Description: Article from The Actuary, June 1986, Volume 20, No. 6, on actuarial research. Early movement in the research direction came in the '60s with the organization of annual Actuarial Research Conferences at campus locations, followed by the publication of ARCH, both under the sponsorship of what was then known as the Research Committee. The notable research development of the '70s was the formation of the Actuarial Education and Research Fund, a profession-wide attempt to encourage the development of new actuarial knowledge. In the early '80s the Society began to organize for a serious research effort, directed particularly toward the improvement of its experience studies.

Description: A summary of a preliminary report from the Committee on Valuation and Related Problems, on guidelines for quantifying balance sheet items in an insurance enterprise.

Description: This session from the 1976 SOA Fall Meeting discusses existing and suggested life insurance products - adjustable life - which adjust to changes in need for coverage and changes in ability to pay. It compares adjustable life to universal life.

Description: This far-ranging discussion of health insurance and employee pensions discussed expansion of health insurance plans to encompass the additional forms of medical care and treatment, intercompany studies of mortality and morbidity, accidental death coverage are written on a twenty-four-hour basis or as travel accident, dental care insurance, survivorship benefits, employer-sponsored death benefits incorporated into qualified pension plans, and other topics. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1963, Vol 15 Pt. 2

Description: The interest-adjusted method has come to be the most widely accepted method for comparing costs of individual life insurance policies. This paper presents a relatively simple modification of the interest-adjusted cost method that serves more general purposes satisfactorily. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1980, Vol. 32.

Description: This paper examines tandem levels of salary and interest rates and finds that the absolute level of each assumption as well as the differential are significant cost determinants for defined benefit pension plans. In forming best-estimate salary and interest rate assumptions, the actuary must reconcile the difference, if any, between the currently observed rates and the valuation assumptions. Common practice is to choose expected long-term rather than observed rates for valuation purposes. The error in this procedure is analyzed and found to be tolerable for strictly temporary discrepancies between observed rates and valuation assumptions. For situations where these discrepancies are expected to persist for some time, a need is shown for nonuniform, calendar-year assumptions or their equivalent in order to develop best-estimate assumptions. Followed by several discussion papers submitted

Description: This panel discussion was presented at the SOA's April 1976 Spring Meeting in Washington D.C. The theme of the discussion was the responsibility of actuaries in changing times.

Description: This 1978 teaching session provided a basic primer on the design of the OASDI benefit formula. Areas covered included: 1. The Decoupling issue 2. The Average Indexed Monthly Earnings 3. The Primary Insurance Amount formula 4. The Indexing procedure 5. Transition arrangements 6. The Short Service problem 7. Replacement Ratio considerations 8. Impact of Wage Base changes 9. The Retirement Age and Retirement Test.

Description: This discussion of the Federal Welfare and Pension Plans Disclosure Act reviews problems insurance companies and consulting actuaries are facing. Special procedures adopted are examined as well as the position taken with respect to the major questions arising from this law. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1959, Vol. 11, No. 29 AB.

Description: This paper presents a procedure for analyzing the factors that affect federal Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance costs in the U.S. This procedure shows that the tripling of the program costs during the last 30 years resulted from increases in the number of beneficiaries as opposed to increases in the number of covered workers. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1986, Vol. 38.