Description: Both the SOA and AARP will showcase their recent research projects highlighting the impact of marginalization on aging and retirement. Learn how being a member of a marginalized group changes your outcomes as well as your perspective on aging and retirement.

Description: How do we take a Minimum Viable Products (MVP) approach to launch new insurance products? Join this moderated discussion and focus on three key development aspects: Distribution, Systems, and the design and pricing of the Insurance product itself. Come discuss reasons to choose an MVP approach and how it solves many of the product launch challenges.

Description: As the size of the life reinsurance market in Bermuda has grown to over half a trillion dollars at the end of 2021, more and more actuaries are getting involved with this 21 square mile North Atlantic island in one way or the other. Come explore a fundamental understanding of the Bermuda solvency framework and an overview of its upcoming changes.

Description: The Academy Economic Scenario Generator is set to be replaced by a new ESG created in a partnership between the NAIC and Conning. This summer, we will present three separate webinars that will investigate the key features of the new ESG, examine the process through which it was created, and discuss what it all means for actuaries impacted by the change.

Description: Understanding how mental health influences mortality is increasingly important for actuaries involved in pricing, reserving, and population risk assessment. This study quantifies the relationship between mental health indicators, socio-economic conditions, and both suicide and all-cause mortality across U.S. counties from 2010 through 2023.

Description: The Mortality Improvement subgroup of the American Academy of Actuaries’ Work Group and the Society of Actuaries’ Mortality and Longevity Oversight Advisory Council released a recommendation for a set of improvement factors that vary by gender and attained age to be used in conjunction with the 2008 Valuation Basic table or the 2015 Valuation Basic table for AG-38 purposes. This recommendation has been adopted by the NAIC’s Life Actuarial Task Force.

Description: The article discusses the continued popularity of indexed UL insurance and possible reasons why a company's actual indexed UL earnings may be below their original pricing expectations for the product. The article discusses several key items that may be the source of that underperformance (e.g., hedge ineffectiveness, policyholder behavior) and the need to monitor earnings and perform analyses to better understand those potential sources.

Description: Adjusting GAAP reinsurance reserves to account for reinsurance protection against the events that trigger direct reserve constraints (such as NPR capping or LFPB flooring) can be a challenge any time. Ceding a block of business that is already in force increases the challenge—especially if one of those constraints was already present at inception of the reinsurance. This article builds on previous work (published in the July 2022 and June 2023 issues) to show how to measure initial reinsurance reserves in a way that complies with AICPA guidance and prepares for effective measurement of subsequent changes in the effects of the constraints.

Description: An analysis of US population mortality trends and the impact of COVID.

Description: Valerie Tsang and Jessica Kirkwood are both senior consultants with Ernst & Young LLP (EY UK) and Ernst & Young LLP (EY US) respectively, who also have something else in common—they both have recently moved to a new country and are now immersed in a different market. Here, they discuss the quick-changing landscape of actuarial work and regulations and the importance of being aware of the key issues both in the countries they work in and globally, as well as some of the differences they have seen between the UK and US markets.