Description: 1994 SOA Spring Meeting, San Francisco. This session about fluctuation in interest rates covered: 1. The impact of increasing interest rates on liabilities. 2. Whether insurance companies are prepared for movements in interest rates. 3. The effects that rising interest rates have on the asset side of the balance sheet and some of the associated risks. 4. Investment strategy and asset-liability strategy, using the SPDA product as example.

Description: From a session at the annual meeting of the Society of Actuaries held in Chicago, Illinois, October 15-18, 2000 Panelists discuss the changes these companies were making, the experience so far as a public company, and how investors are viewing them.

Description: From a session at the 2000 Valuation Actuary Symposium held in Washington DC, September 14-15, 2000 Panelists use recent transactions and examples to demonstrate various operational, financial reporting and strategic aspects of insurance company mergers.

Description: This article describes the need for and the benefits of implementing a financial education program for employees

Description: This article discusses the attributes of a unified Operational Risk Management framework and how those attributes can underpin a seven-factor economic capital model.

Description: This Chairperson's Corner article discusses the SOA becoming the pre-eminent risk management profession. The Chairman's message is that actuaries have the inside track on risk management positions in the insurance industry and have a basis for competing for similar positions in the broader financial services industry.

Description: This article describes an initiative of the Chief Risk Officer Forum to perform a study to benchmark internal models, so as to discuss the admissibility of these models for regulatory purposes in the context of Solvency II. The results of and reactions to that study are discussed.

Description: In this essay, we focus on the “Prospective Solvency Assessment” aspect of the NAIC’s ORSA. This places a spotlight on an insurer’s strategic decision making from a risk and capital management perspective. It requires those in senior management to describe actions they would take to address possible adverse changes in their risk and solvency position, i.e., what they would do to reduce risk, increase capital, and/or adjust the business strategy. We contend that by applying a slightly broader scope than the specific requirements of the NAIC’s ORSA, insurers can develop this into a valuable process to support risk-based decision making. In this essay, we initially consider how to determine which metrics to include in such a process and then discuss some important business requirements and practical challenges for implementing a calculation approach to support it. Part of the essay collection "Risk Metrics for Decision Making and ORSA"

Description: The optimal degree of integration and/or coordination of these two functions is examined by presentation of diverse opinions and actual experiences. From the 1988 Record of Society of Actuaries, Vol. 14, No. 3.

Description: From a session at the 2001 Valuation Actuary Symposium, held in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, November 29-30, 2001 Discussion of financial restructuring trends and the impact of those trends on the insurance industry and challenges for those companies that have recently experienced some form of financial restructuring.