Description: The Society of Actuaries Research Institute’s Catastrophe and Climate Strategic Research Program is pleased to release the following essay exploring the Actuarial Role in addressing Severe Thunderstorm Risks.

Description: Review the slides from the "Reviewing, Validating and Auditing Actuarial Models" presentation, presented at the Valuation Actuary Symposium in 2015.

Description: View the research report "Exploration of Lifetime Pension Pool Design Elements," which focuses on the applications of Benefit at Risk (BaR).

Description: How insurers can include a liquidity score and liquidity stress scenarios as part of their asset liability management (ALM) protocol.

Description: View the Notes From Intersector Meeting with the PBGC - October 6, 2023

Description: Review the case study for the Fall 2023 Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) Exam.

Description: Review the exam file for the Fall 2023 Strategic Decision Making (CFESDM) Exam.

Description: This is a paper from the session on the Aging Process at the January 15-18, 2023, 2023 Living to 100 Symposium in Orlando, Florida.

Description: Review the syllabus for the Spring 2024 Strategic Decision Making (CFESDM) Exam.

Description: Review the syllabus for the Spring 2024 Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) Exam.

Description: Review the syllabus for the Spring 2024 Quantitative Finance and Investment Quantitative Finance (QFIQF) Exam.

Description: Review the syllabus for the Spring 2024 Quantitative Finance and Investment Portfolio Management (QFIPM) Exam.

Description: Review the syllabus for the Spring 2024 Life ALM and Modeling (ILALAM) Exam.

Description: Providing ways to master the art of soft skills and embracing agility to propel actuarial success in today's market.

Description: In this article, we collected data from the companies’ roll-forward disclosures related to calendar years 2021 and 2022 on Market Risk Benefit and shared a high-level summary of the Market Risk Benefit volatility that a focus group of companies incurred and summarized the most common ways to mitigate volatility.

Description: View the Fall 2023 FSA Exam Book List.

Description: Celebrate the SOA’s 75th anniversary at the largest actuarial conference of the year! Network with industry leaders, employers, actuarial professionals and thought leaders and find solutions to your profession’s most complex challenges.

Description: Different mortality projection methodologies are utilized by actuaries across applications and practice areas. As a result, the MIM Advisory Group developed a single framework to serve as a consistent base for practitioners in projecting mortality improvement.

Description: View the RPEC 2023 Mortality Improvement Update report

Description: View the MIM‐2021‐v4 and MIM‐2021‐v3 Data Analysis Tool User Guide.

Description: View the MIM‐2021‐v4 and MIM‐2021‐v3 Application Tool User Guide.

Description: Plan ahead to attend the 2023 SOA ImpACT Conference in Indianapolis, IN, October 22–25. Come together to experience innovative events, new insights and valuable opportunities in the actuarial profession.

Description: This report introduces quantum computing to actuaries. In addition, this research will assess and identify areas in the insurance field where quantum computing can make a difference, accompanied with suggested algorithms.

Description: In today’s market of post-pandemic consolidation and org chart streamlining, we’ve observed significant changes to actuarial career development and advancement opportunities. But, those changes aren’t occurring in equal measures across the arc of the actuarial career. Our focus is on the impact felt by experienced reinsurance actuaries.

Description: Join our expert panel of three influential actuaries with diverse backgrounds for a dynamic seminar on mastering trust-building strategies that will transform your personal and professional life. In today's rapidly changing business landscape, trust has become more crucial than ever before, affecting everything from relationship-building to team dynamics and organizational culture. You'll leave ready to elevate your leadership impact and influence, both in and out of the office.

Description: How can we maintain our sanity while staring at the same screen all day, clicking into and bouncing out of meetings? To be successful in today's (remote) world, we must learn how to relate to individuals virtually. Topics include: How can we best establish a professional and dynamic presence while working remotely? How can we develop rapport with our virtual colleagues as well as with those working in the office? What is considered to be appropriate etiquette when interacting with a co-worker via a computer screen? How can we effectively collaborate while working from home? What is the best way to present to senior management without the ability to be in the room to read their body language? Hear from a panel of actuaries discuss their perspectives and lessons learned over the last few years on how to optimize our communication effectiveness in the virtual work environment.

Description: How can we maintain our sanity while staring at the same screen all day, clicking into and bouncing out of meetings? To be successful in today's (remote) world, we must learn how to relate to individuals virtually. Join us for this 'Choose Your Own (Virtual) Adventure' session during which the webinar attendees will direct the subtopics to be addressed by the remote panelists (i.e., polling will be enabled in real time during the session). You will participate in topics based on the audience vote, some of which include: How can we best establish a professional and dynamic presence while working remotely? How can we develop and maintain solid rapport with our virtual colleagues as well as with those working in the office? What is considered to be appropriate etiquette when interacting with a co-worker via a computer screen? How can we effectively collaborate on technical and non-technical content while working from home? What is the best way to present to senior management without the ability to be in the room to read their body language? Hear from a panel of actuaries discuss their perspectives and lessons learned over the last few years on how to optimize our communication effectiveness in the virtual work environment.

