Description: This is a presidential address to the Society of Actuaries by David M. Holland. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1997-98 Reports.

Description: This paper examines the financial dynamics resulting from the currency exchange rate for medical insurance products that are denominated in a currency different from that in which covered medical expenses are incurred. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1995, Vol. 47.

Description: This section contains biographies for authors with articles featured in the Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1995, Vol. 47.

Description: This paper explores the flexibility of kernel estimation as a means of nonparametric graduation and relates it to moving-weighted-average graduation. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1995, Vol. 47.

Description: This paper is intended to summarize the differences in theUP-94 and GAR-94 tables and to review issues that arise for actuaries in choosing the appropriate mortality table. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1995, Vol. 47.

Description: This paper reviews the applications of operations research methods in the insurance industry. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1995, Vol. 47.

Description: Table of Contents for 1995-96 Reports of Mortality, Morbidity and Other Experience

Description: This is a presidential address to the Society of Actuaries by Sam Gutterman. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1995-96 Reports.

Description: This is the Foreward to Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1995-96 Reports.

Description: This report identifies the risks that can affect insurance company solvency, provides information and opinions on techniques currently available, and comments on what additional research may be necessary.

Description: This paper shows that the Esscher transform is an efficient technique for valuing derivative securities if the logarithms of the prices of the primitive securities are governed by certain stochastic processes with stationary and independent increments. From the Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1994, Vol. 46.

Description: This paper sets out, in algorithm form, a one-factor term structure model of interest rates and illustrates the application of such a model to the valuation of loans with prepayment provisions. From the Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1994, Vol. 46.

Description: The goal of this paper is to dispel the prevailing belief that American-style options cannot be valued efficiently in a simulation model by presenting a general algorithm for such valuation, and thus remove what has been considered a major impediment to the use of simulation models for valuing financial instruments. Discussions of this paper are included.

Description: This paper cautions against using expected utility theory for measuring insurance risk, because of the numerous inherent difficulties associated with it. Instead, an approach for loading gross premiums that is based on risk-measure functions is explored. Discussions of this paper are included.

Description: This paper proposes a hypothesis that the negative public policy implications of durational rating strategies in the medical insurance market are caused by lack of prefunding of durational deterioration of experience and constitute a failure to maintain an important part of the original insuring promise. To solve the problem, a practical and simple reserving basis is proposed as a regulatory standard. Discussions of this paper are included.

Description: Table of Contents for 1993-94 Reports of Mortality, Morbidity and Other Experience

Description: Introduction to and list of reports presented in the 1993-94 Transactions Reports of Mortality, Morbidity and Other Experience.

Description: The purpose of this reports is to define topics and provide information on techniques currently available in support of the development of dynamic solvency testing, DST. The paper covers topics of the time frame for analysis, scenario interpretations, credibility, confidence standards and reliance guidance.

Description: Research paper presenting the potential role of Dynamic Solvency Testing, DST, in preventing the insolvency of insurance companies. This study examines major causes of failure for a small group of companies and evaluates whether and how DST would have helped.

Description: In this paper, the relationship of convexity to the assumption of parallel shifts is explored, and new convexity measures are developed to reflect nonparallel shifts. These new measures can differ dramatically from the traditional values, providing insight into when convexity does not have to be good and when it does.

Description: This statement is an expression of opinion by the Committee on Actuarial Principles regarding the identification of actuarial principles to be considered for adoption by SOA membership. This covers the following types of principles: statistical, economic and financial, modeling, risk management.

Description: This paper develops an analytical method for evaluating the utility of tax-planning activities that cause initial statutory surplus strain and expands the horizon beyond normal pricing applications to the evaluation of other activities requiring the initial investment of statutory surplus.

Description: Report presenting a detailed description of how the actuary can analyze C-3 risk, using asset-liability analysis.

Description: This paper describes risk-factor-dependent multiple decrements and actuarial cost functions as a general compartment model, a discrete time and discrete state stochastic model of morbidity and mortality processes. For large numbers of risk factors, the model is extended to its natural continuous time and state form. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1991, Vol. 43.

Description: This paper presents a unifying non-Bayesian statistical method for incorporating prior information into the determination of probability distributions and other finite measures and develops the statistical properties of this method together with actuarial applications. A discussion of the paper follows. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1991, Vol. 43.

Description: The excess spread approach introduced in this paper addresses the true economic profitability of investment oriented products by looking at the spread between the earnings rate on the assets and the rate required to be earned on the assets to satisfy the liabilities. For many products, an important part of the liability cost is the value of interest rate options embedded in the policies. The excess spread approach incorporates an option-pricing technique that is sufficiently flexible to handle different interest rate environments.

