Description: This paper is based on work the authors did for the Committee on Retirement Systems Research of the Society of Actuaries. The authors' task was to perform data analysis for that Committee in support of a study of the effects of the Safest Annuity Rule. The Committee's conclusions will be released in a separate report. This paper describes their overall study only to put the authors' own work in context. The real purpose of this paper is to discuss the data analysis skills and principles which were applied in this project, and to argue that these same skills and principles should be part of an actuarial student's education. From Actuarial Research Clearing House 1998 Vol. 1.

Description: In this paper we will describe how richer actuarial programs can be provided if a number of schools with smaller programs combine resources by forming a regional cooperative or consortium. We have already formed our own consortium, the Southwest Actuarial Education and Research Consortium SWAERC. The strategies proposed here have already been used in SWAERC, and we will illustrate each of them by describing our own experience with it.