Description: "This training video introduces actuaries to creative prompting strategies that unlock AI’s potential as a brainstorming partner. Chris Lombardi, Director at WTW, walks through examples of open-ended, role-based, and structured prompts that encourage diverse and innovative thinking. Viewers will learn techniques to generate a high volume of ideas, embrace unconventional perspectives, and use reverse brainstorming to uncover hidden insights. With a mix of live demos and practical tips, the session emphasizes how framing prompts effectively can turn AI into a catalyst for creative exploration. Contributors: Chris Lombardi, FSA, MAAA, CERA; Jon Forster, ASA, MAAA; Dave Ingram, FSA, MAAA; Henry Chen, FSA, FCIA, MAAA"

Description: Wildfire smoke is reshaping health risks nationwide. A new Society of Actuaries Research Institute study links fine particulate matter (PM2.5) to rising rates of respiratory, cardiovascular, mental health, and cancer conditions—effects that can last long after the fires fade. Join this one-hour webcast to explore how wildfire-related pollution and extreme heat are influencing morbidity, insurance costs, and predictive modeling—and what actuaries, insurers, and policymakers can do to respond.

Description: For decades, drug overdose deaths have been increasing within the U.S., with opioid-related mortality driving this increase. The Society of Actuaries Research Institute (SOA) sponsored this research to investigate the trends and drivers behind drug overdose mortality and substance-related deaths as a whole. Findings provided a range of insights surrounding substance use disorder, drug overdose and alcohol-induced mortality, and considerations for insurers.

Description: The Reliability of Mortality Improvement Estimates

Description: Introduction to Pension Risk Transfer

Description: Guiding Actuarial Standards

Description: Roles of an Actuary

Description: Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) provides practitioners all of the tools necessary for assessing, quantifying, and managing risk on an aggregated, holistic basis. However, in practice it is often found that there is a tendency for company managements and even seasoned risk practitioners at times to navigate their risk exposures one at a time. This habitual approach produces sub-optimal results due to the oversimplification of risk events and understating the complexity of the world in which decision makers must navigate. At the heart of this sub-optimal behavior is the human predilection towards mental accounting. As with financial accounting, mental accounting employs a ledger function that mentally registers debts and balances. However, unlike a traditional ledger, the mental ledger is not precise, does not always sum debits to equal credits, and creates arbitrary categories for resources that are treated as independent, unrelated pools. These differences in function profoundly impact financial judgments and decision-making. Learn more about the long history of mental accounting, including examples from daily life to illustrate the principles involved. Discuss how mental accounting can arise during the ERM process cycle, with a special emphasis on its impacts on effectively quantifying risk and how this results in sub-optimal decision making. Discover behavioral tools specifically designed to mitigate the risk of mental accounting creeping into a company's ERM activities.

Description: Over the last several years, the life and annuity industry has seen significant reforms to the Valuation Manual and RBC Instructions, but one outstanding item not yet addressed with recent 'VA Reform' was the economic scenario generator (ESG). The NAIC has engaged Conning, Inc. to replace the Academy's generator (AIRG) that is currently benchmarked for VM-20 and VM-21 calculations. Learn about a broad overview of the current statutory ESG reform, and possible considerations companies need to account for in the reserve and capital calculations dependent upon it. You'll explore a brief regulatory history of the ESG efforts, as well as key mechanical differences between the proposed Conning 'GEMS' model and the AIRG. We will also examine key statistical differences between the model outputs, potential implications for company risk management, and pending regulatory changes to consider before official implementation of the new ESG. With industry field testing recently completed, review of this new scenario set is still ongoing. This initiative is extremely important to the industry because it could ultimately have significant implications on companies' regulatory requirements and risk management strategies.

Description: In summer 2021, the SOA Research Institute’s Mortality and Longevity Strategic Research Program sponsored a webcast examining individual life and group life emerging mortality in a COVID-19 world. Since then, Delta and Omicron coronavirus variants have fueled waves of the virus in the U.S., boosting the total number of COVID-19 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic to near the 1 million mark. Hear an update and insights into how the life insured population is faring during COVID-19 by discussing the findings from two recent SOA Research Institute initiatives. LIMRA, Reinsurance Group of America (RGA), the Society of Actuaries (SOA) and TAI have collaborated to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on the individual life insurance industry’s mortality experience. Additionally, the SOA Research Institute has surveyed insurers to gather a high-level view of U.S. Group Term Life Insurance mortality results during the COVID-19 pandemic, comparing them to pre-pandemic mortality levels. The Group Term Life industry mortality results will be presented with monthly data through March 2022.