Description: The main focus of this report is the presentation of information and methodologies to support the analysis of the financial impact of AIDS on individual companies writing life insurance in the U.S. Topics include reserving and development of valuation tables used for both statutory and GAAP accounting. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1990, Vol. 42.

Description: This paper presents reviews of: 'Life Insurance' 11th Edition by Black & Skipper, 'Protecting Against Inflation - and Maximizing Yield' by Bragg, 'Megamistakes: Forecasting and the Myth of Technological Change' by Schnaars, 'The Value of Pensions in Divorce: What It Is and How to Use It' by Snyder, 'Episodes in the Life of Charles Francis McCay - Academic, Actuary, Author and Businessman' by Kellam, 'APL the Language and Its Actuarial Applications' by Stiers, Goovaerts & Kerf, 'Actuarial Mathematics', Vol. 35 edited by Panjer.

Description: This paper illustrates a procedure for analyzing the sources of profit under FAS 97 and suggests an analytical procedure for reflecting actual experience and revised future assumptions in the recalculation of the estimated gross profit defined by FAS 97.

Description: The Federal Employees' Retirement System 'FERS', enacted into law on June 6, 1986, covers civilian employees of the U.S. Government who were hired after 1983. FERS supplements Social Security with a basic annuity plan and a thrift-savings plan. The Civil Service Retirement System 'CSRS' remains in effect for employees hired before 1984 who do not elect to transfer to FERS. Besides discussing the benefit changes, this paper covers the following related subjects of broader interest: 1. The federal legislative process, including the roles of interest groups, the Congress and the Administration, and the actuaries assisting them, 2. Investments in stocks and bonds by the new thrift plan, and why these use index funds, and 3. How FERS serves as a model for other large public retirement systems, using a defined contribution plan to help meet its retirement objectives and giving the private sector opportunities to provide benefit services. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1988, Vol. 40, Pt. 1.

Description: This paper examines several methods for dynamically adjusting expense assets to reflect differences between actual and expected persistency. Discussions of the paper are included.

Description: This paper describes the application of source of earnings 'SOE' analysis methodology to the reported pre-tax GAAP income of universal life and other interest-sensitive life and annuity products.

Description: This Report presents the results of a three-year study on Demutualization by a Task Force of the Society of Actuaries. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1987, Vol. 39.

Description: This paper is a practical guide to the terminal funding annuity product. Actuarial considerations, investment strategies, administration, and marketing aspects are discussed.

Description: This paper outlines a framework for managing life insurance company surplus. This framework can be used to assess capital investments, control the amount of capital used, monitor return on capital, and take actions when results deviate. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1986, Vol. 38.

Description: This paper develops the theory of the measurement of interest rate risks from its foundations, beginning with the question of which asset values market or book are economically relevant and therefore at risk. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1985, Vol. 37.

Description: This paper presents a theoretical approach to the valuation of options on bonds, a computer model for valuing such options, an application of options theory to evaluate the risk of call options on corporate bonds, and an application of options theory to price the risk of deposit antiselection on certain GICs sold to employee savings plans. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1985, Vol. 37.

Description: The objective of this paper, prepared by the Society of Actuaries Committee on Pension Principles and Related Research, is to examine the advantages and disadvantages of using select and ultimate interest and salary scale assumptions in the valuation of defined benefit pension plans. The technical issues involved and the effect of such assumptions on the incidence of plan cost are also studied. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1985, Vol. 37.

Description: This paper examines the financial management of assets backing a Guaranteed Investment Contract [GIC] portfolio. Immunization and dedication have been the traditional approaches used in financial management. Using interest rate futures in pricing and in balancing the asset portfolio duration is presented as one more variation of traditional immunization. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1985, Vol. 37.

Description: This paper studies the statistical theory underlying minimum surplus required to protect a group insurer from the insurance, or C2, risk. Followed by 2 submitted discussion papers

Description: This paper is designed to be a single reference source for an actuary who wants to increase his or her understanding of a Guaranteed Investment Contract 'GIC', its risks, and how to control them. The paper emphasizes the practical difficulties of matching asset and liability cash flows and discusses in detail how the sponsor and/or participants of the plan being funded by the GIC can antiselect against the insurance company. It also discusses how the actuary should go about pricing and reserving for GICs. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1984, Vol. 36.

Description: The purpose of the present paper is to discuss some of the methods by which fertility variations can be incorporated into population forecasts. From ARCH 1984, Vol. 1.

Description: This paper was written to demonstrate that universal life and indeterminate premium products are similar to participating plans. Followed by several discussion papers submitted.

Description: In this paper an algorithm is derived for computing the distribution of aggregate claims for the individual risk theory model. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1983, Vol. 35.

