Description: Climate change is occurring. As a result, insured and uninsured losses are increasing. Billion-dollar (CPI adjusted) disaster events have increased in each decade in which they have been tracked since 1980.

Description: This project aims to understand pension participants’ investment and withdrawal behaviors and provide guidance in pension plan design, using data from China

Description: Inspired by the Wall Street Bets / GameStop stock episode in January 2021, this article outlines the market mechanics and risk considerations that lead to market failure. The consequences of unfilled buy orders, unfilled short sell orders, and more short shares than long shares are all explained. Also, some steps to protect a financial institution that has been caught shorting a popular company are explored.

Description: After research involving auto insurance is retracted due to fraud, I revisit my own book review and unskeptical quoting of that now-debunked research. A lesson in ASOP 23, on Data Quality, ensues, as it seems data in the research was falsified. There is also a lesson in ASOP 56, Modeling, which includes aspects of relying on outside experts for model input. At the end of it all, the value of our actuarial professional standards, in light of other professions seemingly having no standards (or no serious repercussions for breaching said standards), shines through. Also, be skeptical of 'one simple trick' approaches to transform the insurance industry.

Description: Chairperson of the LTC Section reflects on his three-year term on the LTC Section Council.

Description: On April 29, 2018, the Society of Actuaries (“SOA”) convened a Discipline Committee to review a matter referred by the Actuarial Board for Counseling and Discipline ("ABCD"). The Discipline Committee determined that Scott Allen, ASA, should be expelled from the SOA for material violations of the Code of Professional Conduct (“Code”), specifically Precepts 1 and 9, effective May 24, 2018.

Description: On June 26, 2017, the Society of Actuaries (“SOA”) convened a Discipline Committee to review a matter referred by the Actuarial Board for Counseling and Discipline ("ABCD"). The Discipline Committee determined that Stacey B. Levine, FSA, should be suspended for a period of five years from the Society of Actuaries for material violations of Precept 1 of the Code of Professional Conduct (“Code”), effective August 8, 2017.

Description: This paper outlines a statistical modeling framework for fitting mortality laws to mortality experience data. The process can be used as an alternative to traditional graduation techniques used in mortality table development.

Description: Each calendar quarter, the Society of Actuaries (SOA) calls for essays that highlight practical applications of academic research published in the North American Actuarial Journal. This essay met the publication criteria of the judging committee. It outlines a practical application of “Hedging Longevity Risk: Does the Structure of the Financial Instrument Matter?”1 by Richard D. MacMinn and Nan Zhu. The essay is solely an expression of the views, opinions, and ideas of the essay author for applying the original research to actuarial work in industry.

Description: 2021 Election candidate questionnaire page