Description: Discusses 1. the impact of increased yields on new investments on premiums, dividends and policy values, 2. the criteria of equity which should be observed when different basic assumptions or underwriting standards are employed for different plans, 3. pricing of substandard policies, 4. handling situations where premium payments aggregate more than the face amount, and 5. recognizing mortality trends in pricing settlement options.

Description: This general discussion looks at problems or solutions developed in the field of agents' compensation, considerations leading companies to recent reductions in individual annuity rates, trend to offer first year cash values, increasing demand for the issuance of insurance at ages up to 70 and beyond, and if the SOA should give consideration to elective subjects in the Fellowship exam.

Description: Discusses: 1. Considerations regarding changing to the 1958 CSO basis - gross premium determination methods, appropriate assumptions, and means of calculation of relative costs 2. Advantages of adopting the new basis before the deadline 3. Frequency of requests for special ages or plans not in the rate book and how can they be best handled logistically.

Description: This SOA research report produced by Kamakura Corporation helps illuminate credit risk modeling techniques within the life insurance industry. It includes a review of available research on the subject from academic and industry sources, the development and distribution of a survey on actual techniques used within the industry, and all associated analysis. The finance and economics literature review provides a historical review of academic research on credit modeling with Altman Z-scores, Merton’s structural model and more recent “reduced form models” The industry literature includes discussions of the various credit modeling techniques, factor-based approaches, credit migration models, structural models, reduced form models, hybrid models, actuarial models and credit scoring models. As credit risk modeling is an extremely broad topic, the scope of the survey is narrowed to particular asset classes and functions. There were 22 responses in total to the survey from locations in Canada, Europe and the United states.