Description: This report introduces quantum computing to actuaries. In addition, this research will assess and identify areas in the insurance field where quantum computing can make a difference, accompanied with suggested algorithms.

Description: This report was developed by the CESRC as an update of one Rob Erhardt prepared in 2016 that compiled a collection of sources that deal with what scientists know and what actuaries could do. Sources have been chosen with practicing actuaries and the public in mind. In the original report, nearly all governmental sources come from the United States. In the update an attempt was made to include sources from actuarial bodies and regulators worldwide. Please let us know if you have a source we did not include as it is anticipated that the SOA will continue to update a list of sources for these topics in the future.

Description: On May 20, 2022, an EF-3 tornado hit Gaylord, Michigan and caused 2 fatalities and 44 injuries, according to the National Weather Service Damage Survey [2]. The supercell thunderstorm that produced the destructive tornado also produced damaging wind and hail up to 3 inches in diameter [3]. According to data from the National Center for Environmental Information, this tornado was the first EF-3+ tornado in Michigan since 2012 and first EF-3+ tornado in Michigan in May since 1991 [1].

Description: This session will have two sections: General consideration of IFRS17 implementation for VA writers and reinsurers A case study of IFRS17 implementation for a reinsurer The first section will go over VFA and GM approaches that are available for VA writers. Both approaches have their own challenges. We will highlight some of the challenges and how to approach/overcome them. Additionally, we will discuss how hedging/ALM can help smooth the transition. The second section will go over the details of implementation process of a VA reinsurer. The case study will explore valuation challenges unique to reinsurers assuming business that would otherwise be valued under the VFA. It will also go over some of the modeling difficulties, project management, and database requirement.

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: Artificial intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are accelerating us into the fourth industrial revolution. In the next few years technological change and innovation will be rapid. The implications of AI on the actuarial profession are real and game changing. This session will help health actuaries understand what to expect from AI, how to begin using AI, and how AI will dramatically enhance the actuarial profession in the near future.

Description: The InsurTech market in China is divided into three categories, including online sales of traditional products through internet channels, product upgrades driven by technology, or the creation of more targeted products, and the innovation of eco-system-oriented products, or insurance service by data analysis. The market is expected to reach 1.4 trillion RMB in total.As the digital revolution goes deeper, new technologies have infiltrated into all business models in insurance companies and have promoted the generation and development of the InsurTech market. Digital technologies have been widely used by traditional insurance companies to optimize the procedures and products of the current value chain, bringing a virtuous cycle between InsurTech and the online eco-system. As a result, these traditional insurance companies can expand their business from insurance only to personal finance and other extended services, building a comprehensive solution for the eco-system. Technology is the cornerstone for the business development and innovation of insurance.

Description: This report is a collection of sources that deal with how do scientists know and what could actuaries do regarding climate change and environmental risks.

Description: The June/July 2014 edition of The Actuary magazine—the Society of Actuaries’ flagship publication.

Description: This paper shows how Tranched Capital and RAROC can produce very different indicated reinsurance purchases than does the ISA.

Description: In this study, a network approach is taken to characterize the systemic risk of two nontraditional insurance industries: the bond insurer industry and the CDS market. These industries were chosen since traditional insurance industries do not generate significant systemic risk.

Description: The recent financial crisis created incentives to review investment practices and see what was done well and what could be improved for the future. Looking inward at insurer investment practices, background trend information was generated and a survey developed for insurers to share their thoughts. The research continued with conversations in private and public forums, where initial conclusions were expanded.

Description: This article focuses on strategies that long term care insurance companies are using today to invest assets more profitably and manage risks more effectively to help ensure that they can meet their obligations and move forward in an uncertain market.

Description: This article is a review of the book, The Big Short by Michael Lewis. This book is a follow up to his previous book, Liar's Club, and focuses on the high finance issues that affected the economy in 2007 and later. In this book, Lewis focuses on the contrarians and challenges the Efficient Market Hypothesis.

