Description: The article discusses the continued popularity of indexed UL insurance and possible reasons why a company's actual indexed UL earnings may be below their original pricing expectations for the product. The article discusses several key items that may be the source of that underperformance (e.g., hedge ineffectiveness, policyholder behavior) and the need to monitor earnings and perform analyses to better understand those potential sources.

Description: A discussion on technology improvements in establishing compliance with sections 7702 and 7702A. The Internal Revenue Code defines life insurance using actuarial tests that limit the investment in a life insurance contract as compared to the death benefit. Inadvertant failures of the actuarial tests can be uncovered by testing in order to enable remediation.

Description: This article discusses challenges in innovation, governance, and balancing the tension that naturally arises between them. Company culture is often a driver of success or failure in innovation. This article outlines a new dynamic to address this challenge.

Description: The article discusses the impact of changes made to Internal Revenue Code Section 7702 by the ConsolidatedAppropriations Act, 2021. The Consolidated Appropriations Act made changes to the interest rates used calculatethe Section 7702 premium and cash value funding limitations for life insurance contracts

Description: The presenters in this classic session will explore protection and accumulation products as well discuss the current state of the hybrid Life/LTC market. They will also examine the latest trends and the challenges to innovation and highlight key factors impacting the product actuary including the impact of technology, regulation and competitive environment. 

Description: Accelerated underwriting is changing the world of consumer engagement. The newness and overhaul of these programs creates challenges for development, coordination and management. This seminar will take attendees through how the market is developing, the major pricing, underwriting, and marketing considerations, and what regulators are considering with regard to these programs. At the conclusion of this seminar, attendees will: • Discuss trends in accelerated underwriting • Understand the issues that arise when developing an accelerated underwriting program • Understand best practices in developing an accelerated underwriting program • Explain the impact of accelerated underwriting on underwriting, pricing, marketing and compliance

Description: Predictive models can improve the traditional actuarial assumption-setting process. Data science techniques can provide deeper insights into experience through their ability to identify key drivers, rank importance and account for interactions. The presenters will cover ways in which companies can utilize predictive analytics to set assumptions, including the various methods available and practical approaches for implementation. They will also discuss the advantages and challenges of using predictive models for setting assumptions for life, annuity and disability products.

Description: Describes a process for identifying relevant industry experience to credibility-weight with relevant company experience to set modeling assumptions and margins.

Description: Describes a process for identifying relevant industry experience to credibility-weight with relevant company experience to set modeling assumptions and margins.

Description: In physics and engineering education, Fermi problems require solutions based on good approximate calculations with little or no actual data, involving making justified guesses and deducing bounds without using sophisticated tools. The idea of Fermi problems are of particular relevance to today's actuaries, as pricing, reserving, and financial reporting involve more and more complex stochastic components. The paper discusses some approximate solutions developed in academia in the spirit of Fermi problems.

Description: The author uses a reprint of an article from the very first edition of the “News from the Individual Life Insurance and Annuity Product Development Section” and assistance from the Taxation Section Council and Friends of that Council to decipher the changes between the life insurance tax environment back in the 1980s compared to today.

Description: Universal Life/Indexed Universal Life trends based on the 6th annual Milliman survey of leading UL carriers. Reveals the current dynamics of the UL/IUL market and provides carriers with competitive benchmarking to see how they stand relative to their peers.

Description: This article gives the highlights of the 88-page report including detailed assumptions for products including universal life with secondary guarantees (ULSG), cash accumulation universal life (CashAccum), current assumption universal life (CAUL), indexed universal life (IUL) and variable universal life (VUL). The 29 companies and 83 products represented in the report allow for an interesting perspective on premium persistency assumptions used in pricing, cash flow testing (CFT) and generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP)/international financial reporting standard (IFRS) functions. This article covers some general results and ULSG-specific results.

Description: This article reviews some of the highlights of th 2010 SOA Annual meeting including the impact on pricing resulting from Solvency II, Market Consistent Valuation of New Business - MCVNB, the latest on mortality, Standards of Practice in product development, managing risk in product design and a regulation update.

Description: This article addresses the issues of short-term volatility, the non-equivalency of traders and, how product development is being impacted by market consistency.

Description: This report describes the results of a survey on reflecting risk in pricing. The survey expands on one conducted in 2003 and was expanded to include life, health, P&C, and non-North American insurance companies.

Description: This is an article that has excerpts from each of the four winning papers of a contest sponsored by the Society of Actuaries on the subject of visions of the life insurance industry in 2020.