Description: ALM and hedging can reap significant benefits from innovation in computation and operations research. Explore applications of static and dynamic optimization in two different ALM and hedging use cases. Insurers are increasingly moving offshore by establishing Bermuda captive reinsurers. In calculating the Bermuda Best Estimate Liability ('BEL'), reinsurers will need to segment assets to support liabilities in each treaty. A Linear Programming ('LP') problem can be formulated to tactically select assets in a way that minimizes the BEL and consequently the total asset requirement. Learn more about what US Variable Annuity Insurers face with the regulatory requirement to reflect 'future hedging strategy' in their statutory funding calculation. The traditional numerical method of finding the optimal hedging target and then allocating assets may encounter the curse of dimensionality with expanding product and economic environment complexity. A Reinforcement Learning algorithm may well fit this problem and provide insurers a solution for dynamic hedging.

Description: The industry sees extreme value in predictive modeling and its ability to help us meet customer demands and remain profitable, but do customers and regulators look at this as a favorable addition to our process? Hear from a dynamic panel of industry experts who will tackle a variety of issues and questions from the state of the regulatory environment to the responsibilities of the carrier.

Description: As accelerated underwriting continues to evolve, it is a delicate balance to ensure these programs are managed effectively for both short- and long-term results. And there's debate about whether these programs are getting too aggressive. Join panelists as they share their viewpoints on the state of accelerated underwriting, the data sources, models, tools and techniques commonly used, how the landscape is destined to change with more dynamic approaches in underwriting, and how best to monitor these programs, and the impacts of these programs to carriers and the industry as a whole.

Description: The old adage 'insurance is sold not bought' has been used to dismiss digital insurance and support the old agent model of distribution. However, modern distribution systems address this with personalization. This is not simply a customized application form based on age or gender. Personalization is much more dynamic and happens in real-time. It's about tailoring the end-to-end experience to meet the needs and expectations of the specific applicant. The core tools to achieve this are AI learning and nudges from behavioral science.

Description: This article provides an overview of critical illness insurance: history, product description, and the three primary ways to offer critical illness coverage in the United States. This article also contains an illustration of an issue age premium rate calculation, as well as product features and rating applications specific to the various types of critical illness coverage.

Description: Learn what the Julia of the Julia-Python-R combination JuPyteR notebooks are named after! Julia is a programming language with several modern features to make actuaries' lives easier. It is highly capable for many tasks, whether you use it for modeling, data science, communicating results through interactive notebooks, or creating high-quality visualizations. It is a dynamic, interactive language that enables very fast computation while being as easy to learn and write as Python. Discover more about the programming language already used by the Federal Reserve, large banks, NASA, and many other industries. Julia Dive into an interactive walkthrough of the Julia ecosystem and how Julia is gaining adoption within the insurance space, while also using a range of open-source actuarial packages. You will explore how to elevate your analysis across different dimensions and distillg simpler ways to compose your actuarial models and analysis.

Description: Trends in mortality have a huge impact on the insurance industry and its products, risks and profitability. Worldwide, life expectancy has increased continuously over the past decades. However, this progress—even without considering the Covid-19 pandemic—has been subject to strong fluctuations. In recent years, an increase in volatility can be observed. Various aspects—medical science, environment, lifestyle—have influenced the trend in the past. How can the life and health industry move forward in these uncertain conditions? In this article, we examine what has gone before and what can be learned from a closer analysis. What are the main drivers of the historical increase in life expectancy? What characterizes the dynamics of the recent past? How can mortality be projected into the future? How good are our methods of prediction and what are the risks? What risk management options are available?

Description: New digital data known as alternative data is everywhere. Our industry has seen the financial, and hi-tech industries leverage new digital data to expand their key offerings and core services. From the lens of the global life and health industry, new digital data is still searching to be further understood. Risk assessment is a current focus area for using alternative data. A key question is even though risk assessment has always been data-driven, can it now move to the next level with the arrival of this alternative data. Can we use alternative data to make the risk assessment process quicker, cheaper, or faster thereby driving more sales and better conversion rates. It is an exciting time! With the increased adoption of health and well-being apps, data such as physical activity, nutrition, sleep, and mental wellness is now readily available. Expanded data such as digital biomarkers, IoT data, electronic health records and many more can also be accessed. However, how to effectively implement alternative data remains a challenge across the industry. We firmly believe it is, and will continue to be, imperative to take a structured approach to alternative data through a set of key considerations and a framework of principles.

Description: As the insurance industry continues to evolve due to a pandemic and rapidly changing economic and regulatory conditions, the role of data scientists and actuaries has become increasingly important. In an interview with the Atidot data science and actuarial team, we discuss what it is like to work at an InsurTech, how data scientists and actuaries can collaborate, and look at some concrete technical examples of where the innovation is having an impact. This article explores what collaboration can look like and how the role of data science and actuary may evolve in the InsurTech industry in the future.

