Description: Feature article discussing the PBGC’s asset reallocation plan.

Description: The purpose of the article is to summarize the results and conclusions of the C-1 Risk Task Force Report prepared for the Committee on Valuation and Related Areas. A key question: Is the risk to insurance companies of defaults on junk bonds sufficient to justify increasing required surplus levels?

Description: This article analyzes the events leading to low interest rates and recommends careful asset/liability management and risk analysis to address future challenges with interest rates.

Description: 20 years ago the author suggested that insurers invest a substantial part of their reserves in equities as an inflation hedge. Article discusses how equities have performed relative to inflation, in retrospect, and contemplates the future.

Description: For those who care, there are both pleasure and profit to be gained from buying a ticket on the bull train in a timely manner.

Description: Dollar-Cost Averaging 'DCA' means investing a constant amount at regular intervals into a single stock or mutual fund. This is in contrast to Unit Purchase 'UP', which denotes buying a constant number of shares at each interval. This article compares the relative merits of these two investment strategies.

Description: This article is about equity real estate and how its becoming an important part of investment profiles.

Description: This article discusses the trend toward outsourcing of insurance assets to third party money managers which has grown steadily as insurers face increasing market challenges. Insurers are finding that a strategic approach to outsourcing investments is critical to enhancing value within both liability reserves and surplus portfolios.

Description: The author notes that “many considerations enter into the determination of investment strategy. Important among these considerations is the maximization of investment income on an after-tax basis rather than on a before-tax basis.” The article then discusses how starting in the early 1960’s insurers, using a marginal tax rate approach, invested heavily in tax exempt bonds. The author, expressing his belief that a major depression is likely to occur in the next 10 years, recommends insurance companies divest of their holding in tax exempt instruments, based on the macroeconomic analysis he presents.

Description: This article from The Actuary, April 1971, volume 5, Issue 4 is about a pension section meeting. The moderator opened the meeting by laying down some general principles. Using market value instead of book, accounting for unrealized gains, taking cognizance of different cash flows, objectives, constraints on the manager, and other characteristics of the funds to be compared-all met with general acceptance, in this audience at least.