Description: Product development is variously described as a science, an art, or a philosophy. Six Sigma suffers from the same ambiguity—it is a statistical measure, a business philosophy, a process, a methodology, and a way of living! But by combining the two, we are able to apply structure to creativity and enable product success

Description: Discussion of recent Society of Actuaries sponsored research.

Description: This article covers the importance of a system peer review within the systems change control process and offers suggestions for creating more robust controls.

Description: On October 30, 2015, the SOA Assumption Development and Governance Group, an informal discussion group consisting of nearly 200 interested actuaries with topics pertaining to actuarial assumption development and governance, organized an industry discussion call on end-to-end assumption documentation practices. The purpose of this call was to generate a large list of ideas for best-practice assumption documentation. More than thirty companies were represented in the call, including direct insurers, reinsurers and consulting firms. This article is the work product of the discussion written by Laurie Li and Alex Zaidlin.

Description: Continuation of article from previous issue. This article illustrates the practical and financial implications of applying nested stochastic techniques to a sample product.

Description: Organic, top-line growth is key to life insurance companies for creating shareholder value and achieving long-term success. Companies that do not position themselves for organic growth risk falling behind as competitors seize market opportunities for expansion.

Description: A summary of polling that took place over the last couple years at SOA events regarding participants roles with respect to in-force management activities.

Description: Overview of a recent visit to silicon valley and how the learnings from this trip can be applied in an insurance setting.