Description: A real life situation is posed involving a management, leadership, or other business decision, and readers are invited to submit their responses to "What Would You Do?" This issue’s case study involved a choice between independent consulting and a corporate role.

Description: The widening gap in life span between high- and low-income Americans may be eroding the progressivity of Social Security retirement benefits. Differential longevity trends have had the effect of raising lifetime benefits for high earners but not for low earners. Social Security’s long-term financial problems result in part from an increase in average life expectancy driven by wealthier people living longer, and, thereby, collecting more benefits. Policymakers should not use funding shortfalls attributable to these trends as an excuse to cut monthly benefits alike for those who have gained (high earners) and for those who haven’t (low earners).

Description: Happiness at work has been linked to major increases in productivity. Find out how to elevate your happiness in just 60 seconds a day.

Description: Read the February 2020 issue of Risk Management, published by the Joint Risk Management Section. Newsletters provide practical information for the working actuary, articles on trends that impact sections and news about section activities.

Description: This article is about the need for actuaries and technical professionals to develop critical leadership and other soft skills, and highlights the ways the SOA Leadership & Development section provides tools to develop those skills.

Description: Read the Quo Vadis Reinsurance.

Description: A compilation of reader responses is presented to a real life situation posed involving a management, leadership, or other business decision. This case study involved an actuary who felt he had been lied to during the interview, but only found out after he moved his family and started the job. What should he do?

Description: This session will examine bias from a social science perspective. It will discuss the three types of systemic biases using the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) model. The NIST model details the three types as historical bias, societal bias, and institutionalbias. The session will also provide several examples of each type to provide a framework for identifying the social structure of bias.

Description: After International Accounting Standards Board (“IASB”) issued International Financial Reporting Standard No. 17 – Insurance Contracts (“IFRS 17”), IASB received much feedback and suggestions for improvement. As a result, in early 2019, IASB made limited changes to IFRS 17. The presentation will briefly discuss the main contents and effects of those changes.

Description: Since the international financial crisis, accounting standards have become an important part of financial supervision rules, which objectively requires us to study the reform and development of accounting standards from the perspective of financial stability. Since the release of IFRS17 in 2017, the research and discussion of IFRS17 in the insurance industry has focused on technical details and implementation, while the economic impact and pros and cons analysis of IFRS17 are few. As a result, the industry's understanding of IFRS17 is not comprehensive enough, and there are still many disputes, and no industry consensus has been formed. In the future, the insurance industry should strengthen the research and analysis of IFRS17 from the perspective of financial stability, deepen the understanding and cognition of IFRS17, and improve the ability to control and use IFRS17.