Description: Description of the vast variety of predictive analytics topics covered by the Forecasting & Futurism section and introduction to the July 2015 issue of the newsletter.

Description: The article discusses the sustainability of the ACA individual market from a public entitlement standpoint. A key point of measuring sustainability is the reliance on market forces rather than federal budget constraints. The article explains why an actuarial viewpoint of sustainability is necessary to a greater extent than other public assistance and social insurance programs. The article challenges actuaries to be a bold, objective voice in a space that is full of opinionated but often uninformed viewpoints.

Description: This paper will focus on default distributions and why they are important.

Description: The abstract for a paper that focuses on default distributions and why they are important.

Description: The is the abstract for a paper that discusses retirement planning information and the signals it provides. It focuses on the issue of communicating lump sum versus income benefits. It discusses challenges in communicating income benefits and provides some alternatives.

Description: This paper discusses retirement planning information and the signals it provides. It focuses on the issue of communicating lump sum versus income benefits. It discusses challenges in communicating income benefits and provides some alternatives.

Description: Many of the innovations and methods required to improve retirement security exist, but have not been pulled together into an integrated solution at scale.

Description: The science of behavioral economics explains shifts in social actions and behaviors. Behavioral economics studies how people actually behave in given circumstances—not what they did in the past or say they might do in the future, but how they are likely to behave now. It examines rational and irrational thought as well as unconscious motivations to arrive at a more nuanced understanding of consumer behavior. Could the insurance industry utilize behavioral economics as a way to potentially increase consumer desire to buy life insurance?

Description: The Behavioral Finance subgroup of the Health Section will be publishing a series of literature reviews in Health Watch. This is the first review of three in the series. The reviewed article describes an attempt to place an econometric value on consumers’ preferences between broad and narrow networks.

Description: A review of the academic article "Health Insurance for ‘Humans’: Information Frictions, Plan Choice, and Consumer Welfare."