Description: This article examines the relationship, future and current, between insurance agents and technology and determines that technology can enhance/optimize agents.

Description: Recaps the evolution of VA products and hedging programs. Reflects on strategic considerations that contributed to relative performance in this market.

Description: Summary of the NAIC and SOA's PBR Survey.

Description: Reviews basic desirable features in an economic scenario generator. Discusses basics of model structure and validation process

Description: Up until recent past, the artificial intelligence portion of data science was looked upon cautiously due to its history of booms and flops . In the latest stream of events, major improvements have taken place in this field and now deep learning, the new leading front for Artificial Intelligence, presents a promising prospect for overcoming problems of big data.

Description: Adaptive Risk Management harnesses social intelligence to identify emerging risks. We have entered an age of disruption where exponential technologies are transforming every industry. The ability to pivot in a rapidly evolving ecosystem is essential. Centralized “predict and control” paradigms will increasingly fail as complex interactions drive phase transitions. Successful organizations will harness social intelligence to “sense and respond” to giant waves of change. Maps amplify intelligence to help us navigate challenging terrain. Maps play a central role in all command centres, enabling rapid risk identification with a shared visual language. Interactive financial network maps allow analysts to explore and diagnose systemic fragilities, and mitigate critical vulnerabilities. Dynamic financial maps can also build visual intuition to detect escalating risk patterns. After observing early warning signals, analysts can apply network analytics to estimate likely second order effects. This allows organizations to proactively manage emerging risk before tipping points are crossed.

Description: Adaptive Risk Management harnesses social intelligence to identify emerging risks. We have entered an age of disruption where exponential technologies are transforming every industry. The ability to pivot in a rapidly evolving ecosystem is essential. Centralized “predict and control” paradigms will increasingly fail as complex interactions drive phase transitions. Successful organizations will harness social intelligence to “sense and respond” to giant waves of change. Maps amplify intelligence to help us navigate challenging terrain. Maps play a central role in all command centres, enabling rapid risk identification with a shared visual language. Interactive financial network maps allow analysts to explore and diagnose systemic fragilities, and mitigate critical vulnerabilities. Dynamic financial maps can also build visual intuition to detect escalating risk patterns. After observing early warning signals, analysts can apply network analytics to estimate likely second order effects. This allows organizations to proactively manage emerging risk before tipping points are crossed.

Description: A review of product and sales trends for variable, indexed and fixed annuities against the current backdrop of low interest rates and record equity market valuations

Description: The professor gave a presentation regarding the tour of the forces of innovation that are disrupting so many traditional business models/industries. Why does he think that the Insurance/Banking markets are still following what are essentially traditional models

Description: Provides an overview of special characteristics of private equity and infrastructure asset classes, based on the perspective of experienced investors

Description: Decomposes guaranteed minimum maturity benefit option into a basket of components, and values each component with both a Black-Scholes model and a regime-switching GARCH model. Performs sensitivity analysis on dynamic lapse assumption.

Description: Institutional investors seeking to hedge have no shortage of choices, and need the right framework to manage the different risks in portfolios as they arise. This article analyzes performance of different equity hedging strategies over the last 15 years, and lays out a potential hedging framework that takes into account types of risks being hedged, fundamental views, and current market pricing of protection.

Description: This article addresses the role of pension risk management in the context of corporate risk management and how pension risk management strategies might optimally be implemented to increase the probability that pension benefits can be financed from plan assess and that, when and if required, unexpected increases in corporate contributions can be made without financial discomfort to the firm.

Description: Profile of the Health Section.

Description: French language version of Risk Management, August 2014 newsletter.

Description: Complete issue of the August 2014 Risk Management newsletter.

Description: Highlights of the 2013 initiatives and accomplishments of the Society of Actuaries.

Description: Interview with Peter Schaefer, CEO of Hannover Life Reassurance Company of America.

Description: The U.K. Pension Protection Fund (PPF) was established in April 2005 to protect the pensions of members of U.K. private sector defined benefit pension schemes that have insufficient assets and whose corporate sponsor fails. The Fund takes over the pension scheme assets and assumes responsibility for the payment of compensation to the former members of the scheme. The PPF is funded by a levy on the population of eligible schemes. To improve its ERM framework, the PPF has undertaken a reverse stress testing exercise. This analysis provided the organization with new insights into its risk profile, the scenarios leading to the PPF’s potential “failure,” and interactions between these scenarios. This paper discusses the principles and objectives of reverse stress testing in the special case of the PPF and then illustrates the application of complex system science techniques for the purpose of reverse stress testing.

