Description: This paper is about the use of the table as a vehicle of pedagogic delivery

Description: This presentation compares continuous-time multi-factor affine cohort mortality models and presents estimation results for an affine multi-factor, multi-cohort mortality model.

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: This abstract describes a paper that proposes a stochastic population structure model based on the Leslie matrix, in which a Lee-Carter model framework is used to describe the future mortality and fertility changes.

Description: This paper is the final report in a project commissioned by the Society of Actuaries Social Security Committee. The paper considers a variety of possible risk classification factors that could be used in estimating the value of any mortality based benefit for retirees. As many countries consider mandatory individual retirement accounts as their answer to a secure Social Security system, the question arises as to whether all workers can get true 'market value' annuities when they retire. It is clear today that private sector life annuities are priced assuming that the applicant is healthy-very healthy. Very little underwriting or risk classification now exists in the individual annuity marketplace. This paper reviews 45 recent research papers that look at factors that affect mortality after retirement. In particular, factors that seem to be important in predicting retirement mortality include: age, gender, race and ethnicity, education, income, occupation, marital status, religion, health behaviors, smoking, alcohol, and obesity. For each factor, this paper gives highlights relative to the named factor of the impact expected from that variable as described in the 45 reviewed research papers.

Description: This 1998 presentation from the 33rd Actuarial Research Conference reports on a number of activities related to the relationship between the actuarial profession and the academic community, including: 1. feedback received during the related session at last year's Actuarial Research Conference, 2. some the results from the SOA Research Effectiveness Task Force survey, and 3. recent developments such as the joint CAS, CIA, SOA Task Force on Academic Relations.

Description: One of the most important influences on the development of an insurance market and on the development of professions, such as the actuarial profession, is the nature of regulation. This paper looks at four main economic models of regulation: 1. Market socialism, 2. Freedom with publicity, 3. Public interest, and 4. Public choice theory. The role of profession and other sophisticated products of the market order are also analysed.

Description: In the past, discussion of actuarial education has focused on curriculum content [what is to be learned] and mode of delivery [university course versus part-time correspondence course]. Little attention has been paid to how students learn, and how that learning can be facilitated to develop actuaries with the knowledge, skills and values the profession needs. This paper deals with the university-related content of a more comprehensive paper prepared by the authors for the 1993 Convention of The Institute of Actuaries of Australia. It concentrates on students' learning in the undergraduate actuarial program at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, but it is likely that many of its findings and conclusions would apply equally to university actuarial courses elsewhere. From Actuarial Research Clearing House 1994, Vol. 1.

Description: The Cash Flow Valuation Method has recently been adopted for valuation of annuity products in Canada and has application to all other life insurance products. Under this method, the statement liability for a block of business is the value of the assets required to enable the insurer to run off the block. The method therefore involves both assets and liabilities and reflects the insurer's investment policy.

Description: This paper explores and develops some initial ideas of roll-forward reserve funding of Social Security. It reports on the work of actuarial students and teachers for an 8-week study period coordinated with the National Science Foundation program of Research Experience for Undergraduate grants. From Actuarial Research Clearing House 1994, VOL. 1.

Description: This paper is a report on research for undergraduate experience grants held for 8 weeks under the direction of Cecil Nesbitt. The topic of the research was Social Security Financing and Related Matters. From Actuarial Research Clearing House 1993, VOL. 1.

Description: This paper is about a concept known as the 'rate of transmission of information' or, more simply, as the 'information rate.' The authors establish the equivalence of arbitrage-free economic systems and a generalized betting model in such a way that the interpretation of the information rate, as the maximum rate of increase of an investor's capital, is preserved. As a corollary to this result, they show that the difference in the information rate between models represents the achievable incremental return associated with the superior predictor model. From Actuarial Research Clearing House 1993, Vol. 3.

Description: This paper looks back at how actuarial research began, at the changing patterns in actuarial research, and makes some recommendations. From the Actuarial Research Clearing House 1990 VOL. 1

Description: This paper contains personal reflections by Cecil Nesbitt of his 60 years as an actuarial student, teacher, practitioner and researcher to highlight actuarial highlights in North America since 1900. This article is not intended to be a definitive history of actuarial science developments in North America since the beginning of the century. Instead, readers should turn first to 'Actuarial Mathematics' [Proc. Symp. Appl. Math. 35, 1986] and peruse it alongside this article to gain detailed, introductory overviews of the diverse actuarial models that will be mentioned in this paper. The non-exhaustive list of references at the end of this paper is selected to aid such review by pointing the way to other more complete lists in regard to various topics mentioned herein. From Actuarial Research Clearing House 1990, Vol.1.

Description: The two basic considerations in a pension plan valuation are the choice of actuarial cost methods and actuarial assumptions. This paper deals with the assumptions. The concern in this regard is what actuaries are doing and why. There are explicit criteria why particular assumptions are chosen, and these have often been discussed in the pension literature. However, there also are implicit criteria, which, while seldom discussed in the literature, can dominate the valuation. The goal of this paper is to quantify some of these criteria, and thereby provide a basis for further discussion and research.

Description: The purpose of the present paper is to discuss some of the methods by which fertility variations can be incorporated into population forecasts. From ARCH 1984, Vol. 1.

Description: In today's atmosphere, the high returns available on bonds have attracted much investor interest, and it is only natural that fixed income investors look for ways to assure the maintenance of high returns on their bond portfolios. This paper explains how bond immunization offers that potential.