Description: Panelists discuss the process and challenges presented by mergers or acquisitions. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 24, No. 2.

Description: Article from Pension Section News, May 2007, No. 64, discusses the expectations of a pension plan. When people get what they expect, they are happy. When people do not get what they expect, they get upset. A lot of Americans are upset today with their retirement plans. The Financial Accounting Standards Board FASB and Congress are taking action, but their actions may create more problems than they solve. Underlying everything is a substantial disconnect between rule-makers and the public. The public has a more simplistic view of a retirement plan than rule-makers do. Rule-makers need to keep in mind the simplistic way ordinary people think of a retirement plan.

Description: A discussion of the theoretically correct approach to the valuation of cross-border insurance ventures

Description: Actuaries have traditionally recognized the links between risk and value, and in recent years have begun to incorporate aspects of modern financial economic theory into their traditional valuation and risk management approaches. As a result, there has been an increasing trend in the incorporation of explicit market-based risk adjustments into valuations, whether for internal or external purposes. The use of market-based metrics to reflect risk in valuations is becoming increasingly widespread—in fact, major external standard setters, including FASB, IASB, CFO Forum and the various parties setting standards for Solvency II, have prescribed varying levels of use of market-based metrics to measure risk in valuations. Presented at 2010 Enterprise Risk Management Symposium, Society of Actuaries, April 12-15, 2010.

Description: The valuation of illiquid assets is a vast topic, which is very much in a state of development. Based on comments made by investment professionals during the preparation of the proposal, this is a very challenging area of research. Generally, the investment industry will look with great interest on the outcome of this research. The research proposal was restricted in two ways. The literature review was focussed on the valuation of private placement debt PPD and real estate. The case study was limited to analyzing valuation methods with respect to PPD. Sponsored by CAS, CIA, SOA Joint Risk Management Section.

Description: Management's goal is to continuously optimize the economic value of the firm, subject to regulatory constraints, with the use of financial valuation of the firm’s balance sheet. Both the assets and liabilities can be perceived as derivative securities. This chapter discusses a variety of financial economics issues with this common theme. From Asset-Liability Integration, M-FI02-1.

Description: Enterprise risk management ERM is for the measurement and the management of all significant risks of the business holistically irrespective of types and sources. The study offers significant advances in the current debate on the performance of enterprise risk management, in particular, minimizing the existing gap between the academic understanding and practitioners’ experience on the topic.

Description: Exploration of sources of volatility in retiree health valuations, noting how volatility arises and might be mitigated, with discussion of valuation parameters more problematic for retiree health benefits than for pensions. Three significant influences on retiree health valuation volatility are covered-- changes in benefit level, fluctuations in cost level, and alterations in eligibility for, or duration of, benefit – and attention focused on the last two. Specific conclusions result in recommendations, which are supported by practical examples contrasting volatile measurement results with those likely from the recommended practices. Theoretical discussion includes health claim variation, health trend usage, financial economics, option pricing, discount rates, and deterministic vs. stochastic modeling.

Description: Presentation of some of the factors to be considered, and approaches which might be employed, in valuing a life insurance company.

Description: This article discusses asset-liability management from two different paradigms, one a simulation of the firm as an external observer e.g. shareholder would view it, and the other a “still life” at a given moment from an internal viewpoint.