Description: The Society of Actuaries Strategic Research Program Steering Committee is pleased to release this report examining how well people estimate their own life expectancy.

Description: Future mortality improvement is an important assumption in the valuation of life insurance and annuities. In this session, presenters will discuss the work of the Mortality Improvement subgroup of the American Academy of Actuaries’ Life Experience Committee and the Society of Actuaries’ Preferred Mortality Oversight Group Valuation Basic Table Team in developing mortality improvement scales for AG-38 and VM-20. In addition, two recent SOA efforts on mortality improvement will be examined. Research on developing a broader framework for modeling mortality improvement assumptions is being developed to enable U.S. actuaries additional ways to follow a consistent approach across a variety of actuarial practice applications. Results from a study on U.S. population mortality by socioeconomic category and how it fits into the broader consistent framework will be presented. Additionally, results of a survey on mortality improvement practices of life insurance companies and reinsurers in Canada and the U.S. will be shared.

Description: Over the past few years, the SOA Research Institute’s Mortality and Longevity Strategic Research Program has initiated studies to provide insights into the overall historical U.S. population mortality trends. During this webcast, presenters will discuss how causes of death are influencing the trends. Various perspectives will be considered including, age, period, cohort effects and cause of death mortality by socioeconomic decile/quintile. Additionally, obesity and the impact on mortality and morbidity costs in the U.S. and Canada will be examined.