Description: Summary of April 2020 Investment Section Town Hall and come additional commentary.

Description: A look at the COVID-19 crisis in 2020, and how it differs from both prior financial crises and pandemics. The COVID-19 pandemic gives actuaries an opportunity to assess different ways risk may interact, and thereby adjust the profession’s work for the future.

Description: The author discusses the review of a recent 2001 Wall Street Journal’s semiannual survey of economists’ forecasts, starting by asking if there is a simple way to summarize the results and to extract a consensus forecast, and from this extraction, determine when an individual forecast is significantly different from that of the consensus.This article is reprinted with permission. It last ran in the Jan. 10, 2001 issue of The La Jolla Economics newsletter.

Description: This article takes a look at how defined benefit (DB) pension plan financials ended the third quarter of 2023 on a solid footing, improving the capacity to take meaningful de-risking actions; as DB plans look to de-risk at reasonable costs, they may find it beneficial to consider a broad range of investment options; and completing a core bond allocation with private credit and income-oriented alternative strategies can help achieve important savings over other frequently pursued de-risking approaches, without materially increasing the funded status volatility or downside risk

Description: Traditional predictive tools are not built to deal with the variability the world currently faces. The COVID-19 pandemic amounts to a prolonged black swan event, for which one must look past conventional assessments to arrive at any level of confident predictions. Behavioral analysis factors for biases and heuristics designed specifically for uncertain evolutionary contexts, and which are the primary drivers of market participants’ decisions at present. Through understanding the most likely behaviors of individuals, it becomes possible to arrive at an aggregate understanding of market outcomes.

Description: Provides a summary of investment sessions at the March 2015 Investment Symposium in Philadelphia

Description: Gives an overview of the main product features of Indexed Universal Life, and describes marketing factors contributing to high growth in sales.

Description: Your correspondents couldn’t have asked for better weather in Orlando during the 2014 SOA Annual Meeting held at the Rosen Shingle Creek facility from Oct. 27-29. Just imagine them—notepads in hand,with their faithful portable typewriters and SLR cameras slung over their shoulders, tip-toeing around the alligators basking in the warm Florida sunshine in their quest to bring you the latest news. Shades of Hemingway! Well, maybe it wasn’t quite like that—given the ubiquity of modern wireless devices and the advent of the responsible drinking ethic. But hopefully you will find their brief reports about various Investment Section sponsored sessions and events diverting nonetheless.

Description: This article discusses the possibility of high inflation down the road. The high levels of debt incurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic will be difficult for many countries to support. Central bank activity is "standing in the gap" but this is not necessarily the optimal solution. Inflation can also become an issue due to contagion coming from less financially stable countries, resulting a crisis of confidence, driving up interest rates.