Description: Predictive Analytics and Machine Learning – Practical Applications for Actuarial Modeling (Nested Stochastic) – Addendum

Description: This article studies the syllabus as a dynamic, interactive teaching tool that informs and is informed by both solutions of complex course problems and student difficulties with these problems.

Description: Future mortality improvement has been a common assumption in life insurance and annuity pricing and forecasting for many years. However, experience over the last decade suggests this might be an assumption that merits reconsideration in the United States. This article will take a closer look at factors that impact mortality improvement trends and discuss why insurers may want to reevaluate product designs to better manage the associated mortality risk. We then introduce a product idea with this in mind, where premiums are based on a life expectancy index and insurers share the risk (and opportunity) or mortality improvement with policyholders.

Description: Review the ERM Case Study for Fall 2023.

Description: 2023 Questionnaire for Daniel S. Pribe

Description: 2023 Board Member Candidate Page for

Description: 2023 Questionnaire for Dave Dillon

Description: 2023 Board Member Candidate Page for Han Henry Chen

Description: 2023 Questionnaire for Ying Zhao

Description: August edition of the Catastrophe & Climate Newsletter.

Description: Review the CFESDM Solutions for Spring 2023.

Description: Review the QFIIRM Solutions for Spring 2023.

Description: Review the GHVRC Solutions for Spring 2023.

Description: Review the RETRPIRM Solutions for Spring 2023.

Description: Review the GHDP Solutions for Spring 2023.

Description: Review the QFIIRM Solutions for Spring 2023.

Description: Review the ERM Solutions for Spring 2023.

Description: Review the ILALAM Solutions for Spring 2023.

Description: Review the CFECD Solutions for Spring 2023.

Description: Review the QFIQF Solutions for Spring 2023.

Description: 2023 Section Ballot - Health

Description: Discover how to reacquaint professionalism with the actuarial science profession in this 75-minute webcast focused on the provision of dynamic standards that evolve with products and regulations. Listeners will learn about the future challenges in their ongoing work that professionalism skills will assist with. For actuaries in the US and Canada, come define ASOPS and professionalism entering 2023. This webcast will be interactive, providing several case studies with real life ethical issues where the audience will vote and discuss the appropriate course of action.

Description: Actuaries can leverage cluster modeling to reduce model runtime and cloud compute costs, which can be a real concern as companies transition from an on-premise grid to a scalable cloud solution. We consider practical considerations associated with clustering, through both US statutory and US GAAP lenses. Lastly, the results from a variable annuity liability clustering case study are presented.

Description: Framing Catastrophic Cyber Risk Expert Panel

Description: Market Volatility Risk in an Era of Extreme Events

Description: Actuary Dave Dillon describes his role volunteering his time as a teacher in higher education, including the rewards and challenges that teaching offers. He discusses the importance of being attentive to his audience’s pre-existing knowledge and adapting his presentations accordingly. His work as a teacher typically encompasses three distinct domains: 1) acquainting young students with the actuarial profession, 2) educating non-actuaries about public policy issues related to health insurance (including the Affordable Care Act), and 3) instructing current actuaries on advanced methodologies and principles within the field. Recently he taught a health insurance course for actuarial science graduate students at Georgia State University and lectured at Boise State University’s master's program in Population & Health Systems Management. In every teaching and mentoring opportunity, actuaries can contribute to the expansion and prosperity of the profession and are encouraged to pursue these endeavors.

Description: The Federal funds rate increased by 4.25% in 2022 with further increases in 2023, which have already resulted in a liquidity crisis for a few banks. As the rapid increase of the interest rates pushed the new money rates above the yields of many life insurers’ investment portfolios, insurance companies are facing a dilemma between compressed margins from peer pressure and the concern with liquidity shortfalls and realized capital losses should mass surrenders happen. This paper discussed main emerging risks under rising interest rate environment, and several ways to mitigate these risks.

Description: Spring 2023 Exam ILALAM

Description: Spring 2023 Exam CFESDM

Description: Spring 2023 Exam ERM Case Study

Description: Spring 2023 Exam GHVRC

Description: Spring 2023 Exam QFIPM

Description: The objective of this paper is to provide a practical guide with concrete case studies to help actuaries implement artificial intelligence and machine learning (AIML) to help accelerate the speed of analysis for life and annuity actuarial modeling. We do so by researching the existing literature regarding AIML and its applicability to stochastic modeling and exploring case studies.

Description: The global doubling of information content has been estimated to occur at a rate of every 12 hours, and conceivably faster. This ‘infowhelm’ is a double-edged sword for insurers. While maximization of the global knowledge base can fuel innovation, it can occur only in the context of reasonable cost for a higher benefit. The insurance industry – underwriters and actuaries in particular – are challenged to constantly examine new innovations that promise to raise confidence and protective value for insurability, within legal limits. This report aims to be the first of several to alert the SOA of promising innovations for the profession.