Description: Panelists provide: [1] a summary of legal issues and recent federal court cases regarding employee and retiree benefit plans, and [2] discussion of three research papers providing new thought and insight involving the perspective of many disciplines about the aging population and changing family structures in the U.S. and around the world. From the 2002 Record of Society of Actuaries, Volume 28, No. 2. Session 143TS of the San Francisco Spring Meeting.

Description: There are many investigations probing the relationship between health outcomes [such as mortality rate, fertility rate] and economic variables [such as rise in income] and other variables [such as level of education, availability of clean water]. Usually, these results are demonstrated using data from countries where economic conditions are improving over time along with health outcomes. This paper studies the links between health risks and the current economic conditions in Mexico where general mortality conditions improved during the period 1980-2000 but income fell.