Description: Living beyond ones life expectancy poses many challenges. Among them are financial issues. Though there are products and strategies available that retirees could use to mitigate this financial risk they are seldom used. Reasons range from high cost, lack of awareness of the available options, and general underestimation of longevity risk. This paper poses the question as to whether the federal government can provide a solution to this potential problem in a fair and cost efficient manner. Ideas are presented as well as a discussion of the pros and cons of such a program concept.

Description: Can immigration in Europe actually help to mitigate the looming pension crisis.

Description: Retirees and their advisors should construct diversified portfolios of retirement income, allocating among various retirement income classes that include Social Security, annuities, and systematic withdrawals from invested assets. This essay discusses the pros and cons of various retirement income generators and the issues with constructing retirement income portfolios.

Description: The article discovers that mortality is higher for females than for males at higher ages, and suggests "stress" as the explanation. It then discusses mental illness research, including recovery therefrom.

Description: The author explores the issue of longevity risk with its implications for life insurers and society at large, and concludes that the actuarial profession is in a unique position to understand longevity risk and offer solutions.

Description: It is now almost 120 years since Makeham extended Gompertz’s efforts to find a simple mathematical law which would reflect the mortality experience of a group of lives and also simplify the calculation of monetary values. This article discusses a radically different approach, relating mortality improvements to economic condition, proposed by Kohler and Alcock in an article in the Journal of Peace Research, Vol XIII entitled Economic Law of Life.

Description: This essay advocates that the transition from DB to DC plans won't be complete until plan sponsors offer programs of retirement income in their DC plans. The essay discusses the relevant actuarial and behavioral issues.

Description: This article describes some of the drawbacks to the assessment of longevity risk adopted by most practitioners within the UK together with an initiative that provides a platform for an alternative approach that is both (a) more forward-looking in nature and (b) can complement current practices.

Description: The article considers how actuaries have responded to long term changes in the past and considers how to deal with two changes ion the future: pension provision when bond yields are low and long term care.

Description: A Discussion of why female mortality is higher than male mortality at higher ages.