Description: In this article, we will describe EY’s five-pillar approach that balances practicality with comprehensiveness, and how this applies to LTC model validation.

Description: As companies implement PBR, this article outlines challenges regarding the treatment of accelerated underwriting under VM-20 and in light of future innovation.

Description: The article explores the possibility of using the emerging technology for life insurers to build a monitor system for better risk and profitability management.

Description: The article describes changes to the computation of tax reserves as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Description: This article is to outline the new requirements for valuation rates in VM-22, highlighting key differences and example calculations to enhance understanding.

Description: The article discusses industry practices relating to US GAAP SOP 03-1 valuation for universal life with secondary guarantee products.

Description: Read the February 2018 issue of Health Watch, published by the Health Section. Practical information for actuaries, articles impact sections, section activities.

Description: Read the March 2017 issue of The Financial Reporter published by the Financial Reporting Section.

Description: Read the June 2017 issue of Health Watch, published by the Health Section. Practical information for actuaries, articles impact sections, section activities.

Description: Read the March 2017 issue of Health Watch, published by the Health Section. Practical information for actuaries, articles impact sections, section activities.

Description: On October 30, 2015, the SOA Assumption Development and Governance Group, an informal discussion group consisting of nearly 200 interested actuaries with topics pertaining to actuarial assumption development and governance, organized an industry discussion call on end-to-end assumption documentation practices. The purpose of this call was to generate a large list of ideas for best-practice assumption documentation. More than thirty companies were represented in the call, including direct insurers, reinsurers and consulting firms. This article is the work product of the discussion written by Laurie Li and Alex Zaidlin.

Description: The SOA provides information about the actuarial career path in health care and predictive analytics. Throughout 2016, we will share more about actuaries who are tackling some of the industry's biggest challenges and hear from top employers in healthcare analytics.

Description: On October 30, 2015, the SOA Assumption Development and Governance Group, an informal discussion group consisting of nearly 200 interested actuaries with topics pertaining to actuarial assumption development and governance, organized an industry discussion call on end-to-end assumption documentation practices. The purpose of this call was to generate a large list of ideas for best-practice assumption documentation. More than thirty companies were represented in the call, including direct insurers, reinsurers and consulting firms. This article is the work product of the discussion written by Laurie Li and Alex Zaidlin.

Description: Metadata for entire issue

Description: New Zealand is about to launch its first variable annuity with guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefits. The product design is mindful of the lessons from the financial crisis in the United States, Europe and Japan.

Description: The article explores the use of economic capital modeling to deliver value to clients by improving the financial security of many individual lives around the world in a cost-effective way.

Description: The next evolution of actuarial systems in the U.S. will likely be a move toward a single system solution. This article defines a single system solution and illustrates how models can be shared across actuarial functions, the potential benefits of a single system solution, and describes potential mitigation strategies to address typical actuarial concerns.

Description: The rapid pace of change within the reinsurance sector over the past few years has given way to the permutations of a “new reality” that is being shaped by abundant capacity from traditional and alternative sources.

Description: The article focuses on the use of predictive analytics in the development of experience studies, pros and cons of using predictive analytics versus traditional techniques, and the implications for setting assumptions and improving profitability.

Description: October 2015 issue of CompAct, the technology section's member benefit newsletter.

Description: Essential Health Benefits and Actuarial Value

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: Using the recent West Africa Ebola outbreak as an example, the authors discuss several modeling approaches that can be useful for estimating pandemic risk.

Description: The author delves into other important parts that should be in the scope of model validation besides the code.

Description: The editorial cautions that while the development of more sophisticated models may increase efficiency, it is important to consider the very real risk management costs associated with the increased complexity, efficiency and overconfidence in the predictive power of models.

Description: Research is a primary mission of the Financial Reporting Section and is the largest use of section dues. This scorecard will keep section members informed about research projects sponsored or co-sponsored by the section.

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: The July 2013 issue of the SOA’s Forecasting & Futurism section’s newsletter, Forecasting & Futurism.

Description: Feature article discussing the changes the International Accounting Standards Board’s new accounting standard will bring.

Description: To deal with future correlation crises, the author suggests the implementation of ‘’quanlitative analysts’’ (‘Quanls’) in the enterprise risk management (ERM) process: risk managers who are able to lead interdisciplinary ERM studies from a jointly qualitative and quantitative point of view, with an emphasis on dynamics.

Description: Feature article discussing how insurers have reflected volatility in asset return assumptions when determining capital requirements, but have largely disregarded the impact of mortality volatility on their liability assumptions when performing stochastic analysis.

Description: This is a story of a small insurance company in Argentina “David” that attempted to determine optimal retention levels and the cost of different reinsurance programs by using actuarial techniques.

Description: This article discusses the coming opportunities for insurance companies in the retirement market, particularly with respect to annuities.

Description: A study on stochastic simulation literature as it applies to a health actuary.

