Description: This is a letter to readers of The Actuary from Arnold Dicke and Walter Lowrie to solicit opinions on the problem which seems to crop up each time an examination is to be set.

Description: In this paper the authors analyze data from group medical expense insurance claims and show that many insurance loss distributions have very 'heavy tails' because large losses represent a disproportionate fraction of the total cost. They also present a simple model to reproduce and explain the large loss behavior. From Actuarial Research Clearing House 1990, VOL. 2

Description: The paper gives two criteria for fit and uses two different criteria to transform an initial graduation into one with better fit. It is shown that the two sets of criteria give the same transformation. The mathematical relationships between the two sets of criteria are then derived. It is clear from those relationships that when one set of criteria is small, the other set is small [but reasonably the same]. Some general comments on various measures of fit are made.