Description: The author refers to a separate article in this edition of Risks and Rewards, in which Babbel, Gold and Merrill provide an excellent exposition of three approaches to present-valuing a series of risky cash flows and provide several insights into the way modern finance theory deals with risk. The purpose of this article is to bring these insights to the world of insurance risks and view them in relation to existing actuarial techniques. The author also discusses direct discounting and the actuarial appraisal method and their consistency.

Description: 1993 SOA Spring Meeting, Boston. This session presented ways of using technology of 1993 in order to further actuarial applications and actuarial projects. The speakers related recent personal experiences in which emerging trends in hardware, software, and methodologies have been utilized.

Description: This presentation is a teaching session, number 98TS, from the 2000 Annual Meeting of the Society of Actuaries, held October 15-18 in Chicago. The financial services industry is changing rapidly. Thirty years ago the industry made its profits from mortality and expense margins in premiums. Fifteen years ago it was interest margins on fixed annuities and universal life. Today profits come from fees on variable products, interest margin on fixed products, and mortality on term insurance. The instructors look to the future and discuss where profits will come from 10 years from now. Discussion from participants is included. From the Record of Society of Actuaries, Volume 26, No. 3.

Description: This research report analyzes the risk associated with the use of models through the potential for model error.

Description: 1999 SOA Regional Meeting, Atlanta. In this session on data and interoperability standards for actuaries, the panel discusses the importance of open data standards which enable communication and transmission of data between different systems developed by different vendors. They also discuss the attached white paper entitled 'Proposed Data Standards for Table Data in the Insurance and Pension Industries' which was written by the Computer Science Section of the SOA to encourage adoption of the described standard.

Description: This presentation is a panel discussion, session number 33PD, from the 2002 Valuation Actuary Symposium, held September 19-20 in Lake Buena Vista, FL. The panelists provide an update of the 2002 progress made by the International Accounting Standards Board [IASB] in moving to a type of fair-value reporting as presented in the IASB’s draft statement of position on insurance accounting. The panelists then present arguments supporting and opposing fair-value reporting, including comparison with U.S. GAAP accounting. Discussion from participants is included.

Description: The Society of Actuaries Smaller Insurance Company Section, the Financial Reporting Section, and the Committee on Life Insurance Research are pleased to make available new research investigating simplified methods for determining reserves under VM-20.

Description: Full version of The Financial Reporter, Issue No. 65, June 2006.

Description: Scenario generators used in financial models to quantify risk are sometimes described as being as either “real-world” or “risk-neutral”. The difference is in the treatment of the market price of risk. This report explores the relationship between real-world and risk-neutral scenarios and when it is appropriate to use each type.

Description: Full version of Risks and Rewards Newsletter, February 2001, Issue No. 36.