Description: Response to Life Insurance 2020 Foresight – A Call for Essays. An essay stating the author’s vision for the future of the life insurance sector with emphasis on a change to life insurance pricing using biological age rather than actual age.

Description: The last few years have seen a dramatic change in the way that insurance products are priced. If we traveled back in time 15 to 20 years, we would see a world where most insurance products were priced on the basis of a few static scenarios. In the last several years, pricing on a stochastic basis has become more mainstream—at least for contracts with embedded guarantees.

Description: 2004 SOA Annual Meeting and Exhibit, New York. This session is about pricing life and VA products with untested new features in an uncertain environment.

Description: From a session at the Spring meeting of the Society of Actuaries held in San Antonio, Texas, June 14-15, 2004 Discussion of risk and pricing issues of particular concern with respect to life insurance and annuity products in times of relatively low interest rates

Description: This session covers the differences between quantitative models and traditional techniques for measuring credit exposure pricing models versus portfolio risk management models and an introduction to some commercially available models, such as J. P. Morgan’s Credit Metrics and Moody’s/KMV Portfolio Manager. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Volume 29, No. 1, Washington, D.C. Spring Meeting, May 29–30, 2003, Session 19PD.

Description: This session from the 2003 Washington D.C. Spring Meeting discusses a variety of risks that need to be considered in pricing life and annuity products. This session also reviews the results of the Risk Management Task Force Survey including how companies were measuring profit, how they were reflecting risk in pricing, how results were analyzed and how specific risks were being modeled. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Volume 29, No. 1, Session 7PD.

Description: The objective of this presentation was to evaluate the different pricing techniques as to their effectiveness in capturing and quantifying the varied risks associated with the sale and administration of life insurance and annuity products. The results of a 2002 company survey about pricing were presented in support of this objective.

Description: Presented at May 2002 Spring Meeting. This session addresses the important elements in designing preferred risk products. Theoretical and pragmatic approaches to establishing a sound policy for setting underwriting requirements and mortality assumptions are discussed, including the real mathematics of preferred risk classification, distribution of risk profiles by age and the key elements of age-specific underwriting.

Description: Panelists at this session of the SOA 2001 Toronto Spring Meeting discuss incorporating reinsurance costs into the pricing of their retail products. Panelists also discuss the different effects of various reinsurance arrangements.

Description: From a session at a meeting of the Society of Actuaries held in Las Vegas, NV May 22-24, 2000 The panelists cover: 1 The basic concepts underlying fuzzy logic, 2 Current applications to risk classification and pricing and 3 Future possible uses of fuzzy logic.

Description: From a session at the Spring regional meeting of the Society of Actuaries held in Atlanta, Georgia, May 24-25, 1999 Panelists address a range of issues related to product development in life insurance companies.

Description: This paper sets the task of pricing insurance products in the larger framework of company planning and management. A generalized description of the pricing function, applicable to any insurance company project.

Description: Sam Gutterman presents his paper, 'Expenses and Pricing', at this session at the SOA 1998 Maui I Spring Meeting. He discusses the need to control expenses and reflect them appropriately in pricing as vital to an insurance company' s short-term and long-term success.

Description: Presented at May 1996 Spring Meeting. This session offers a retrospective and prospective look at the development of actuarial pricing models and technology tools.

Description: This session from the 1995 SOA Boston Meeting covers usage, sales methods, and design of COLI products and their many variations. Presenters will discuss market potential, distribution systems, risks, product features, pricing implications, and tax issues. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 21, No. 4b.

Description: Presented at September 1994 Valuation Actuary Symposium. Discusses the differences in modeling separate account products vs. general account products.

Description: 1992 SOA Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C. This session on repricing the in-force book of business addressed ASB requirements, data gathering, assumption setting, modeling considerations, coordination with financial areas, par versus interest-sensitive products, and communicating results to management.

Description: This session at the SOA 1990 Annual Meeting addresses pricing inadequacies that are perceived throughout the industry. Concerns are expressed about assumptions, lack of experience studies, surplus levels, and replacements.

Description: This paper presents the application of the asset share technique of pricing to Home Equity Line of Credit insurance. The paper's objective is to provide useful tools when developing a new HELOC product including projections for marketing and underwriting, distinctions between desirable and undesirable product design features, and development of premium rate structures. From Actuarial Research Clearing House 1990, VOL. 2

Description: This session at the SOA 1990 Hartford Spring Meeting is about the various factors to be considered in determining the interest margins for interest-sensitive life insurance, annuities and GICs, i.e. the difference in earned and credited rates including practical considerations. Valuing embedded options in assets and liabilities is also discussed.