Description: This paper discusses the cause of the long-term financial problem of the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance OASDI program, outlines an alternative actuarial financing approach for OASDI as a solution to this problem, and details the advantages of this approach over the current financing method. Followed by several discussion papers submitted

Description: This paper extends the author's previous study, 'An Expanded Financial Structure for Ordinary Dividends', to reflect amendments to the life insurance company federal income tax statutes introduced by the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 [TEFRA]. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1983, Vol. 35.

Description: This paper describes a major refinement in methods of allocating general account investment income among lines of business, termed segmentation. A detailed description of the segmentation plan recently adopted by the authors' company and its implications is described. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1983, Vol. 35.

Description: This paper describes the analysis made of the 1971 Group Annuity Mortality Table and introduces the 1983 Group Annuity Mortality Table along with revised mortality rate projection scales. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1983, Vol. 35.

Description: The purpose of this report, prepared by the Society of Actuaries' Education and Examination Committee, is to provide the Board of Governors and the Education Policy Committee with a strategic basis for actuarial education and a philosophical foundation for education policy. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1983, Vol. 35.

Description: This is a presidential address to the Society of Actuaries by Robert H. Hoskins. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1982, Vol. 34.

Description: In this paper the author discusses pricing insurance products in the larger framework of company planning and management. The author also presents a generalized description of the pricing function, which is applicable to any insurance company product. The author discusses the relationship of the premium formulation function to the management of an insurance company, balancing the requirements of management, shareholders, policyholders, and marketing personnel. Includes discussion and author’s review of discussion. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1982 Volume 34.

Description: This paper describes the impact of inflation on the design, reporting, and actuarial analysis of the federal retirement programs for civilian employees and military personnel. The impact of inflation on these programs is of interest not only because federal annuity payments are a large portion of the federal budget, but also because the annuities have been fully indexed since 1963 and have gone through many of the design and valuation problems that would be experienced by other fully indexed pension systems. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1982, Vol. 34.

Description: This paper discusses the difficulty in measuring inflation and indicates the wide range of options available to corporate sponsors to lessen the impact of inflation on pensioners. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1982, Vol. 34.

Description: The author analyzes the arguments for and against a Social Security earnings test and concludes with a recommendation the author believes is consistent with the proper purpose and nature of the old-age, survivors, and disability insurance [OASDI] system. Includes discussion and author’s review of discussion. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1982 Volume 34.

Description: Covers experience from 1973 - 1978 on nonsmoker mortality to be used by the NAIC and its Technical Advisory Committee as a basis for developing interim valuation standards for nonsmoker ordinary business. Interim scaling factors to be applied to specified valuation mortality tables are also provided to develop smoker and non-smoker valuation mortality.

Description: This is the presidential address by former SOA president, Robin B. Leckie. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1981, Vol. 33.

Description: This paper develops a dividend financial structure and a dividend formula based on the contribution principle in a complete expanded format. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1981, Vol. 33.

Description: In this paper, the long-term funding consequences of negotiated improvements in pension plans are examined. Particular emphasis is placed on the effects on both contribution rates and the overall funding position of the plan of such things as benefit increases to retirees, reductions in the average retirement age, economic events that affect the size of the active work force, and the interplay between the increases in pay and benefit rates and the other valuation assumptions. A simulation model is used to uncover the influence of each variable. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1981, Vol. 33.

Description: This report presents the formal recommendation for a new mortality basis for individual annuity valuations. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1981, Vol. 33.

Description: The 1980 CSO Tables were developed by the Special Committee to Recommend New Mortality Tables for Valuation to replace the existing 1958 CSO Tables as the minimum standard for valuation. This paper presents the new tables and recommendations. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1981, Vol. 33.

Description: This paper presents a critical analysis of the economic assumptions employed in making projections of the social security program. Also, it discusses the importance of the relationship between increases in the Consumer Price Index and increases in wages in covered employment. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1981, Vol. 33.

Description: The paper reviews in detail the measures of actuarial status used for the social security program since the program was developed in the middle 1930s. The paper concludes with suggestions by the author concerning appropriate measures of actuarial status for social security in the future. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1981, Vol. 33.

Description: This paper defines a concept of equivalence for profit standards. The central principle advanced is that the company should set prices on all its products to produce marginal profits that are equal in proportion to the products' marginal use of surplus. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1981, Vol. 33.

Description: In this paper, a general model for a pension plan involving growth with respect to the population, salaries, and retirement benefits is used to study contribution patterns that may arise under different actuarial cost methods. Detailed results are presented for the case where the growth of population and the growth of salaries are described by exponential functions. Economic implications are presented and discussed. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1979, Vol. 31.

Description: This paper considers in more detail the differences between provisions necessary for nonparticipating and those necessary for participating adjustable life policies and will provide a possible means of designing nonparticipating policies that can adjust directly to future changes in mortality and interest valuation bases. A discussion of the paper follows. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1979, Vol 31.