Description: 2011 SOA Enterprise Risk Management Symposium, Chicago. The stated purpose of this paper is to consider whether a more comprehensive and timely measurement framework for risk exposure is now needed and to examine one possible approach. This paper proposes a new approach to risk measurement that, along with capital measurement and more rigorous oversight, will allow banks an ability to manage risk.

Description: Feature article discussing Nassim Taleb’s black swan theory. Taleb points out that banks keep their loans at full value - anchored to the book value of the loan. The solution to the problem is to use mark-to-market reporting and have volatility instead of having no volatility and then experiencing a Black Swan event.

Description: This article discusses how the industry as a whole is revisiting its risk management strategies in the wake of the financial crisis.

Description: In this article, the author examines five common perspectives on risk and see how they affect not just each participant’s own choices but everyone else’s choices, as well.

Description: Feature article summarizing a talk given by Andrew Lo at the SOA 2009 Annual Meeting on the credit crisis and why risk management failed to stop the excessive risk taking.

Description: This article describes the financial modelers’ manifesto. Focus is on how difficult it is to model financial instruments when there is a human element involved.

Description: Financial crises are nothing new. What is unique and sobering is the far greater speed with which the current situation has evolved from a weakening of the U.S. housing market into a full-blown, global economic meltdown. Also new this time is how quickly the fallout spread beyond the financial sector into all areas of the economy. Advanced communications and information technologies are creating an era of greater risk with more serious and far-reaching consequences when compared with even the recent past.

Description: This crisis first started with subprime loans and quickly morphed into a credit crisis that eventually engulfed a lot of financial institutions around the world. If a AAA were really a AAA, this crisis would probably have been contained and localized. As the crisis developed, evidence emerged from the shadows that revealed the questionable quality of some AAA-rated MBS or ABS. Subprime loans were the weakest link. As the credit boom came to an end and the economy slowed down further, the Alt-A, prime and credit card loans were also affected. The subprime crisis is only the symptom of a much larger underlying problem. Both consumers and corporations were overleveraged.

Description: This article was written in June 2008, prior to the financial crisis in the fall of 2008. It discusses the very complicated new world of financial insturments and derivatives and the risks that there may be in light of no strong capital requirements, no control on leverage and the high derivative volume.

Description: A collection of essays written on the current financial crisis, lessons learned and future implications.

Description: This article addresses the difficulties of risk modeling in a poor economic environment. The problems include imperfect vendors of data, facing events that have never occurred before, unpredictable consumer behavior, conflicting data sources, and AAA credit doesn't always mean AAA.

Description: Interest rates rose from 2004 through 2007, so adjustable mortgage rates increased and many borrowers fell behind. After home prices topped out in 2006, speculators and some buyers who had overstretched found it impossible to refinance. This caused mortgage insurance claims. Insurers may want to study others’ missteps.

Description: This article introduces the reader to probabilistic methods used to model interactions in the financial market place. Three topics are specifically discussed, two concern modeling methods and the other concerns data analysis methods.

Description: This article discusses the trend toward outsourcing of insurance assets to third party money managers which has grown steadily as insurers face increasing market challenges. Insurers are finding that a strategic approach to outsourcing investments is critical to enhancing value within both liability reserves and surplus portfolios.

Description: This presentation is a Teaching Session, number 29TS, from the 2002 Valuation Actuary Symposium, held September 19-20 in Lake Buena Vista, FL. The panelists describe the three basic types of credit derivatives: total return swaps, credit default swaps, and credit spread options. They discuss techniques used to price credit derivatives, accounting and required capital treatment, the size and growth of the credit derivative market in the U.S., Canada, and globally, and early experience and performance of credit derivatives in an actual default case. Discussion from participants is included.

Description: From a session 11 PD at a meeting of the Society of Actuaries held in San Diego, CA, June 22-23, 2000 This discussion presents an introduction to credit derivatives. From Record of Society of Actuaries, Volume 26, No. 1.

Description: In session 141PD of the Washington Annual Meeting panelists discuss current developments and investment trends in the insurance industry. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 23, No. 3.

Description: Panelists provide a primer on Collateralized Mortgage Obligations [CMOs], exploring how they are constructed and why they exist. Session 3 of the 1991 Valuation Actuary Symposium.