Description: This section contains book reviews and summaries of recently published works on subjects including demography, savings in the U.S., life company state examinations, private pensions, Industrial insurance, medical care, and union welfare plans.

Description: This is a discussion of the preliminary report of the committee on valuation and related topics. The committee elected to commence its work by examining the fundamental principles of valuation. The traditional issues in the valuation of an insurance enterprise appear within this general framework. The objective of the committee's work is to measure the balance between assets and liabilities in today's volatile economy.

Description: The impetus for this paper is a concern that a unification of pricing, valuation, and management-basis financials may be essential to ensure the viability of life insurance companies in the variable economic environment of the foreseeable future, which will have serious effects on interest-sensitive products. The paper offers hypotheses on which any unification should be based. The proposed unification is structured on an equity capital management approach and on a variation of the level-return-on-equity accounting method. Discussions of this paper are included.

Description: This paper expands on the traditional three-factor interest, mortality, and expenses dividend contribution formula to propose a new dividend structure. The structure and formula are derived from the most generalized equation of equilibrium, and each dividend class is treated as an ongoing microcosm. From Society of Actuaries Financial Reporting Monograph, M-AS99-1.

Description: This paper attempts to develop an actuarial rationalization for the governance of a mutual life insurance company. It addresses setting surplus targets, long term growth objectives, internal performance accounting, and mergers and acquisitions. A discussion of the paper follows. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1979, Vol. 31.