Description: ERM and Investment strategies for healthcare companies

Description: The ORSA should be more than a compliance requirement -- its process should be an integral element of a company's governance and risk and strategic planning process used by both management and the board on a regular feedback loop basis. Similar to that used for ERM, it along with a carefully constructed set of metrics should serve as the springboard to be used to identify, control and mitigate short- and long-term risks, as well as to enable exploitation of opportunities to add shareholder and policyholder value. Risk can represent an opportunity from which insurers can leverage their knowledge and risk management capabilities to find and maintain a competitive edge. Part of the essay collection "Risk Metrics for Decision Making and ORSA"

Description: Explanation of Medicare Advantage STAR rating program as it relates to payment rates for MA bids. Also describes important features of the program from an actuarial perspective, how the components of the STAR rating are calculated and implications and considerations for actuaries.

Description: Risk management and capital budgeting are two critical components of the corporate decision process. They often need to be considered jointly at the corporate level because of their natural interaction through the dependent risk exposures and other synergetic relationships within an intricate corporate structure in a dynamic business environment. . This paper develops an integrated framework that aligns these two important corporate strategies across business divisions to optimize the streamlined enterprise strategic goal in a multi-period setting. The proposed integrated framework can serve as a practical guideline for corporate executives to optimally coordinate capital budgeting and risk management at the enterprise level.

Description: The paper discusses the arguments supporting the need for risk culture to transition into ERM culture to be embedded across financial organizations. Creating and maintaining strong ERM culture is paramount to a lasting and meaningful ERM program. It is essential for organizations to understand what ERM culture is, how it gets established and in what way affects the process of ERM implementation. Often, the implications of financial enterprises not focusing on the significance of ERM culture manifested in severely compromised ability to generate sustainable value and market competitive advantage. This paper calls for rethinking the role of ERM culture in the context of managing risks.

Description: Risk management theory prescribes a few legitimate reasons for management to hedge corporate revenues and reduce income volatility. In this paper we will use the oil tanker industry to illustrate some of these strategic considerations and how management can account for them in their decisions regarding whether and how much to hedge. Further work is needed to incorporate these considerations into a broader theoretical framework. Presented at 2010 Enterprise Risk Management Symposium, Society of Actuaries, April 12-15, 2010.

Description: This paper investigates the optimal multi-period proportional reinsurance strategy that minimizes the ruin probability of an insurer. Some conditions under which it is optimal to have no reinsurance are derived. Based on these results, a new concept, capital threshold of proportional reinsurance, is introduced. In the case of two periods, a lower bound of the capital threshold of proportional reinsurance is provided. Some economic implications and properties of this new concept are also discussed.

Description: NewsDirect article that discusses the benefits of automating the underwriting process. Underwriting speed, the east of case submission and sales support stand out as the most important factors.

Description: Response to Life Insurance 2020 Foresight – A Call for Essays. An essay stating the author’s vision for the future of the life insurance sector. Some smaller companies might focus on smaller niche markets rather than compete with larger companies in the broader markets.

Description: Much of the push for ERM has come from regulators and rating agencies, but it is being applied in internal company decision-making as well. This paper reviews the progress made and the needs still outstanding in two key areas of application: optimal capital level for an insurer and risk-adjusted profitability of business units. The basic conclusion is that progress has been made in these areas, but more is needed. Building models is not emphasized—it will be assumed that a state-of-the art model is available. The emphasis is on using such models in decision-making.

Description: As the insurance industry struggles along with the rest of its financial services brethren to operate in the current global recession, it must consider the true value of innovation. Insurers should reduce the focus on improving what they know how to do and look to what they could be doing in light of the change that swirls around them.

Description: This paper illustrates the application of stochastic control methods in managing the risk associated with an insurance business. We present the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman HJB equation and demonstrate its use in finding the optimal investment strategy based on some given criteria. Here we consider an insurance business with a fixed amount available for investment in a portfolio consisting of one non-risky asset and one risky asset. The object of the resulting control problem is to determine the investment strategy that minimizes infinite time ruin probability. The existence of a solution to the resulting HJB equation is shown. The relevant verification lemma is not presented in this paper and a numerical algorithm is given instead. Examples applied to exponential claims are also presented.

Description: Securitization of mortality risks is an alternative risk management tool that may have some advantages over reinsurance. The purpose of this paper is to study mortality-based securities, such as swaps and mortality bonds, and to price the proposed mortality securities. We focus on group life annuity data, although the techniques could be applied to other lines of annuity or life insurance.

