Description: Article discussing the SOA’s addition of a new membership section, Social Insurance & Public Finance Section and a new section of the Web site, Pathway to Membership.

Description: In the wake of the pandemic, much of the insurance industry is now endeavoring to find sustainable, longer-term solutions among many forced innovations – and to ensure that temporary adaptations add value beyond mere change.

Description: This article summarizes insights from a 2021 survey of more than 40 life insurance companies with a focus on trends in reinsurand and in-force management. While reinsurance objectives and methods have remained steadfast in a sea of economic and regulatory impacts, life companies still are looking at different solutions to make improvements in profitability, stability, and scale.

Description: Technology has streamlined countless processes in our daily lives, and insurance is no stranger to this transformation. Technology can make insurance simpler and more personal for consumers, and can enable actuaries to better analyze unstructured data, make good decisions, create new products, and find channels to enhance profitability, provided they can tame the flood of information pouring in from across the digital ecosystem.

Description: The IFRS Foundation’s establishment of the International Sustainability Standards Board is a major step toward achieving relevant, decision-useful sustainability information for market participants that is comparable across industries and jurisdictions.

Description: The traditional defined-benefit (DB) plan is a type of plan structured to provide the greatest degree of retirement income security, designed to pay out a guaranteed retirement income for the life of the retiree (and, when applicable, a beneficiary). However, over the last several decades, the number of private-sector employees covered under these traditional plans has decreased dramatically and been replaced by defined contribution (DC) plans. In contrast, public-sector retirement plans, which are exempt from ERISA, have seen a much smaller decline in DB plans. There are many differences in the private and public sector that likely contributed to this phenomenon, but ERISA and the many amendments to it has been a major factor.

Description: Distribution channels matter because they impact how products reach the clients, client experience with the company, and are a key driver in total company performance. Think about this, the pricing actuaries could design innovative products that meet client needs, but without distribution channels communicating the right messages to the clients and addressing their questions, the products probably would not sell.

Description: The SOA, in collaboration with CSU-Fullerton, hosted the first event combining local high school students and community college and university students for a day of learning and networking.

Description: A brief review of the 2024 SOA Health Meeting in Baltimore