Description: In this paper, presented at the Eastern Spring Meeting of the Society of Actuaries, held March 24-25, 1960 in Washington, D.C., the author documents the determination of elementary functions and monetary values of the 1941 CSO Mortality Table on an age last birthday basis, noting that until this time the tables had been published only on the basis of age nearest birthday. The impetus of this change was the author’s company, Metropolitan Life, having recently started issuing ordinary life policies on an age last birthday basis, the rational being the use of age nearest birthday had led to policyholder confusion and misunderstanding. Includes discussion. From the 1960 Transactions Vol. 12, No. 33.

Description: This article is about a seminar held on October 30, 1997 to discuss mortality improvement in the NAFTA countries and the impact of such improvements on the financing and benefit adequacy of the countries’ individual social security systems. The gathering of about 80 researchers from a variety of disciplines served as a type of summit meeting on the NAFTA countries’ mortality projections. The seminar was Phase 2 of a three-phase SOA research project, 'Impact of Mortality Improvement on Social Security: Canada, Mexico, and the United States.' The project is intended to provide some guidance for appropriate governmental bodies to use in determining future financing and benefit needs for social security. It is sponsored by the SOA, The Actuarial Foundation [formerly the SOA Foundation], the Retirement Research Foundation, the American Society of Pension Actuaries, the social security administration of each NAFTA country, and the Pension Research Council.

Description: Discusses the severe adverse effects on U.S. capital markets that will occur due to the passage of FAS 115, which requires marking certain assets to market without a corresponding adjustment to liabilities.

Description: This session discussion is about the pricing considerations for risk and measurement of the rate of return in light of unexpected contingencies including: defaults, economic downturns, change in bond ratings and market value changes. From Record of the Society of Actuaries Vol. 15, No. 3B.

Description: This paper presents the theory of immunization of investments to changes in interest rates and provides an extensive series of examples and formulas used in its implementation. Also presents some implications for investment behavior, product development, interest assumptions, valuation and adjusted earnings. Discussions of this paper are included.

Description: The author describes immunization with a simple illustration requiring only high school algebra rather than the ordinary and stochastic calculus that has been applied to this subject. It illustrates that if you have three invesmtents with different durations, we can take some combination of any two of them to get the same duration as the third.

Description: This paper summarizes default experience on bonds from 1900 through 1987. Although the information is more extensive for publicly traded bonds, the paper includes some information on private placements, some of which is not otherwise available.

Description: Discusses investment strategies that can be used for various product-expense and policyholder-behavior patterns. These include buy/sell, hold, exchange, long-term, optimization, hedging of the business and investment risks, and immunizing strategies. From the 1988 Record of Society of Actuaries, Vol. 14, No. 4A.

Description: 1988 Valuation Actuary Symposium. The session discussed the C-3 risk, not the C-1 risk in the title. It explored the question: For testing purposes, how does one create the investment scenarios to which you expose your assets and liabilities?

Description: In this session 93PD of the 1998 New York Annual Meeting panelists discuss three levels of protection available to bank depositors and insurance purchasers in the United States. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 24, No. 3.