Description: 1993 SOA Spring Meeting, Boston. This session is about underwriting, including new testing techniques, AIDS update, preferred risk selection, and current topics of interest.

Description: 1998 SOA Spring Meeting, Maui. Panelists address the various issues surrounding the conversion of a mutual insurance company to a mutual insurance holding company structure. Actual experiences were discussed presenting the perceptions of company management, their advisers, and the regulators.

Description: This panel addressed the multitude of issues companies face as banks and insurers become partners. Panelists discussed: 1. Legal issues surrounding mergers of banks and insurers, including the focus of federal regulators. 2. Recent applications by insurers for thrift charters and acquisitions of thrifts. 3. Successful bancassurance models in other parts of the world and best practices applicable in the U.S. 4. U.S. bank distribution models. 5. Financial implications of the manufacturers and distributors having the same parent, including impact on product development, underwriting, and transfer pricing. 6. Impact on carriers relying on banks for distribution when those banks merge with other carriers.

Description: Panelists discussed the implications of the growing trend in Canada toward demutualization of mutual companies into stock companies. Topics covered include: 1. The Canadian demutualization process and some interesting differences between companies and across borders. 2. How is eligibility determined? 3. What process is being used to determine allocation of shareholder value? 4. What mechanisms are in place to protect policyholders' reasonable expectations? 5. What internal and financial structural changes are driven by demutualization? 6. How financial markets assess stock value for companies operating internationally.

Description: 1994 SOA Meeting, San Antonio. This session was about provider network building in nonmetropolitan areas. Question addressed: 1. How can an effective delivery system be built to serve rural areas? 2. What influence will health care reform have on such systems? 3. Does a single-payer system make sense for such populations? 4. How does health care reform impact nonmetropolitan markets?

Description: 1998 SOA Annual Meeting, New York. Panelists discussed the activity of the newly emerging mutual holding company structure. Advantages and disadvantages of a MHC structure were addressed.

Description: This session, from the June 2000 San Diego meeting of the Society of Actuaries, discussed ways the actuary can help the underwriter. Discussion included: 1. Overview of protective value theory 2.Simplified cost/benefit methods designing efficient underwriting rules.

Description: 1993 SOA Meeting, Quebec. This session is about how reinsurers are adapting to market changes. Topics included: 1. How reinsurers are adapting to changes driving direct writers. 2. Is gIobalization of reinsurance having a major effect? 3. In what ways has the reinsurance industry changed over the years and in what ways has it not changed?

Description: 1994 SOA Spring Meeting, San Francisco. This session explored the product design, pricing, and investment management strategies to mitigate the risk of long term minimum interest rates in a low interest rate environment.

Description: 1993 SOA Meeting, Quebec. This session is about implementing new technology, choosing between competing technology, problems to watch out for, unexpected benefits, migrating from mainframe to client/server, automating the field force and large-scale networks.