Description: What are the possible future implications to insurance companies of significant improvements in mortality? How can futurism techniques be used in research? The formation of the mortality improvement study group at the Principal Financial Group was the first step toward examining the issue of mortality improvement. In an interactive format, we will present what we learned about mortality and futurism techniques by participating in this group.

Description: Demography is a very exciting subject. With a simple mathematical model, students can project a country's population forward 25, 59, 75 even 100 years. This paper will focus on six ideas from demography. They all can be useful to an actuary, yet none of them would be considered at any length if the actuary didn’t study demography.

Description: In this paper, we study a survival regression model known as Cox's proportional Hazards model. We assume that the data available are already grouped and develop a minimum distance estimation procedure that is also applicable when the data are also left or right censored. Asymptotic properties of the estimators are established and the numerical implementation of the method based on an iterated reweighted least squares algorithm is discussed.

Description: Statistical properties of interest, annuity and insurance functions are examined when mortality and interest are treated as having a random component. Several special models of interest rate fluctuation are examined in detail. It is hoped that such theory will be useful in developing fluctuation reserves and premium margins. Presented at the 13th Annual Actuarial Research Conference, Ball State University, August 31st. September lst, 2nd. 1978.