Description: This article is a response to the article Current U.S. Ordinary Life Mortality by Doug Doll and Mike Jones. The author offers his interpretation of the mortality improvements observed between 1980-85 and 1983-88.

Description: Presented at Living to 100 symposium, January 2002. This paper presents data on the mortality, and mortality improvement trends, for retired U.S. Civil Service employees and their survivors, and analyzes the relationship to such factors as: Indexed final salary, Amount of indexed annuity, Total service at retirement, Duration on the Annuity Rolls, Retiree vs. beneficiary, Disability vs. non-disability.

Description: This paper investigates the use of models of dependent mortality for determining annuity values. We discuss a broad class of parametric models using a bivariate survivorship function called a copula. Using data from a large insurance company to illustrate our methods, we calculate maximum likelihood estimates to calibrate the rnodel.

Description: Mortality in the U.S. states at ages 80 and older and over years 1959–2011 analyzed and compared with mortality levels in 13 high-longevity countries.

Description: The values of life insurance and annuity liabilities move in opposite directions in response to a change in the underlying mortality. Natural hedging utilizes this to stabilize aggregate liability cash flows. Our study shows empirical evidence that insurers who utilize natural hedging also charge lower premiums than otherwise similar insurers. This indicates that insurers who are able to utilize natural hedging have a competitive advantage. In addition, we show how a mortality swap might be used to provide the benefits of natural hedging to a firm that writes only one of the lines of business.

Description: The effect on mortality of the reduction in smoking and the increase obesity in the U.S. is estimated based on historical and projected patterns.

Description: The effect on mortality of the reduction in smoking and the increase obesity in the U.S. is estimated based on historical and projected patterns.

Description: Mortality in the U.S. states at ages 80 and older and over years 1959–2011 analyzed and compared with mortality levels in 13 high-longevity countries.

Description: Centenarians persons living to age 100 and over represent a population that could be useful in identifying factors leading to long life and avoidance of fatal diseases. This study explores whether people living to 100 and beyond were any different from their peers at their middle age 30 years in terms of their physical characteristics height and body build, occupation and marital status.

Description: Presented at Living to 100 Symposium, January 2011. This paper explores the select period and the wealth effect at older ages, and also examines mortality rates for three distinct senior populations: 1. the U.S. population, through an annual sample of the Medicare database of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2. the life settlement population of an independent life settlement underwriter, 21st Services LLC, and 3. the population implied by the Society of Actuaries' 2008 Valuation Basic Tables VBT.