Description: The SOA Research Institute Aging and Retirement Strategic Research Program and Retirement Section are pleased to make available a research report that examines megatrends and potential paradigm shifts, and how they may impact the future of retirement and retirement plans, as well as the macro forces that will shape those trends.

Description: This article is a summary of the SOA Research Institute report published in April 2023 on Megatrends Impacting the Future of Retirement Plans.

Description: The SOA Research Institute Health Care Cost Trends Strategic Research Program and Health Section Council Committees are seeking researchers to compare the intended effects of the ACA and its amendments since the implementation of each provision.

Description: Through the sponsorship of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Society of Actuaries partnered with Wakely to use their health care data to study the effects of COVID-19 on overall health care claims for individuals with a COVID-19 diagnosis. The conclusion of the study is that individuals with COVID-19 claims had significant increases in health care costs leading up to their months of diagnosis, as well as in the months following their diagnosis. These effects were more pronounced for individuals who were hospitalized due to COVID-19 as well as for individuals with prior co-morbidities. Finally, the overall health care costs of these members plateaued at significantly higher levels than their pre-COVID baselines. In fact, all the main membership cohorts experienced claim levels that were at least 20% higher than their pre-COVID starting points.

Description: Beyond long-COVID, there are concerns about the impact of the pandemic on future mortality and morbidity trends, including the consequences of delayed care (for chronic or acute diseases) during the crisis as well as the indirect impact of the pandemic (e.g. through increased economic uncertainty, the current inflation which results in part from the stimulus package deployed during the lock-downs, and the mental health crisis associated to the social isolation of 2020/2021).

Description: The article documents the efficacy of infra-low frequency neurofeedback regarding how it improves patient no show rates, decreases mental health symptoms by 40% or more, and self-harm and suicidal ideations.

Description: The SOA Research Institute is pleased to make available material for Primer on Retirement Income Strategy Design and Evaluation, a primer that addresses strategies to generate income during retirement from the perspectives of their design and evaluation. Design involves specifying a joint investment and withdrawal strategy, which entails deciding how to invest available assets and setting a plan for withdrawing income. Evaluation involves analyzing how well the potential outcomes arising from a strategy satisfy objectives, which provides the foundation for strategy selection. The main focus of this Primer is investment strategy rather than withdrawal strategy. However, investment strategy cannot be examined independently from withdrawal strategy. Income generation is the focal point of a retirement income strategy, and this in turn depends on the rules under which income is drawn. In addition to the primer, the authors have created two Excel models for illustrative purposes.