Description: This paper expands upon current capital analysis by introducing a practical approach that considers the objectives of all stakeholders of an insurance company in setting appropriate capital targets. In addition, the paper introduces a technique for estimating capital adequacy that is based on mapping stochastic distributions of regulatory and rating agency capital measures to observable financial rating transition matrices.

Description: Discusses the emerging issue of non-formulaic reserves, which surrounds principles-based reserving, in a Q&A format.

Description: This study was sponsored by the Society of Actuaries Health Section. This paper explores the relative significance of aging as a determinant of financial cost of health care beyond age 50, with particular attention to the effect for ages 65 and older. The paper presents concepts of aging factors and aging curves, which define relative values between ages for utilization or cost of health care services. General conclusions are drawn from Medicare data that utilization and cost differ by age, but that aging factors vary across services and may be less significant at very old ages. The author then turns to the question of measuring the significance of an aging curve assumption and what accuracy is lost in the simpler alternative of a single value across an age range.

Description: This article describes the proposal selected for research involving the modeling of economic series. The proposal submitted by the research team of Kevin Ahlgrim of Bradley University, Stephen D'Arcy of the University of Illinios and Richard Gorvett of Zurich North America was selected.

Description: In May of 2001 the Credit Insurance Experience Committee was asked to respond to the National Association of Insurance Commissioner’s request to the Society of Actuaries to develop a recommendation for a uniform national valuation standard for credit life insurance policy reserves. This document contains the recommendation along with supporting material.

Description: Past problems with Association Group Disability Coverage inadequate pricing, contract deficiencies, less restrictive underwriting standards, lack of risk diversification Issue No. 38

Description: Panelists discuss the methods HMOs employ to measure their providers' quality of care, outcomes, compliance with best practice guidelines, and cost control. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 25, No. 2.

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.

Description: Panelists discuss different aspects of self-selection among Medicare options. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 24, No. 2.

Description: Panelists report on the status of activities by national associations in regard to risk-based capital requirements for health insurers. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 24, No. 2.

Description: Panelists discuss the role of the valuation actuary in health insurance. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 24, No. 2.

Description: This article is about the Course 8 series. Course 8 provides candidates with essential advanced specialized education in one of seven practice areas: individual insurance, group life and health, managed care, U.S. pensions, Canadian pensions, finance, and investments.

Description: The actuarial profession has been questioning the continued applicability of its historical paradigm and principles over the past decade. The author feels actuaries should stick with their historical strengths.

Description: Summary of Part II of the survey of Appointed Actuaries, sponsored by the American Academy of Actuaries Committee on Life Insurance Financia1 Reporting and the Society of Actuaries Financial Reporting Section, which asked appointed actuary various questions on methodology and assumptions employed for asset adequacy testing.

Description: This report, prepared by Advisory Subgroup I, was included as Appendix 3 of the 1987 Valuation Actuary Handbook. This advisory subgroup, or committee, was appointed by the New York Insurance Department and chaired by Donna Claire. This committee was charged with developing suggested regulations to deal with the concept of the Qualified Actuary and Actuarial Opinion and memorandum in accordance with New York’s recently amended reserve and nonforfeiture laws for guaranteed interest contracts and annuities with and without life contingencies. The actual regulation, New York Regulation 126, combines the work of the committee with Subgroup II, which focused on minimum reserve standards.

Description: Author, then the chief actuary of the New York State Insurance Department, discusses the appropriateness of certain assumptions used in the valuation of life insurer liabilities.

Description: Reports on the Florida winter meeting of the NAIC’s Life and Health Actuarial Task Force, LHATF, regarding an agreement that was reached on an approach to be taken to reconstitute the Standard Valuation Law, SVL, applicable to life insurers.

Description: Contained in Appendix 4 of the 1987 Valuation Actuary Handbook, this set of articles sets forth the positions of various industry groups with regard to the valuation actuary concept as of January 1987. It consists of four sections: 4.1 – Excerpts from the Report of the Task Force on the Valuation Actuary to the ACLI Board of Directors, August 1986 4.2 – Final Report of the Joint Committee on the Role of the Valuation Actuary in the United States 4.3 – Preliminary Report to NAIC Life & Health Actuarial Task Force from Surplus & Solvency Subcommittee of NAIC Standing Technical Advisory Committee, October 9-10, 1986 and 4.4 – Draft Recommendation 7 – American Academy of Actuaries paper. Views of the American Council of Life Insurance, ‘ACLI,’ the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, ‘NAIC,’ the American Academy of Actuaries, and the Society of Actuaries are all represented. Note that the final report in 4.2 above was adopted in 1984 by the boards of both the Academy and Society, the two organizations represented on the Joint Committee.

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

Description: Article from The Actuary, December 1975, Volume 9, No. 10, discusses medical expense insurance. This article addresses the following questions: Why have group claim frequency rates remained high? What can be expected for the future? What management actions are appropriate? This presentation is one actuary's attempt to answer these questions.