Description: The SOA Research Institute has executed research for over twenty years on some repeating themes and topics. The reports build on each other and add content. This article summarizes and discusses a summary report on long-term care, caregiving and housing linked to long-term care and caregiving.

Description: An interview with Michelle Richter-Gordon which provides a look at how DC participants feel about their financial security in retirement and suggests how retirement professionals can improve the financial security of retirees during the decumulation phase.

Description: A news release announcing the winners of the 2024 Student Research Case Study Challenge.

Description: Renal disease is a very heterogenous medical condition whose end state is dialysis, a recurring cost intensive medical condition. Dialysis cost is one of the major medical cost drivers in USA. Insufficient and improper care management in the early stages of CKD (chronic kidney disease) leads to early incidence of end stage renal disease (ESRD) among CKD patients which not only leads to high medical costs, but also reflects poor health quality.

Description: The mismatch between how interest rate impacts the value of assets and liabilities could have material negative impact to companies’ earnings and surplus. To quantify and mitigate the impact of such mismatches, companies have used matching a combination of duration and convexity. I will review these measurement techniques and their limitations.

Description: A three-minute neuroscience-based image exercise is able to accurately unlock the emotional state of individual employees, permitting prediction of a host of specific needs. Actuaries can use this quantitative information at scale to target resources, benefits, and supports to increase the objective wellness and subjective well-being of workforces.

Description: This session is designed to inform you about the current state of mental health and mental health care in the United States, as well as future trajectories. By exploring topics such as plan design, provider network, provider reimbursement, and other relevant channels, this session aims to enlighten everyone on existing challenges and the strategies being employed to tackle them. Notably, this will include and highlight proposed changes to the mental health parity. Additionally, attendees will hear from a mental health provider/academic on these topics to gain a non-actuarial perspective.

Description: This article highlights the findings of a recent SOA survey on accelerated underwriting (AU) practices, including the amount of AU business ceded, the results of three opinion questions, and an estimate of mortality slippage among AU programs.

Description: The article introduces a cashflow matching strategic asset allocation (SAA) framework for life insurers. Given the recent shift to higher interest rates after two decades of persistent low interest rates, insurers have an opportunity to enhance their asset liability management by rebalancing asset portfolios to narrow duration gaps and attain higher risk-adjusted yields. The framework aims to align investment objectives with economic, regulatory, and rating agency requirements. It prioritizes cashflow matching as the primary optimization goal and incorporates security-level asset information to assist portfolio managers in executing SAA seamlessly. The article highlights the benefits of the cashflow matching SAA framework, including greater attention to cashflow matching, unbiased results, readily executable strategies, and stable economic reserves. A case study is included to demonstrate the effectiveness of the framework in improving risk-adjusted return and cashflow matching for a representative liability block.

Description: The article discusses the critical role of Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) within insurance companies, particularly amidst changes in accounting regimes like USGAAP Long-Duration Targeted Improvements (LDTI) and International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 17 and implications of these changes on FP&A activities.