Description: The essay describes an application of “Do Jumps Matter in the Long Term? A Tale of Two Horizons,” by Jean-François Bégin and Mathieu Boudreault, published in the North American Actuarial Journal online Jan 5, 2021

Description: Entry in the Speculative Fiction Contest 2019

Description: Examination of current funding models of Canadian public pension plans and a proposal for funding reform to improve intergenerational equity & sustainability.

Description: Analysis of recent changes to Maine public pension plans, including risk sharing provisions to reduce market risk and funding reform to improve sustainability.

Description: This article explains the evolution of robo- advisers as a source of financial advice and evaluates their strengths and weaknesses relative to human advisers.

Description: Employers who offer financial wellness programs that help younger employees plan for major life events could see improved employee retirement preparedness.

Description: Response to Life Insurance 2020 Foresight – A Call for Essays. An essay stating the author’s vision for the future of the life insurance sector.

Description: The present crisis in global financial markets has created an impression that enterprise risk management ERM has failed broadly to protect the safety and soundness of the financial system as well as that of many institutions, including insurance companies.

Description: Crises are devastating. They leave behind a high amount of entropy unemployment, poverty, lack of safety. But this is half the truth. The other half says that crises are to some extend good, because they provide a natural crash test to discover current practices’ risks and limitations, and in response, give rise to more efficient regulation, to financial innovations and to the wakening of the vitalizing powers of society, as the old and corrupted die and new ideas emerge and give us the opportunity to reflect upon the future we want to have.

Description: Arguably, many of the fundamental contributing factors to the 2008 mortgage crisis involved misdirected incentives and misinformation available to key participants in the housing finance process. The incentives discussed here include those of the mortgage holders, mortgage intermediaries, mortgage providers, securitizers, raters and CEOs and other highly paid staff of those involved. Unless similar incentives are recognized, future public policy decisions will again fail to avoid this system-wide risk. Since I am most familiar with the U.S. situation, my comments will be limited accordingly.