Description: This presentation is a section meeting from the 1991 Annual Meeting of the Society of Actuaries, held October 20-23 in Toronto. The guest speaker discusses prospective returns on financial assets, noting that the past, particularly the 1980s, is in many respects irrelevant in making projections of future returns, noting the decade of the 1980s was a nonrecurring and unsustainable period. He provides his thoughts in terms of projected real economic growth, projected inflation, projected real interest rates, and using that data makes projections of returns from a variety of financial assets. Discussion from participants is included. From the Record of Society of Actuaries, Volume 17, No. 4B.

Description: In this article the author concludes that “terrorism may foster a sense of conservatism that we may now need in the marketplace. Now that policy may have to be changed. In the process, risk will become better understood, common sense can replace, to some extent, the irrational behavior or excessive risk taking of the past and we will all appreciate our financial situation much more, and won’t expose ourselves to unrealistic expectations as much Hopefully the actuarial profession can respond to the challenge, since we are the best qualified to quantify such risks in the marketplace.”