Description: In physics and engineering education, Fermi problems require solutions based on good approximate calculations with little or no actual data, involving making justified guesses and deducing bounds without using sophisticated tools. The idea of Fermi problems are of particular relevance to today's actuaries, as pricing, reserving, and financial reporting involve more and more complex stochastic components. The paper discusses some approximate solutions developed in academia in the spirit of Fermi problems.

Description: The author uses a reprint of an article from the very first edition of the “News from the Individual Life Insurance and Annuity Product Development Section” and assistance from the Taxation Section Council and Friends of that Council to decipher the changes between the life insurance tax environment back in the 1980s compared to today.

Description: This session covers the differences between quantitative models and traditional techniques for measuring credit exposure pricing models versus portfolio risk management models and an introduction to some commercially available models, such as J. P. Morgan’s Credit Metrics and Moody’s/KMV Portfolio Manager. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Volume 29, No. 1, Washington, D.C. Spring Meeting, May 29–30, 2003, Session 19PD.

Description: Informative discussion about pricing techniques, including: [1] uses of return on investment [ROI], GAAP return on equity [ROE], and universal life [UL] and other profit measures, [2] scenario testing, [3] expenses, [4] target surplus, and [5] federal-income-tax considerations. From the 1988 Record of Society of Actuaries, Vol. 14, No. 2.

Description: In our rapidly changing world, it is becoming hopeless to try to arrive at a satisfying description of future conditions, even in the short run. Yet prices for new life insurance must somehow reflect one’s view of events even in the far distant future. futurism