Description: This report summarizes the results of a mortality and pricing survey. It indicates significant differences between the mortality assumptions for different product lines and even between different companies within a single product line. Widespread differences in mortality expectations between products may give individuals an advantage by acting on inefficiencies in the financial services market.

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 presents a statistical methodology based upon information theory, for adjusting mortality tables to obtain exactly some known individual characteristics, while obtaining a table that is as close as possible to a standard one. Followed by a discussion paper submitted

Description: This is an excel spreadsheet with some data pertaining to an article of the same name from the Product Development News

Description: Evaluation of the excess mortality element of the Group Conversion charge. Followed by several discussion papers submitted

Description: The attached report presents the results of a survey whose purpose was to explore life insurance company practices regarding the use of a mortality improvement assumption in the pricing of life insurance products. The survey distinguished between updating base mortality tables for historical mortality improvement versus projecting mortality improvement into the future.

Description: This report examines mortality and other actuarial assumptions for products sold at older ages.

Description: Using data from a large insurance company, we construct a parametric model for the joint survival function based on a Hougaard copula function.

Description: This paper discusses the special considerations involved in pricing a select and ultimate annual renewable term product. It covers such areas as expenses, conversion costs, and profit calculation, and devotes particular attention to the relationship between mortality and withdrawals on this type of product. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1980, Vol. 32.

Description: This paper presents a short method of calculating, without approximation, substandard annual extra premiums based on the standard net amount at risk. The method proposed in this paper, is by means of specially constructed auxiliary commutation columns, eliminating the need for any summation, and producing exact values of any extra premiums by relatively simple formulas. A mathematical proof of the methodology is provided.