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: Volatility managed funds, which focus the measurement of an investor’s risk appetite on the volatility of the portfolio, have grown popular in the Asian markets recently, particularly in Japan. This article discusses a typical volatility managed strategy and presents performance comparisons between volatility managed funds and other comparable market strategies. The advantages of target volatility managed funds to investors and insurers are also included.

Description: The investment risk taken by a pension fund comprises strategic risk and active risk. This paper discusses the relative merits of these two types of risk to the pension fund, possible rationales for the levels of strategic and active risk typically adopted mechanisms for capturing manager skill without taking on equity risk, and issues in setting liability-based benchmarks for investment managers

Description: Readers are given an introduction to a PBA Implementation Guide for Life Products.

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

Description: At our Houston meeting PD l, Donald D. Hester, Professor of Economics at University of Wisconsin, outlined a novel investment system aimed at protecting purchasing power of the lender’s funds from inflation’s ravages. This article is summary of that presentation.

Description: The Federal funds rate increased by 4.25% in 2022 with further increases in 2023, which have already resulted in a liquidity crisis for a few banks. As the rapid increase of the interest rates pushed the new money rates above the yields of many life insurers’ investment portfolios, insurance companies are facing a dilemma between compressed margins from peer pressure and the concern with liquidity shortfalls and realized capital losses should mass surrenders happen. This paper discussed main emerging risks under rising interest rate environment, and several ways to mitigate these risks.

Description: Insurance companies are not immune to liquidity risks.

Description: The Federal funds rate increased by 4.25% in 2022 with further increases in 2023, which have already resulted in a liquidity crisis for a few banks. As the rapid increase of the interest rates pushed the new money rates above the yields of many life insurers’ investment portfolios, insurance companies are facing a dilemma between compressed margins from peer pressure and the concern with liquidity shortfalls and realized capital losses should mass surrenders happen. This paper discussed main emerging risks under rising interest rate environment, and several ways to mitigate these risks.

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?