Description: The SOA, with SCOR as the researcher, completed an experience study of post-level term (PLT) lapse and mortality. In the first part of this session, the presenters will cover the key findings of the traditional analysis regarding the shock lapse, the PLT lapse and mortality experience. The remainder of the session will focus on the results of the predictive modeling, which will provide further insights into policyholder behavior in the post-level term period.

Description: Python is the leading programming language for data science. Python programming is one skill that actuaries should acquire. It facilitates analytic work, and the available visualization tools help to communicate ideas. In this article, I use a traditional actuarial problem, mortality modeling, as an example.

Description: Learn more about the predictive modeling that was applied to industry data for the lapse and mortality experience in the post-level term period. Novel approaches were taken to model the shock lapse, subsequent lapse, and mortality experience. Observe a demonstration of the Tableau tool, which was built to allow users to analyze data on their own.

Description: ALM and hedging can reap significant benefits from innovation in computation and operations research. Explore applications of static and dynamic optimization in two different ALM and hedging use cases. Insurers are increasingly moving offshore by establishing Bermuda captive reinsurers. In calculating the Bermuda Best Estimate Liability ('BEL'), reinsurers will need to segment assets to support liabilities in each treaty. A Linear Programming ('LP') problem can be formulated to tactically select assets in a way that minimizes the BEL and consequently the total asset requirement. Learn more about what US Variable Annuity Insurers face with the regulatory requirement to reflect 'future hedging strategy' in their statutory funding calculation. The traditional numerical method of finding the optimal hedging target and then allocating assets may encounter the curse of dimensionality with expanding product and economic environment complexity. A Reinforcement Learning algorithm may well fit this problem and provide insurers a solution for dynamic hedging.

Description: Regression to the mean (RTTM) is inflating your health care intervention evaluations if you are not carefully managing it's omnipresent and significant impact RTTM is the statistical phenomenon which arises when comparing sequential data points when an initial observation is extreme or an outlier, and states that with no other intervention, future observations will be closer to the average. Members who had high costs last year will, on average, have lower costs this year, even in the absence of any intervention or clinical program, simply by 'regressing' to the mean. This means that if your clinical programs are simply targeting members who had adverse medical experience last year, you’re targeting the wrong people. And if your savings methodologies are simply last year’s costs minus this year’s costs, the savings are inflated. By attending this session, you will be able to identify situations where RTTM will be a significant factor, how to eliminate it's impact when performing retrospective evaluations, how to identify prospects for clinical intervention with RTTM in mind, and more.

Description: "As digitization and automation rapidly progress in today’s life and health industry, issues with misrepresentation during the insurance application process are also becoming a growing concern for insurers around the globe. A recent survey finds that misrepresentation in application forms costs the average insurance customer an estimated 5% to 10% in higher premiums. In order to reduce this risk, insurers must find and correct areas of misrepresentation, consult post-issue sampling, review the automated underwriting processes, and monitor the quality of financial advisory firms. Learn how predictive disclosure modeling detects and reduces misrepresentation by harnessing readily available underwriting data to analyze issues, helping insurers understand various drivers for disclosure rates and areas of misrepresentation.Advantages of this modeling to various stakeholders in the life insurance journey include improved risk selection, claims experience, and reinsurance terms for insurers. For customers, it leads to increased certainty of coverage, payout of the claim, and ultimately lower premiums on average. By the end of the session, attendees will understand: The disclosure modeling process at a high level The technical details of a standard approach to disclosure modeling: data cleaning, standardization, visualization, and predictive modeling Success stories about how predictive disclosure modeling has impacted insurers"

Description: This article gives a brief overview of ways to extend clustering analysis beyond basic methods such a k-means

Description: While many know that machine learning is a big deal and even have a general idea of what it is, many do not know what machine learning can do for them. As an alternative to citing achievements or explaining algorithms, this article outlines the challenges that occur in statistics and the solutions that machine learning offers. Some of those challenges include correlated predictors, missing data, data interaction, and prediction intervals. Corresponding solutions include regularization technics, missing value imputation with KNN, tree based models, and cluster analysis for backtesting.

Description: This session is a primer on how to apply Gestalt psychology to display quantitative information to improve neural receptiveness. While much of brain functioning is still a mystery to psychologists and neuroscientists, we do understand a great deal about which parts of the brain engage or disengage given visual cues. Actuaries are often tasked with presenting very technical information and are prone to focus more on the substance of numerical data rather than a pictorial presentation based on neural preferences. This presentation will discuss how to display quantitative information more effectively tailored to these preferences.