Description: The article provides a summary of the Drake Risk & Opportunity Forum held on October 21, 2022. The forum was a hybrid conference that attracted more than 200 attendees from 17 states, two countries, 48 employers, and five universities. Following an introduction by the Zimpleman College of Business Dean, the forum held six sessions. First was an insurance company CRO panel followed by a panel of non-insurance company CROs. Gary Zhu shared his outlook for interest rates and capital markets. The fourth panel discussed insurance capital models. The fifth panel discussed environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria when building insurance company investment portfolios. The final session of the day was a discussion about the NAIC, how they operate, and their priorities for the coming year.

Description: Volatility managed funds, which focus the measurement of an investor’s risk appetite on the volatility of the portfolio, have grown popular in the Asian markets recently, particularly in Japan. This article discusses a typical volatility managed strategy and presents performance comparisons between volatility managed funds and other comparable market strategies. The advantages of target volatility managed funds to investors and insurers are also included.

Description: The article introduces a cashflow matching strategic asset allocation (SAA) framework for life insurers. Given the recent shift to higher interest rates after two decades of persistent low interest rates, insurers have an opportunity to enhance their asset liability management by rebalancing asset portfolios to narrow duration gaps and attain higher risk-adjusted yields. The framework aims to align investment objectives with economic, regulatory, and rating agency requirements. It prioritizes cashflow matching as the primary optimization goal and incorporates security-level asset information to assist portfolio managers in executing SAA seamlessly. The article highlights the benefits of the cashflow matching SAA framework, including greater attention to cashflow matching, unbiased results, readily executable strategies, and stable economic reserves. A case study is included to demonstrate the effectiveness of the framework in improving risk-adjusted return and cashflow matching for a representative liability block.

Description: Recaps the content of leading presentations at 2016 Inv Symposium. Topics include bond liquidity, investment outlook, low rate portfolio strategies

Description: The article compares the return characteristics, return, volatility, and correlation, to that of other possible selections as a DC safe option. It concludes that stable value is pareto superior to all other safe option candidates, and is therefore the optimal safe option.

Description: Feature article about: one of the significant contributions of modern academic finance has been to introduce the concept of stochastic investment forecasting

Description: Feature article describing the events of the Valuation Actuary Symposium in Indianapolis, In.

Description: The purpose of the article is to highlight how a person or organization can excel in both a highly-competitive expert-driven environment and one where the environment is less so. One should focus on what can be done well and delegate the remaining tasks to those who are better at performing them. One should understand the environment they are operating in, how it impacts them, and how it may change through time. The principles have application to investment management, investment performance, organizational performance, business development, career progression and economics.

Description: Despite a clear need and demographics which should be favorable to LTCI growth, the market remains stalled due to lack of understanding on the consumer side, and uncertainty on carriers' side. The 3 key risk areas for carriers are morbidity, terminations, and investment earnings. Financial market innovations which can address these include: repackaging risks as derivative securities, interest rate swaps and options, and inflation swaps.

Description: Provides some guidance on how to set a company's investment benchmark.