Description: Python has become the fastest-growing major programming language in the world. It has surged in popularity over the last decade, following the development of its industry-leading capabilities in data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence, and it is now one of the most globally popular and widely used languages. In this article, I discuss some of the reasons for its popularity and explain why many actuaries and insurers have started using Python.

Description: The barrier between humans and machines continues to blur, but curiously, this may have been prediction thousands of years ago in ancient myths. This article looks to how some of the early legends are becoming manifest in modern technology, particularly in the area of elder care. From automation, to humanoid assistants, to mind clones will the age of technology bring a new utopia?

Description: You really can have it all: readily available and relevant information derived from consistent and understood data. Getting at the Truth requires a good datawarehouse design and an appropriate business data model. Add a powerful and flexible Web–based analytical interface to get at the data and success in the pursuit of Truth will happen.

Description: Report on the SOA's 1st Annual LTC Operations and Technology Benchmark Survey. Its goals were to provide data to support the development of time and cost benchmarks for LTC operations, identify the most pressing operations and technology issues, and gain insights into the technologies that are being used to administer Long Term Care business.

Description: CMS provides ACOs with monthly claims data for members, including their medical visits and ACO program eligibility. This data can be divided into Membership and Claims tables through the ETL process. However, when calculating PMPY at specific levels of detail using these tables, issues arise due to unrelated dimensions, leading to inaccurate and understated results. This article presents a solution to this problem by utilizing Tableau's data blending capabilities.

Description: Within this paper, we take an applied approach to examine the economics of ERM. We provide readers with a series of economically based warning signs that might signify significant changes in asset prices. These warning signs are based on the economic concepts of elasticity of demand, elasticity of supply and herd behavior. Our recommendations provide practical guidance to directors, executives and practitioners regarding ways in which they can mitigate risks in today’s volatile environment. Presented at 2010 Enterprise Risk Management Symposium, Society of Actuaries, April 12-15, 2010.

Description: Review of a research project, co-sponsored by the SOA, which examined 83 organizations and over 150 programs that measure the quality and efficiency of hospitals and physicians.

Description: In this paper, we introduce a family of leptokurtic symmetric distributions represented by the difference of two gamma variates. Properties of this family are discussed. The Laplace, sums of Laplace and normal distributions all arise as special cases of this family. We propose a two-step method for fitting data to this family. We develop a statistical test for goodness-of-fit and introduce a test of normality of the data. A simulation study is provided to illustrate the theory.