Description: The study of Employee Benefits has always been aided by using financial algorithms. During recent semesters, the Lotus 1-2-3 package Lotus has been introduced to students due to the explosion of its use in the business community. This paper will show how our students use Lotus to design a spreadsheet for computing minimum annual distributions from tax-sheltered plans.

Description: There is nothing like a serious financial crisis to see if your risk management process works or not. The depth and breadth of the financial crisis in 2008 identified the strengths and more importantly exposed the weaknesses of the risk management process at Lincoln Financial. Enterprise Risk Management is tasked with understanding all the key risks inside a company and preparing the company to respond to those weaknesses. Lincoln Financial was exposed to multiple stress points as a result of the financial crisis and found themselves with insufficient resources to weather the storm. Ultimately the risk management process at Lincoln Financial was not fully capable of dealing with the depth and scope of the financial stress. Without access to government support it can be argued that Lincoln would not have survived the most profound financial crisis of the modern era. Presented at 2010 Enterprise Risk Management Symposium, Society of Actuaries, April 12-15, 2010.