Papers: Multi-Population Longevity Models: A Spatial Random Field Approach– Nhan Huynh, Mike Ludkovski, Ph.D. - University of California at Santa Barbara, Howard Zail - Elucider, LLC. The Application of Affine Processes in Cohort Mortality Risk Models – Zhiping Huang, Michael Sherris, FSA, FIAA, FIA, Andres M. Villegas Ramirez, Ph.D., Jonathan Ziveyi, Ph.D. - UNSW Australia

Description: While intended to assist health plan actuaries responsible for stress testing and ORSA filings, this session will also be informative for actuaries interested in communicating the impact of potential catastrophic events for health plans to their management and board. It will begin with a discussion of event thresholds for stress tests and their impact on capital and financial statements. Presenters will take a detailed look at several catastrophic event case studies (historical and hypothetical) in the following areas: healthcare specific (e.g. pandemic, specialty Rx), financial institution/credit market, operational/business, strategic and multi-event scenarios.</

Description: Companies exempt from PBR can benefit by borrowing ideas and lessons learned from companies that perform and operate in a PBR world. The presenters will discuss VM requirements related to governance policies, as well as assumption and margin setting, plus model validations and controls which can benefit smaller insurance companies. Attendees will learn about new actuarial practices and how the PBR methodology and Valuation Manual can influence their work and highlight available resources.

Description: Institutional investors such as pension plans and insurance companies have enjoyed strong equity returns for a length of time with few historical precedents. Nearly a decade after the end of the financial crisis, strategies to provide downside protection remain expensive and the performance of traditional risk-managed funds has disappointed investors.

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

Description: The session will feature case study discussion of how insurers can improve their model architecture and data visualization to prepare for the increasing demands of the future. Actuarial data and analysis has long been limited by the complexity and diversity of historical systems. External pressure on insurers is higher than ever before, as new requirements take effect under PBR, GAAP Targeted Improvements, and IFRS17.

Description: The session offers high-level initial steps to get started using R, as well as a list of helpful resources for both general data science and actuarial science with R. Attendees will learn about popular R packages to perform practical tasks such as importing, transforming and visualizing data, as well as packages commonly used by actuaries. You will also be introduced to the markdown package for creating reproducible and reusable analyses and workflows. By the end of the session, you will be familiar enough with using R and RStudio to begin incorporating these tools in your day-to-day work as an actuary

Description: The management of the investments of an insurance enterprise has undergone a considerable evolution since the pioneering work of Redington in the mid 20th century. Best practices have evolved to incorporate ever more complex insurance liabilities, expanding investment asset classes and global market opportunities. Strategic asset allocation (SAA), liability driven investing, and other robust optimization approaches form the core of the professional management of insurance company investments.

Description: The SOA and Plug and Play relationship will allow InsurTech start-ups to validate their technology and modeling processes with actuaries. The strategic partnership with Plug and Play demonstrates the SOA’s commitment to providing its members with dynamic learning experiences, rewarding volunteer opportunities, and collaborative events where they can learn from the experiences and ideas of peers around the world.

Description: Retirement market study of Brazil in English

Description: Read the March 2020 issue of In The Public Interest published by the Social Insurance & Public Finance Section. Newsletters provide practical information for the working actuary, articles on trends that impact sections and news about section activities.

Description: This report looks at identifying drivers of systemic risk to China’s insurance industry and develops a measurement method for systemic risk as well as systemic risk dependence between the insurance industry and other industries.

Description: This report looks at identifying drivers of systemic risk to China’s insurance industry and develops a measurement method for systemic risk as well as systemic risk dependence between the insurance industry and other industries.

Description: Lower costs doesn't necessarily help ACA markets. It often makes things worse.

Description: Results of the PBITT Working Group annual Variable Annuity Survey.

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

Description: Technology is transforming the retirement space and more changes are expected in the future. Join a panel of experts to discuss what are the opportunities, trends and challenges associated with new technologies in the retirement landscape and how it is expected to impact consumers, if we can enable their successful integration.

Description: Over the last few years, many direct companies have started inforce management programs and are now navigating what actions can be taken to optimize the business. At the same time, the legal, compliance, and regulatory environments are also changing. The presenters will explore the development and implementation of programs such as changing non-guaranteed elements or efforts to improve experience while considering the changing compliance environment, including New York Regulation 210, ASOP2 and litigation challenges.

Description: Digital is the main reason over half of the companies on the Fortune 500 have disappeared since 2000." (CEO Accenture). We cannot be sure how global technology megatrends will disrupt the life insurance industry, but we can be certain that the future will not look like today. As large quantities of available data are no longer owned by insurance companies and statistical techniques become more accessible to non-statisticians, the pressure to keep up with technological advancement increases. Life actuaries must think critically about and be prepared for the coming changes and position themselves as leaders in an industry lagging behind in new technology adoption.

Description: The Society of Actuaries announced a partnership with Silicon Valley-based accelerator Plug and Play. The two organizations will join forces to exchange knowledge and ideas that will benefit both the insurance industry and consumers.

Description: The insurance industry has a lot to learn from academia's missteps. With predictive analytics assuming an ever-expanding role in risk modeling, carriers would be well-served to establish practices that mitigate the creation of faulty models. Hear practical advice on how to mitigate the risks of overfitting, with a focus on how to translate complex policyholder behavior experience data for long-term products into behavioral models using company- and industry-level data.

Description: View the ERM Case Study.

Description: The Society of Actuaries and Silicon Valley start-up accelerator Plug and Play are creating a knowledge exchange with our members and InsurTech start-ups to share expertise and insights.