Description: Presented at 1983 Actuarial Research Conference. The goal is to estimate the form of distribution of T 'time to an event' given 'z', and to explore the relationship between T and z. The methods outlined can be generalized to problems involving multiple failure times - not restricted to death events.

Description: Several previous papers treat the rate of interest as a stochastic process in the determination of values of insurances and annuity functions. None of these papers consider the current interest rate as a starting point in the model. In this paper, autoregressive interest models, which are conditional upon current and past interest rates, are developed. It is shown how these models may be applied to the evaluation of moments of interest, insurance and annuity functions. Numerical results are also given.

Description: The Karup-King formula with equal intervals has an elegant symmetric structure providing for efficient calculation. This paper traces the algebra involved in a generalization of this formula to the case of unequal intervals. So far, this formula does not have an elegant structure. However, a degree of elegance can be obtained in terms of matrix notation which can readily be used with a computer language such as APL.

Description: The complex world of life insurance, historically the domain of those gifted in integral calculus and probabilistic and present value mathematics, is explored using Excel spreadsheets and the Solver macro. The cash flow approach to learning life insurance examines how the cash flows through an insurance company without using higher math.

Description: The installment fractional premium scheme, although not practical for actual use, has some interesting theoretical properties. Jordan states, on page 88 of 'Life Contingencies', 'For example, if the insured dies after paying one quarterly premium for the current year, the three unpaid installments for the balance of the year are deducted from the policy proceeds.' This paper discusses the effects of adjusting the unpaid installments for interest.

Description: Discusses some methodological questions which arose in connection with ratemaking for the province of New Brunswick, Canada.

Description: A discussion of the point wise convergence of the Bayesian point estimates under conjugate priors belonging to the linear exponential families.

Description: The purpose of this paper is to explore the rationale underlying the development of the family of linear compound graduation formulas. As the title suggests, this paper also attempts to defend the Min-Ro member of that family against the unqualified charge that it is a 'poor' graduation method. It concludes with a description of a simple modification of the Min-Ro, and an analysis of the improvement obtained by that modification.