Description: In today’s business world, many financial decisions undergo considerable analysis before the decision is made and the decision-maker is often held accountable for the outcomes. The purpose of this research is to introduce the concept of total risk analysis (TRA), which is designed to help the decision-maker answer key questions at the time the decision is made. This paper will focus on a specific example of a typical healthcare decision: setting a budget for claims in the upcoming year. In addition to explaining TRA and providing a case study, this paper presents quantitative research regarding cost distributions for health care costs.

Description: Research the impact of illiquid investments on pension plan funding, design, and risk management strategies.

Description: This essay collection examines how changing family dynamics shape retirement security, offering insights on demographic trends, policy design, and actuarial strategy—because retirement is the ultimate family affair.

Description: This document explores how climate change impacts retirement planning, investments, housing, and health across policy and economic dimensions through essays and funded research.

Description: This report presents research into recent population mortality experience compiled by the Retirement Plans Experience Committee of the Society of Actuaries Research Institute as it pertains to development of mortality improvement assumptions for measuring obligations of retirement programs in the United States.

Description: Scale BB was introduced in March 2012 as an interim mortality improvement scale which may be used by pension actuaries until work on a formal successor to the widely used improvement scale, Scale AA, is complete.

Description: As results emerged showing the influence of COVID-19 on recent mortality, the Society of Actuaries Research Institute’s Mortality and Longevity Strategic Research Program Steering Committee (MLPSC) began to ponder what it means for the future. Was the coronavirus pandemic just a temporary shock to U.S. mortality with mortality quickly returning to prepandemic levels upon its conclusion or a lingering factor in future U.S. mortality from the potential occurrence of new coronavirus variants, post-COVID-19 conditions (“long COVID”), deferral of needed health care treatment, a fatigued health care system and other elements? Only time will provide the answers to these questions.

Description: Credibility is a mechanism for estimating a quantity of interest by combining subject experience and relevant experience to improve the estimate.

Description: The Pension Section is pleased to make available Part I of a two-part research paper exploring embedded options in pension plans. Part I includes a catalogue of embedded options in pension plans and the results of a related survey of pension practitioners. The paper was written by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC.

Description: This paper is a literature review of available papers, publications, articles, and presentations on the topic of longevity risk.