Description: discussion of risk management and proper pricing of life insurance products.

Description: The purpose of this article is to discuss potential issues and considerations that may be encountered with the implementation of VM 20. Crucial considerations include the modeling software used, validation effort, assumptions used, complexity of the process, documentation, and run time. A key takeaway is that an integrated modeling platform with solid automation and asset-liability capabilities is imperative for addressing the issues and considerations encountered.

Description: A discussion of the theory underlying risk neutral investment scenarios

Description: Target volatility, as an investment strategy, has been used by many funds not only as a way to smooth return but also as a way to manage risks of the VA guarantees. Contrary to existing research which favors volatility targeting over fixed allocation, this article shows that because of the existence of market jump risk, target volatility strategy does not necessarily offer an improved risk profile for VA writers. Further, target volatility coupled with leveraging can significantly increase tail risk for insurance companies.

Description: Discussion of possible hedging strategies for offsetting the investment risk for variable annuities, especially those with guaranteed benefits.

Description: Constant Proportion Portfolio Insurance (CPPI) performance is assessed on realistic assumptions and dynamic strategies to mitigate the so-called ”gap risk”.

Description: This article gives an overview of the types of chronic illness acceleration riders that are now becoming prevalent in the US life insurance marketplace. The article discusses features that risk control measures that one may wish to consider when designing such an accleration rider.

Description: This article explains why stochastic modeling is becoming more pervasive, and describes a specific stochastic application with metrics to measure results.

Description: A discussion of the value a reinsurer can provide beyond assistance through coinsurance with XXX compliance. There are recent signs that the use of coinsurance and the inherent shift of the burden of the reserves to the reinsurers are putting stress on the reinsurers’ capacity limitations. Reinsurers are able to shoulder only so much of the burden of the reserve strain caused by Regulation XXX. What reinsurers do best, and know best, though, is mortality risk. If your company is seeing signs from your reinsurers that this is the case, this article will present some thoughts to consider as to why sales of level term products may still be acceptable, even without the support of coinsurance programs.

Description: This article explores implications for the future of improving the application of existing underwriting techniques and and taking maximum advantage of new technologies.