Description: The actuarial profession is changing rapidly and the skills needed to be successful are also changing. In this session, we will debate key topics and questions, such as: What is the predominant future career path for actuaries? Specialists or generalists? Does the actuarial profession have a meaningful value prop outside our core domains e.g. insurance? What skills are needed for the actuary of the future? What’s the best approach to improve actuarial storytelling to non-actuarial audiences? What’s the role of actuaries to managing and predicting emerging trends and assumptions? What is the role of actuaries in relation to development and ownership of advanced modeling? Is the future actuarial profession smaller/larger than it is today? In either case, how does it differ from today in terms of make-up, deployment, function, purpose, value add, etc.?

Description: Creating a predictive model is one thing, but then taking that model and getting full stakeholder buy-in is another. Learn from presenters' experiences and insights on proving model effectiveness in the long-term care (LTC), life and annuity spaces. Explore various topics such as feasibility, model transparency, fairness and equity, ROI measurement, data assets and compliance, infrastructure and more. By the end of the session, you will gain an understanding of how to navigate the challenges of proving the effectiveness of predictive modeling and obtaining management buy-in.

Description: This document is a call for essays issued by the Society of Actuaries Research Institute. It seeks submissions that explore the impact of Artificial Intelligence/Large Language Models on retirement professionals and retirees. The document provides background information, research objectives, and a list of illustrative topics and questions that the essays can address. The submission guidelines, timeline, and evaluation criteria are also outlined.

Description: In this session a panel of industry experts from the life insurance industry will examine the modeling challenges created by increased investment in more esoteric assets.

Description: As insurers search for ways to optimize the value of their actuaries, cloud-based data architecture has emerged as a leading solution to deliver quality data that enables the unlocking of actuarial potential. Hear an introduction to cloud based data architecture, explore cloud-based data strategies and view a live demo. Learn about different data “zones”, piping data between the zones, transforming data, and a collection of cloud-based tools that could be used for each one of these steps.

Description: The frequent use and complexity of today's actuarial projection models has increased the importance of having efficient models. Model optimization can reduce both cloud costs and overall end-to-end clock times, thereby allowing companies to do more with less such as reducing close times, increasing controls, enhancing analysis, doing more complicated calculations, and/or improving employee workloads during the close. From design and data to execution and audit, come explore techniques that can be applied throughout the actuarial modeling process to optimize actuarial models for improved run-time, accuracy, and reliability. There will be a focus on techniques that don't rely on model compression. Topics covered include model design pitfalls, data handling, improving convergence on asset-liability projections, strategies for interacting with the cloud, and other tips for optimizing actuarial models.

Description: Generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT will redefine the nature of work across industries in coming years, What does this mean for the actuarial profession? Delivering generative AI tools to actuaries capable of leveraging them effectively will dramatically modernize how actuaries work and contribute to organizational growth. In this educational session, explore how generative AI can accelerate actuarial model development. Gain an introduction to generative AI and its implications for actuarial modeling. Learn how it specifically helps actuaries improve accuracy, reduce errors and save time in model development. Then explore use cases, including how generative AI can improve data cleaning, model building, as well as simulate scenarios and test model robustness. Close with a discussion on how to integrate generative AI into actuarial modeling workflows effectively, including common challenges actuaries may face during implementation and tips to overcome them. You will come away with a deeper understanding of how generative AI can accelerate actuarial model development.

Description: Focus on the importance of achieving complete and accurate technical reviews of work products that contribute to decision making. As actuaries, we often face tight deadlines and the demand is high for our team members to provide results in a timely manner. Through investing upfront time into a quality review of our work product, with an added focus on professional excellence and ethics, overall time savings can be gained and an overall higher quality work product can be achieved, not only of the technical work being performed, but of the decision making that is influenced by the result of the work. At the conclusion of this session, you will be able to understand the value of technical reviews and the methods of preparing for and implementing technical reviews across a team.

Description: Dr. Kimberly Harden helps organizations shift from a traditional diversity model to one that emphasizes diversity, interpersonal communication, and talent management. She will discuss topics on bias and how to be your authentic self in the workplace.

Description: At the end of December 2020, Congress enacted the Consolidated Appropriates Act, 2021, which included revisions to Section 7702. Effective for policies issued after December 31, 2020, the fixed 4% and 6% minimum annual effective rates under these tests were changed to refer to a market-based rate called the “insurance interest rate”. For contracts issued in 2021, the insurance rate was set to 2% - defined as the lower of the Section 7702 applicable federal interest rate based on the 60-month period ending December 2019 (2%) and the Section 7702 valuation interest rate in effect for 2020 (3.5%). This reduction in the rates used for compliance testing required significant product, operational, and technology changes for companies to reach product compliance. After 2021, the insurance interest rate is redetermined annually with a minimum change floor.