Description: This session guides actuaries through the key steps of building a principles-based valuation model for a life product, starting with a brief overview of key requirements in LDTI and VM-20.

Description: Beyond technical skills, actuaries who are interested in playing critical roles within their organizations and advancing their careers to higher levels must master the art of managing others. Early career development for actuaries is focused on building a strong technical and industry foundation. Once this foundation is in place, however, an actuary must quickly pivot from being a technical expert to being a manager and a leader-someone who others rely on to guide, motivate, decide, and deliver results. Managing a team is not (only) about being the 'go to' technical expert, it's about producing superior results through the work of others. It's often easier to do it yourself, but it's more beneficial to you professionally, and to your organization, to bring out the best in others.

Description: Modern Actuarial work, being quite data intensive, provides many opportunities for actuaries to use the statistical skills that are part of their basic training. Furthermore, modern computing allows us to analyze vast quantities of data intensively, and each package will provide statistical "answers" to any questions the actuary might ask of it. However, in this particular field, it is often worth taking a step back, and ensuring that we recall and consider the warnings that come with each of the statistical procedures we might attempt to use. This will allow us to ensure that we guard ourselves against drawing inappropriate conclusions, which could come back to haunt us later.

Description: With LDTI in the rear-view mirror for 2023 adopters, and 2025 adopters still working to meet the requirements before reporting on an LDTI basis for the first time at year-end 2025, there remain many opportunities and challenges for all companies subject to LDTI. These may include further enhancements to modeling, improvements in end-to-end processes (such as automation and reducing the close financial timeline), development of robust management reporting and analysis frameworks, and enhancements to financial planning and analysis under LDTI.

Description: Have you ever wondered why some people are the focus of everyone's attention the moment they walk into a room? Executive Presence is the set of qualities that enables an individual to command respect, inspire confidence, and influence others. In fact, Executive Presence sets successful leaders apart from others. It includes a range of skills and behaviors including effective communication, leadership, vision, and managing your emotions.

Description: This session examines the strategic advantages of offshore reinsurance in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, two leading global hubs for alternative risk transfer. We will explore the regulatory landscape, capital efficiency benefits, and key structural considerations for setting up reinsurance entities in these jurisdictions.

Description: This session will focus on long term disability insurance reserving practices. It will address current practices in calculating claim reserves and may include topics such as the following: Relevant Actuarial Guidelines, Studies used to evaluate claim termination experience and reserve margins, Estimation of future offsets, Mortality improvement

Description: This article explores the evolving role of assumption management in the life insurance industry. The article highlights how behavioral, economic, and demographic assumptions are critical to pricing, forecasting, and explaining financial results, yet many insurers still struggle with fragmented practices and outdated processes. Drawing on survey insights from 15 U.S. insurers, the authors illustrate persistent challenges in governance, data integration, and automation. They argue for a more holistic, technology-enabled operating model centered on centralized assumption repositories. Such repositories provide a single source of truth, enable automated ingestion into models, support sensitivity testing, and enhance governance and transparency across actuarial, finance, and risk functions. The article offers guiding principles and design considerations for building scalable repositories that improve efficiency, consistency, and decision-making. Ultimately, it positions assumption management modernization not as a technical upgrade but as a strategic imperative to unlock clarity, agility, and competitive advantage in a complex market.

Description: The article is a chairperson’s update from Arthur da Silva on the Society of Actuaries (SOA) Emerging Topics Community, written to recap the past year’s accomplishments and outline potential priorities for the year ahead. Its intent is both informational while inviting community member participation and ideas for the year ahead. It also provides insight into the new AI subgroup and how it operates to help community members and other community leaders understand what it delivers and how to get involved.

Description: Obesity rates in the United States have climbed to historic highs, with nearly 42% of adults now classified as obese—a trend with significant implications for the health care system. Among Medicare-aged individuals, obesity is strongly associated with chronic conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and musculoskeletal disorders, all of which increase health care utilization and spending. As costs continue to rise, understanding the financial impact of obesity management is increasingly important for policymakers, payers and providers. This analysis uses detailed traditional Medicare claims and eligibility data to examine how obesity levels relate to health care expenditures and how costs change as members move between different diagnosed obesity categories over time