Description: Correspondent's report from the Investment Section Breakfast at the SOA Annual Meeting in Austin 2015

Description: The goal of this paper is to examine similarities between value investing and enterprise risk management (ERM) methods.

Description: The goal of this paper is to examine similarities between value investing and enterprise risk management (ERM) methods.

Description: Presents results of 2003-2012 cohorts of insurance company private placement bonds. Finds private bonds show a 15bp annual advantage relative to public bonds, due to lower loss severity.

Description: Is Risk/Return a sound tool for decision-making? No. It is not consistent, not objective, distorts decision and degrades governance. Why? What shall we do then?

Description: The Society of Actuaries’ Pension Section Research Committee commissioned this study to help actuaries develop forward thinking long-term estimates of future equity risk premiums. Equity risk premium is the amount by which the total return of a stock market index, such as the S&P 500, exceeds that of government bonds. Equity risk premiums, calculated from historical data, have been used to project long term values of equity portfolios in retirement plans. The validity of using historical data to project future equity returns will be examined along with other forward looking methods.

Description: The author, head of Alternatives Investment Specialists at Fortis Investments, recently presented a research paper on the potential benefits and possible pitfalls of investing in illiquid assets. This newsletter provides a brief summary of that paper. The full paper is available upon request.

Description: Diverse Risks 2016 Call for Essays

Description: Introduces terms and concepts of Takaful (Islamic) insurance and describes the processes, goals and constraints that apply to the investments of such insurers.

Description: The article discusses the characteristics of the high-yielding bank loan asset class.