Description: An overview of how the VM-31 requirements for documenting PBR approaches and assumptions can/should reflect the Actuarial Standard of Practice on Modeling, ASOP No. 56

Description: The SOA Candidate Connect event is tailored for actuarial candidates, while in pursuit of the ASA designation. The SOA is pleased to offer a candidate program at the 2022 Life Meeting.

Description: Investigate from many angles the variety of potential impacts of increasing inflation on actuarial products and services in the insurance and retirement industries.

Description: The Emerging Issues in Underwriting Survey was intended for direct life writing insurance companies in the US and Canada. The Survey looked at various trends that could have a significant impact on the process and practices of life insurance underwriting in the future.

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: In the third quarter of 2022, publicly traded life insurers reported on their financial and operational activities, which included a downturn in income from alternative investments, the continuing impact of COVID, the impact of equity market returns on variable annuity products, and growth trends related to pension risk transfer transactions.

Description: A literature review was performed on mortality improvement, socioeconomic differences in mortality and their links to specific causes of death, and methods for analysis. It highlighted the fact that socioeconomic status (e.g., income and education) is closely linked to differences in mortality and that the longevity gap between socioeconomic groups is growing over time. It also informed the selection of key variables and the need to view mortality improvement as a complex interaction between specific causes of death.

Description: This report models and forecasts future mortality improvements in China, by geographical regions, as well as by causes of death. Deaths and population exposures data provided by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention was used for the period 2004–2019.

Description: In this report, we consider high-level results from provisional mortality data released from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for 2021, including looking at changes by sex and age group.

Description: Businesses across the board have been drastically impacted by the effects of COVID-19 over the course of 2020, and insurance was not immune. Perhaps most relevant to this industry’s current capital and liquidity concern is the prevailing low interest rate environment. This has been a global trend in the last decade, and treasury rates in much of the developed world are at or near zero. Reduced investment returns limit an insurer’s ability to achieve their desired return on equity, eliminating previously profitable strategies that depended on the leverage of life and annuity balance sheets. Focus and activity have instead shifted to other methods to counteract the low interest rate markets and accompanying capital strain. Examples include increased mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity within the insurance industry and an increasing focus by private equity firms in the insurance market for asset-intensive products, both of which reflect the goal of increasing yield rates on capital.