Description: Informative discussion about pricing techniques, including: [1] uses of return on investment [ROI], GAAP return on equity [ROE], and universal life [UL] and other profit measures, [2] scenario testing, [3] expenses, [4] target surplus, and [5] federal-income-tax considerations. From the 1988 Record of Society of Actuaries, Vol. 14, No. 2.

Description: Presented at October 1986 Annual Meeting. Discusses the reasons for substantial changes in life insurance pricing philosophy in recent years and their impact on actuaries and companies both now and in the future.

Description: Presented at May 1986 Spring Meeting. This session discussion is about techniques companies are using to maintain compatibility between investment practices and pricing assumptions for interest-sensitive products: Segregated assets, Use of options/futures, Asset/liability matching, Market value adjustments.

Description: Presented at May 1985 Spring Meeting. This session discussed: Relationship of pricing and valuation actuaries in Canada, Financial reporting system as an information source for product development, Interaction of the pricing actuary, valuation actuary, and investment officer in designing interest-sensitive products, Allocation impact on product development of expense, investment income, tax, and capital, Financial reporting information in changing premium rates for nonguaranteed premium products, Maintaining consistency between pricing and financial projection models, Reserve basis and nonforfeiture basis impact on product development, with special reference to lapse-sensitive products.

Description: In this paper the author discusses pricing insurance products in the larger framework of company planning and management. The author also presents a generalized description of the pricing function, which is applicable to any insurance company product. The author discusses the relationship of the premium formulation function to the management of an insurance company, balancing the requirements of management, shareholders, policyholders, and marketing personnel. Includes discussion and author’s review of discussion. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1982 Volume 34.

Description: In our rapidly changing world, it is becoming hopeless to try to arrive at a satisfying description of future conditions, even in the short run. Yet prices for new life insurance must somehow reflect one’s view of events even in the far distant future. futurism

Description: This panel discussion explores various pricing and profitability measures for individual life and health products and the effect of the company being stock or mutual.

Description: This presentation is an overview of the Meeting from the Record of the SOA Vol.6 No. 1. The session summarizes points from each concurrent session of the meeting and includes issues about the effect of governmental actions and consumerism on product design and pricing of the future, risk classification in the 1980's, nonforfeiture and valuation concerns in the 1980's and effect of taxation in the 1980's.

Description: This panel discussion speculates about the coming decade. Panelists give their opinions on what might happen to mutual companies with respect to dividend distribution, level of premiums, surplus levels and inflation in general.

Description: This panel discussion looks at new pricing techniques including the use of risk theory, pricing for the entire rate book, and the handling of overhead expenses. There is also a discussion of setting assumptions and the sources of data for assumptions.

Description: This paper considers in more detail the differences between provisions necessary for nonparticipating and those necessary for participating adjustable life policies and will provide a possible means of designing nonparticipating policies that can adjust directly to future changes in mortality and interest valuation bases. A discussion of the paper follows. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1979, Vol 31.

Description: This 1979 session is about current developments in Life products. Products discussed: 1. Adjustable life 2. Universal life 3. Indexed coverages 4. Term Insurance plus accumulation fund 5. Level Premium Term to 100 6. Revertible Term

Description: This discussion is on selected individual life topics such as: competitive pressures preferred risk/non-smoker policies and the impact of the field force on product design.

Description: This paper presents multiple book reviews: Reports from Staff of U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means and U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, Reports in Connection with Social Security Legislation 1975-77, 'Statement on Cost Comparisons of Individual Life Insurance Policies', by Canadian Institute of Actuaries, 'Investment Activities of Life Insurance Companies' from Huebner Foundation Lectures, 'The Life Insurance Industry's Marketing Dilemma' by Johns, 'The Future of Social Security' by Munnell, 'Social Security - Today and Tomorrow' by Ball, 'Mortality Table Construction' by Batten, 'Mortality Table Construction' by Batten, 'The Crisis in Social Security - Problems and Prospects' by Boskin, 'A History of Interest Rates' by Homer, 'Indexation of Pensions and Other Benefits' by Robert Myers, 'Life Insurance Accounting' by Strain, '1978 Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of the Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund...' by US Congress. Brief summaries of additional readings are also included.

Description: This paper describes a method of comparing net costs of dissimilar life insurance contracts. The principles are consistent with those of the interest-adjusted method recommended by the Moorhead committee. The significance of the results, possible applications of the method, and some concerns and conclusions are discussed.

Description: The purpose of this paper is to describe the application of the Monte Carlo technique to a practical situation in a company, group term rate making. It included a discussion of some of the problems encountered and the solution to these problems. Followed by several discussion papers submitted