Description: As equity markets decline and become more volatile, the likelihood of significant guaranteed benefit claims increases, while increases from mortality and expense fees declines. The article illustrates how to use a derivative contract, a properly structured total return swap, to turn a company's uncertain M&E revenue patterns into predictable revenue.

Description: This article re-caps the Investment Actuary Symposium held on November 8-9, 2001 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Description: Feature article discussing Nassim Taleb’s black swan theory. Taleb points out that banks keep their loans at full value - anchored to the book value of the loan. The solution to the problem is to use mark-to-market reporting and have volatility instead of having no volatility and then experiencing a Black Swan event.