Description: This article contains reviews of the following books published in 1987-1990: 1. 'Pension Age in a Changing Society' by Patrick Carroll, 2. 'Life Insurance Mathematics' by Hans U. Gerber, 3. 'A History of Probability and Statistics and Their Applications before 1750' by Anders Hald, 4. 'Medical Risks: Trends in Mortality by Age and Time Elapsed' by Edward A. Lew, 5. 'Canadian Handbook of Flexible Benefits' by Robert J. McKay, 6. 'Canadian Insurance Practices' by Franklin Reynolds, 7. 'On the Shoulders of Giants' edited by Lynn Arthur Steen, 8. 'The Value of Pensions in Divorce: What It Is and How to Use It' by Marvin Snyder, 9. 'Life Insurance Accounting' by Edward P. Brunner and Paul E. Heacock, 10. 'Duration Analysis: Managing Interest Rate Risk' by G.O. Bierwag, and 11. 'Actuarial Evidence: Valuing Past and Future Income' by Donald R. Anderson. Notices of other articles and publications are also included. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1990, Vol. 42.

Description: This paper defines a general model for arbitrary units and gives formulas for computing the variance and mean squared error of decrement estimators. It is observed that, in small studies, the mean squared error is reduced by counting lives, even if the probability of death depends somewhat on the amount of insurance. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1981, Vol. 33.

Description: In this paper two theorems concerning the optimality of the perfect-fit and perfect-smoothness graduations are proved. Two examples are presented and some difficulties with regard to computational feasibility are reviewed. A discussion of the paper follows. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1978, Vol. 30.