Description: This section features various book reviews: 'How to Cope with the Developing Financial Crisis' by Bladen, 'Policymaking for Social Security' by Derthick, '1979 Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of the Federal OASDI Trust Funds' by US Congress, 'Integration of Plans with Social Security and Funding' by Grubbs, 'Pension and Profit Sharing Plans - a Basic Guide' by Mamorsky, 'Joint Trust Pension Plans' by McGinn, 'Financing the Civil Service Retirement Systems...' by McGill, 'Pension Task Force Report on Public Employee Retirement Systems' by Committee on Education and Labor. Brief descriptions of additional readings are also included.

Description: This paper presents multiple book reviews: Reports from Staff of U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means and U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, Reports in Connection with Social Security Legislation 1975-77, 'Statement on Cost Comparisons of Individual Life Insurance Policies', by Canadian Institute of Actuaries, 'Investment Activities of Life Insurance Companies' from Huebner Foundation Lectures, 'The Life Insurance Industry's Marketing Dilemma' by Johns, 'The Future of Social Security' by Munnell, 'Social Security - Today and Tomorrow' by Ball, 'Mortality Table Construction' by Batten, 'Mortality Table Construction' by Batten, 'The Crisis in Social Security - Problems and Prospects' by Boskin, 'A History of Interest Rates' by Homer, 'Indexation of Pensions and Other Benefits' by Robert Myers, 'Life Insurance Accounting' by Strain, '1978 Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of the Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund...' by US Congress. Brief summaries of additional readings are also included.

Description: This paper discusses three methods for the amortization of deferred acquisition expenses, DAC and the results when actual experience differs significantly from that assumed. The methods include a static approach with prescheduled amortization, a dynamic technique called the expense reserve factor method, and an aggregate or accumulated premium revenue method. A discussion follows the paper. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1978, Vol. 30.

Description: This paper summarizes traditional actuarial thinking on individual policy dividends and some of the current concerns, covering dividend class, reserves and nonforfeiture values on dividends, terminal dividends, dividend illustrations and changes in dividend scales. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1978, Vol. 30.

Description: A new approach to computing annual pension costs, based on an open-group projection of the participant population for a number of years, was described in detail in a paper published in the 1975 Transactions, entitled 'The Forecast Valuation Method for Pension Plans.' That paper described the operation of such a cost method at the initial valuation date. This paper discusses several alternative approaches to projection valuation methods and also describes how costs should be computed at valuation dates after the first one. In addition, the author illustrates projected contributions and asset buildups under both traditional [closed-group] cost methods and projected [open-group] cost methods, for a number of years under a variety of assumptions as to the growth rate of the participant group. Projection valuation methods have not been described heretofore in sufficient detail to make it possible for actuaries to use them on a recurring basis or for the Internal Revenue Service to make a determination as to the acceptability of such approaches for computing tax-deductible pension plan contributions. It is the hope of the author that this paper will fill both of those gaps. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1977, Vol. 29.

Description: This section contains the business meeting minutes from the four regional meetings held in 1977.

Description: This section contains multiple book reviews and notices concerning the actuarial profession. Reviews: 'Medical Risks: Patterns of Mortality and Survival' by Singer and Levinson, 'The Theory and Practice of Pension Funding' by Trowbridge and Farr, 'Two Stochastic Processes' by Beekman, 'Disability Income Insurance - Cost Differentials between Men and Women' by New York Insurance Department, 'Social Security and Private Pension Plans: Competitive or Complementary' by McGill, 'A New Look at Accounting for Pension Costs' by Hall and Landsittel, '1977 Annual Reports of the Board of Trustees of the Federal OASDI Trust Funds...,' 'Investigation of Sickness Statistics - Individual Policies, 1971 and 1973' by the Institute of Actuaries and the Faculty of Actuaries, 'The Graduation of Pensioners and of Annuitants Mortality Experience 1967-70' by the Institute of Actuaries and the Faculty of Actuaries, 'Pensions and Survival - the Coming Crisis of Money and Retirement' by Calvert, 'Group Benefits in a Changing Society' by Spencer, 'Experience of Disabled Work Benefits under OASDI 1965-74' by Bayo and Wilkin. Digests also included.

Description: This paper discusses decoupling of social security - meaning that the coupling of actual benefits for those already beneficiaries and potential benefits for future beneficiaries be broken. The purposes are to describe the environment, the problem which decoupling addresses and the importance of a rational solution. The paper discusses the wage-indexing approach and the price-indexing approach. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1977, Vol. 29.

Description: The purpose of this paper is to provide an introduction to mathematical principles applicable to pension funding under dynamic conditions of population growth, inflation, and automatic adjustment of benefits. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1976, Vol. 28.

Description: This section contains the business meeting minutes from four regional meetings held in 1976.