Description: One of the most fundamental concepts in actuarial practice is the time value of money. For any work in which future cash flows are allowed for, such as reserving or pricing, it is natural to discount to present values so that an appropriate amount of money can be set aside today, allowing for future investment returns. This article discusses yield curve extrapolation methods along with the benefits and drawbacks of these methods.

Description: The actuarial profession is marching into the age of Big Data. Increasingly, employers in various actuarial fields are requiring new hires to have sophisticated knowledge in statistics and data science. To meet the new demands from the industry and the profession, one of the key additions to the SOA’s new curriculum is an exam in Statistics for Risk Modeling (SRM) which includes modern statistical and data science techniques. There is also a new proctored project on Predictive Analytics, as a capstone requirement following the completion of the SRM Exam. At the University of Toronto, we recently underwent a major actuarial science curriculum redesign, in order to stay current with new trends and demand from the profession and in line with the new professional curriculum.

Description: A flipped classroom moves the traditional lecture component of teaching outside of normal classroom time, so that lectures can be replaced with active learning activities during class time. In this talk, I first present a brief overview of flipped classrooms, with strategies for implementation and resources provided. Second, I will discuss the details of its application replacing two lectures in my third-year Life Contingencies course. Students’ responses to the technique are also provided in the form of data from anonymous post-activity surveys.

Description: One of the most fundamental concepts in actuarial practice is the time value of money. For any work in which future cash flows are allowed for, such as reserving or pricing, it is natural to discount to present values so that an appropriate amount of money can be set aside today, allowing for future investment returns. This article discusses yield curve extrapolation methods along with the benefits and drawbacks of these methods.

Description: A list of the lessons the author learned through his own failure(s). The intent is to help readers avoid making the same mistakes and reflect on how far they've come.

Description: Simple mathematical equations often outperform very complex ones in predictive analytics (PA) situations. This session will cover "why" and "how" to guard against overfitting and other potential pitfalls that might not be intuitive.

Description: NAIC Approves SOA GI Track for Qualified Actuary Education.