Description: This article discusses the sources of the information in the Social Security Death Master File and the potential utility of this information for demographic studies of centenarians and near-centenarians.

Description: Presented at Living to 100 Symposium, January 2011. This paper addresses the question of how socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, health status and health behaviors are associated with oldest-old mortality and survivorship among people who have survived to old age. Data comes from the 1990-91 National Health Interview Survey’s Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Supplement and the mortality follow-up through 2002. The results indicate that activity limitation and exercise status, in combination with education, play an important role in survival into ages between 65 and 85, but have a smaller effect on survival among the oldest-old population of 85+.

Description: Presented at Living to 100 Symposium, January 2011. This paper explores the select period and the wealth effect at older ages, and also examines mortality rates for three distinct senior populations: 1. the U.S. population, through an annual sample of the Medicare database of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2. the life settlement population of an independent life settlement underwriter, 21st Services LLC, and 3. the population implied by the Society of Actuaries' 2008 Valuation Basic Tables VBT.

Description: The paper gives an overview of the data that are available and discusses the problems encountered in estimating mortality rates at old ages in the UK. It describes some of the methodologies used to construct mortality rates at advanced ages for official life tables and recent work undertaken by the UK Government Actuary’s Department to construct a database of historical mortality rates for the United Kingdom going back to 1961. Mortality tables for ages 85 and above are provided for years 1961 - 2000 by gender. Finally, possible methods for projecting mortality at advanced ages are discussed.

Description: Presented at Living to 100 symposium January 2002. This paper evaluates age and sex specific patterns of change in underlying and multiple cause of death reports for the period 1980-1998 for 14 leading causes of death at ages 65 and older. Changes in four types of mortality measures will be analyzed: 1 underlying cause death rates 2 multiple cause death rates 3 associated cause death rates and 4 death rates based on the joint occurrences of multiple cause conditions. Implications of the results are discussed in the context of existing models for analyzing and forecasting future mortality patterns in the U.S.

Description: Using population data, mortality rates are projected for people who will attain age 80 in the future. Finally, the distribution of the maximum age at death that will be attained by a Canadian is investigated.

Description: This paper addresses issues and techniques for advanced age mortality study using data mining techniques, a new technology on the horizon with great actuarial potential. Seven factors were considered in this study, the influences of these factors on advanced-age mortality distribution were identified and models were derived for projecting advanced age mortality.

Description: Presented at Living to 100 and Beyond symposium 2002. Discussion of two papers, 'Approaches and Experiences in Projecting Mortality Patterns for the Oldest Old' by Buettner and 'Using Dynamic Reliability in Estimating Mortality at Advanced Ages' by Lin. The first paper discusses the UN methodology for projecting mortality above age 80 and presents another approach for addressing the problem of table closing. The second paper suggests a new statistical model for fitting and estimation of mortality rates at advanced ages.

Description: Presented at Living to 100 Symposium, January 2011. This research studies coherent mortality modeling by combining a group of populations with similar period effects - e.g., mortality behaviors - in an effort to improve the stability of mortality modeling for older ages.

Description: Presented at the Living to 100 Symposium, January 2011. This study explores increasing life expectancy by examining the basic properties of survival curves. Specifically, the author checks for signs of mortality compression, using a non-traditional approach. The results indicate that human longevity is likely to increase, at least for a while, and longevity risk should be seriously considered in pricing annuity products. Some suggestions for dealing with the longevity risk are also proposed.