Description: Mortality is a fundamental element in the financial projections of the finances of social security programs around the world. Prominent actuaries from the U.S. Social Security Administration, Canada's Office of Superintendent of Financial Institutions and the U.K. Government Actuary's Department will discuss some of the key factors and issues associated with these projections. Improving mortality has and will have a significant effect on the affordability and importance of income through retirement to many population segments in these countries.

Description: Papers: Does Migration Result in Mortality Improvement: A Case Study in Taiwan – Chih-Kai Chang – Feng Chia University; Jack C. Yue – National Chengchi University; Yen-Wen Chen – Feng Chia University Mortality Trends – An International Perspective – Adrian Gallop, FIA – Government Actuaries Department

Description: The paper gives an overview of the data that are available and discusses the problems encountered in estimating mortality rates at old ages in the UK. It describes some of the methodologies used to construct mortality rates at advanced ages for official life tables and recent work undertaken by the UK Government Actuary’s Department to construct a database of historical mortality rates for the United Kingdom going back to 1961. Mortality tables for ages 85 and above are provided for years 1961 - 2000 by gender. Finally, possible methods for projecting mortality at advanced ages are discussed.

Description: This paper discusses the key forces likely to influence U.K. mortality in the 21st century, and describes the methodology and assumptions used in the latest projections of U.K. mortality. The paper also describes recent tables of mortality rates published by the Continuous Mortality Investigation, based on the experience of people taking out insurance contracts and the approaches taken to projecting these.