Description: Presented at May 2005 Spring Meeting. Panelists discuss the value and new features/enhancements of single premium immediate annuities 'SPIAs'.

Description: This session discusses disease management [DM] and the role of health actuaries versus economists and biostatisticians. Topics discussed include economics of DM, epidemiology strategies, and operational concerns. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Volume 29, No. 2, Session 21pd.

Description: Presented at May 2002 Spring Meeting. Discusses basic considerations and the process of an international acquisition or merger.

Description: Presented at May 2002 Spring Meeting. Discusses products sold outside the United States and Canada, the inherent interest/equity-based risks and the tools available for dealing with the changing economic environment.

Description: From a session at a meeting of the Society of Actuaries held in Las Vegas, NV May 22-24, 2000 The American Academy of Actuaries had put together an ad hoc task force charged with developing a long-term strategic approach for marketing the profession to future users of actuarial services and to strategically position and strengthen the profession. This session provided an update on the progress of the task force.

Description: Provides the results of two surveys that found actuaries to be in agreement with CEOs of life insurance companies on the top 2 key strategic issues facing the industry: distribution channel productivity and increased competition.

Description: Presented at October 1996 Annual Meeting. In this discussion, panelists look at nontraditional disability delivery approaches - such as direct marketing, banks and internet - and competitors for insurance companies in disability management - such as HMOs and management consulting firms.

Description: Presented at October 1996 Annual Meeting. This session profiles each market in terms of size, characteristics, experiences and potential, including: capital and other entry requirements, culture and business practices, critical success factors.

Description: Presented at October 1996 Annual Meeting. The panelists in this interactive session not only discuss the newest annuity features, but also explore some socioeconomic trends and how an annuity could be designed to capitalize on those trends.

Description: Presented at October 1996 Annual Meeting. The panel examines how insurers and other financial institutions are using the internet and future possibilities are explored.

Description: Presented at May 1996 Spring Meeting. Presents case studies on the use of technology to solve some of the problems commonly encountered by actuaries in smaller companies.

Description: This session from the 1995 SOA Boston Meeting covers topics and methods for better coordination between actuaries and investment professionals. The session will concentrate on the coordination of pricing, crediting, and investment strategies. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 21, No. 4a.

Description: This is a Fellowship Credit Research Paper. A portfolio of different insurance policies such as temporary, endowment and whole-life insurance policies is studied in a stochastic mortality and interest environment. The first two moments of the present value of the benefits of the portfolio are derived. The riskiness of the portfolio as measured by the variance of the present value of the benefits can be divided into an insurance risk and an investment risk in two different ways. One way leads to a more natural interpretation of the two risk components. A simple portfolio is used to illustrate the results.

Description: In this paper we discuss the link between the price of a contingent claim and its replicating strategies. We compute the replicating strategies for some contingent claims when the price of stocks are modeled using either the Wiener process or the Poisson process. These replicating strategies are essential knowledge if one wishes to implement a dynamic trading strategy.

Description: This paper develops an analytical method for evaluating the utility of tax-planning activities that cause initial statutory surplus strain and expands the horizon beyond normal pricing applications to the evaluation of other activities requiring the initial investment of statutory surplus.

Description: Presented at June 1986 Spring Meeting. This session discussion is about the regulatory environment for banking and insurance, the crossover opportunities and the various types of sales distribution alternatives. Consideration also will be given to the obstacles in such a relationship, including corporate culture and the various risks involved for both the bank and the insurance company.

Description: Presented at May 1986 Spring Meeting. This session discussion is about marketing arrangements and mergers with non-insurance the financial institutions.

Description: Presented at June 1985 Spring Meeting. Focuses on the strategies and products used by both Canadian and U.S. insurance companies in marketing their products and services to the pension market.

Description: Presented at May 1985 Spring Meeting. This session discussed: How investment policy should be developed, Role of the actuary and the investment officer, Role of the pricing actuary and the valuation actuary, Liquidity considerations, Tax considerations, Capital loss constraints, Process for changing strategy as the economy and company circumstances change.

Description: Presented at April 1985 Spring Meeting. This session discussed changes in: Demographics and workforce composition, Lifestyles and attitudes, Cafeteria benefit programs, Defined contribution retirement plans, Health care.

Description: Record of the Society of Actuaries: 1981 Vol.7 No. 1 This is a panel discussion session examining life insurance company organization and the emerging managerial environment, strategies and organization.

Description: This is a discussion about computer models and simulation tools for life insurance companies. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1969, Vol. 21, No. 59AB