Description: The Emerging Issues in Underwriting Survey was intended for direct life writing insurance companies in the US and Canada. The Survey looked at various trends that could have a significant impact on the process and practices of life insurance underwriting in the future.

Description: News stories from this past year have included a steady stream of reporting about events associated with climate risk. Photos of devastation from this past summer’s wildfires, deaths caused by heat waves, and suffering from other severe weather events have made clear the far-reaching impact of these events. In addition, there is an increase in concern in longer term non-catastrophic changes (e.g., air quality, higher heat indices, etc.) that may impact such things as land use and health and well-being. As more encounters with these events have occurred, it has become increasingly evident that retirees and those approaching retirement can be both directly and indirectly impacted in their aftermath. This impact may be felt across several broad areas including: retirement investments and the economy; housing; governmental/policy shifts; individual retirement planning and risk assessments, financial institution changes, and additional ill-health and mortality. With these issues in mind, the Society of Actuaries (SOA) Research Institute’s Aging and Retirement, and Catastrophe and Climate Strategic Research Programs (“sponsors”) have partnered on this research effort to explore this topic from the perspectives of a variety of retirement system stakeholders. The result of this effort is intended to provide a useful resource for readers to become well-grounded on the issues surrounding the impact of climate risk on retirement and set the stage for future research.

Description: Research Objective The Society of Actuaries Research Institute General Insurance Research Committee is seeking researchers to identify and analyze the various by-component inflationary forces on pet insurance affordability in the United States and Canada. In addition, we seek ideation of potential solutions that are likely to improve the affordability of pet insurance.

Description: Actuarial Research Topics for Long Term Services and Supports (LTSS)

Description: This tool created graphs of Google's mobility Data. This version of the tool contains state-level U.S. data through July 31, 2020

Description: This research initiates the development of a repository of information for existing climate and environmental sustainability research of interest to actuaries.

Description: This paper outlines a statistical modeling framework for fitting mortality laws to mortality experience data. The process can be used as an alternative to traditional graduation techniques used in mortality table development.

Description: Investigate from many angles the variety of potential impacts of increasing inflation on actuarial products and services in the insurance and retirement industries.

Description: Each calendar quarter, the Society of Actuaries (SOA) calls for essays that highlight practical applications of academic research published in the North American Actuarial Journal. This essay met the publication criteria of the judging committee. It outlines a practical application of “Hedging Longevity Risk: Does the Structure of the Financial Instrument Matter?”1 by Richard D. MacMinn and Nan Zhu. The essay is solely an expression of the views, opinions, and ideas of the essay author for applying the original research to actuarial work in industry.

Description: The 2021 Society of Actuaries Generations Survey offers results by race and ethnicity. This article is an interview with Alan Newsome and shares the results of the survey as well as broader issues to understand the differences in retirement security by race and ethnicity. It documents that there are major differences, and that the COVID-19 pandemic affected different groups very differently. It also raises issues related to societal conditions.