Description: The SOA Research Institute seeks researchers and essayists to explore the multifaceted impacts of climate risk on retirement. The desired deliverable is a resource that catalogues major related issues while providing current considerations and potential future dynamics. The intended audience for this effort is actuaries and other retirement professionals.

Description: The strategic plan of the Society of Actuaries (SOA) Research Institute includes several important research goals. One goal is to support emerging issues and topics in established practice areas and encourage the development of research projects that have a strong impact on the actuarial profession. The primary purpose is to select and fund high-quality research projects that directly educate members on applicable topics. Additionally, the SOA Research Institute desires to develop additional intellectual capital that serves the interest of the public and the profession’s stakeholders. The Research Executive Committee (REC) of the SOA Research Institute oversees the funding of the Emerging Issues Pool. This key source of research funding is used to sponsor projects that are beneficial to the entire profession, across practice area boundaries that may require funding levels beyond the normal annual funding budgets of research committees and sections. The REC is issuing this Request for Proposals (RFP) to fulfill the strategic goals of the organization through the use of this pool for funding new projects.

Description: July 2023 was the hottest month on record in parts of the Southwest U.S. and was also the hottest month on record globally. It will be helpful to study the impacts of excessive heat and the applications to actuarial practice including quantification of risks resulting from it.

Description: The Society of Actuaries (SOA) Research Institute received a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) to educate insurance actuaries on the use of wildfire risk datasets and models to be developed by researchers from academia and the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Description: The SOA Research Institute Mortality & Longevity Strategic Research Program and the Catastrophe & Climate Strategic Research Program Steering Committees [The Committees] are seeking researchers to investigate the impact of outdoor air quality and pollution on morbidity and mortality, with a focus on climate change including the impacts of wildfires focusing on regions where air quality has deteriorated significantly in recent history.

Description: The SOA Research Institute Catastrophe & Climate Strategic Research Program Steering Committee is seeking researchers to put together a case study discussing scenario development, actuarial methodology, and how to incorporate climate-related tipping points into actuarial practice. With the march toward global temperature increase approaching 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, it would be valuable to research what it would look like when the point has been reached and we are in an era, or “new-normal,” represented by more extreme climate-related events.

Description: 2023 looks to already be the costliest year for insured severe thunderstorm damage in the U.S. surpassing the 2020 record of $44 billion, by August, and may very well surpass $50 billion for the full year. In addition to property damage, severe storms and hail have led to fatalities in the U.S. and the risks to populations in vulnerable structures seems to be worsening.

Description: This article highlights some of the key elements included in the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) report to Congress in July 2023 regarding the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).