Description: The purpose of this paper is to explore the rationale underlying the development of the family of linear compound graduation formulas. As the title suggests, this paper also attempts to defend the Min-Ro member of that family against the unqualified charge that it is a 'poor' graduation method. It concludes with a description of a simple modification of the Min-Ro, and an analysis of the improvement obtained by that modification.

Description: The installment fractional premium scheme, although not practical for actual use, has some interesting theoretical properties. Jordan states, on page 88 of 'Life Contingencies', 'For example, if the insured dies after paying one quarterly premium for the current year, the three unpaid installments for the balance of the year are deducted from the policy proceeds.' This paper discusses the effects of adjusting the unpaid installments for interest.

Description: The complex world of life insurance, historically the domain of those gifted in integral calculus and probabilistic and present value mathematics, is explored using Excel spreadsheets and the Solver macro. The cash flow approach to learning life insurance examines how the cash flows through an insurance company without using higher math.

Description: The Karup-King formula with equal intervals has an elegant symmetric structure providing for efficient calculation. This paper traces the algebra involved in a generalization of this formula to the case of unequal intervals. So far, this formula does not have an elegant structure. However, a degree of elegance can be obtained in terms of matrix notation which can readily be used with a computer language such as APL.

Description: Presented at 1983 Actuarial Research Conference. The goal is to estimate the form of distribution of T 'time to an event' given 'z', and to explore the relationship between T and z. The methods outlined can be generalized to problems involving multiple failure times - not restricted to death events.