Description: As health care changes, actuaries need to be able to understand developments and work with users of health plan information. Actuaries also must be a credible source of data. This article describes the efforts of the Society of Actuaries Task Force on Alternative Care to determine the effectiveness of alternative or integrative medicine, including nontraditional techniques such as chiropractic, acupuncture, massage therapy, and nutritional counseling.

Description: The Society of Actuaries' Committee on Life Insurance Research, Product Development Section and Reinsurance Section are pleased to make the following report available. Authored by Allen Klein and Karen Rudolph of Milliman, this paper presents the results of research that identifies laboratory tests that are not widely used in the life insurance industry but could have potential benefits for use in the life insurance underwriting process. In addition, the authors have provided an Excel workbook illustrating the calculation for determining mortality savings.

Description: This discussion provides an overview of the SOA research process, reviews the new turnover tables and efforts to model probable outcomes of proposed legislation on the U.S. economy. From Record of Society of Actuaries, Vol. 22, No. 3.

Description: Panelists at this session of the SOA 1998 Maui II Spring Meeting discuss details of the turnover assumption for the valuation of pension plans. A recently released SOA Turnover Study is discussed.

Description: This is the abstract of a paper in which the authors develop sixteen separate mortality models based on the current SOA mortality data being used for the preferred life study. The models are constructed using projection pursuit regression. The sixteen models arise from all combinations of sex, smoker status, select and ultimate status, and per life vs. per dollar mortality rates. In general the models confirm the following four facts: 1 Mortality rates increase as attained age increases. 2 Mortality rates increase as duration increases. 3 Mortality rates decrease as Face Amount Bands increase. 4. Mortality rates decrease if preferred underwriting is present.

Description: These are the slides that go with the paper 'Mortality Modeling using Projection Pursuit Regression.' In that paper, the authors develop sixteen separate mortality models based on the current SOA mortality data being used for the preferred life study. The models are constructed using projection pursuit regression. The sixteen models arise from all combinations of sex, smoker status, select and ultimate status, and per life vs. per dollar mortality rates. In general the models confirm the following four facts: 1 Mortality rates increase as attained age increases. 2 Mortality rates increase as duration increases. 3 Mortality rates decrease as Face Amount Bands increase. 4. Mortality rates decrease if preferred underwriting is present.

Description: These are the discussant comments from Session 1A: Data Sources and Analysis from the January 4-6 2017 Living to 100 Symposium in Orlando.