Description: Investment Fallacies: Mathematical modeling of social phenomena

Description: Investment Fallacies: The Myth of Time Diversification

Description: This paper investigates the optimal multi-period proportional reinsurance strategy that minimizes the ruin probability of an insurer. Some conditions under which it is optimal to have no reinsurance are derived. Based on these results, a new concept, capital threshold of proportional reinsurance, is introduced. In the case of two periods, a lower bound of the capital threshold of proportional reinsurance is provided. Some economic implications and properties of this new concept are also discussed.

Description: A number of insurance companies have recently implemented, or are in the process of implementing, economic risk capital. These programs are being implemented because of concerns with the existing regulatory and accounting frameworks and/or companies' desire to have a capital framework which is more consistent with their risk profile. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Volume 30, No. 2, Spring Meeting, San Antonio, TX, June 14-15, 2004, Session 47PD.

Description: Presenters cover the outlook for credit defaults over the next 12 months and approaches used to price the debt market e.g., Merton's 1973 paper and subsequent developments. Attendees leave with an understanding of how the capital markets value debt issuance and knowledge of future trends in default risk. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Volume 29, No. 1: Washington, D.C. Spring Meeting, May 29–30, 2003, Session 10OF.

Description: Actuaries and rating agencies increasingly believe that the NAIC's formulaic required capital standard does not adequately address a company's insurance, economic market and credit, reporting and pricing risk structure. Economic capital, based upon a stochastic evaluation of a company's total risk exposures, presents a new approach for accurately gauging a company's exposure to risk. Attendees learn what economic capital is, how it is calculated, what it tells company management about risk exposures and how it can serve as a valuable risk-adjusted measurement tool. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Volume 29, No. 1: Washington D.C. Spring Meeting, May 29–30, 2003, Session 24OF.

Description: The NAIC Life Risk-Based Capital Working Group has been working on modifications to the C-3 interest rate risk component of the statutory risk-based capital formula. Changes being considered may have a significant impact on the work of the valuation actuary. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 25, No. 3. San Francisco Annual Meeting CA, October 17–20, 1999, Session 33PD.

Description: This article notes that life insurance companies have long used sophisticated techniques for appraising capital investment, and explores the question of whether these techniques can be applied to other industries.