Description: This article discusses international proposals for accounting reform that would establish a global common measurement approach for the large majority of life insurance and annuity products.

Description: This article discusses the Professional Development Committee's responsibilities, the Competency Framework which gives focus to the key skills that drive success, and professional development delivery methods.

Description: This article discusses the state of risk management practice in the banking industry in the Middle East. Risk management in the Middle East is complicated by data quality problems and corporate governance issues.

Description: This article discusses the problems facing long-term care insurance. These include slowing sales, large premium increases and carriers exiting the market. The author suggests that the public needs to be better educated and that insurers need to find innovative ways to design products that are sustainable, yet sufficiently affordable to be attractive to a wide variety of buyers.

Description: Actuarial systems access and change controls are hot topics these days as modeling continues to increase in complexity and as new modeling regulations may begin to crest over the horizon. Many companies are currently in the process of either formalizing their actuarial system access and change control protocols, or are reevaluating and strengthening their existing control processes in response to identified deficiencies or in conjunction with new actuarial system implementations. With these undertakings in mind, this article discusses a number of valuable components commonly incorporated in formal systems access and change control protocols. Also discussed are leading practices identified in the SOA publication “Actuarial Modeling Controls: A Survey of Actuarial Modeling Controls in the Context of a Model-Based Valuation Framework (December 2012)”, and from the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.

Description: In this article, we talk to Lei Rao-Knight, FSA, Vice President and Actuary at Prudential Financial. Lei discusses her model development experience in the Modeling Center of Excellence.

Description: Everyone loves efficiency. But what does it truly mean for something to be efficient? An actuary who has spent almost 20 years managing process improvements shares his experiences and the evolution of his views on efficiency. This parable highlights the broader aspects of efficiency that are often missed, and some of the challenges that can come from targeting a typical view of efficiency.

Description: 1996 Valuation Actuary Symposium. In this session on sources of earnings, the panelists discusses implementation of SOE reporting, use of SOE as a management tool, why having SOE reporting is particularly useful for international operations, and SOE reporting from a reinsurance perspective.

Description: This paper considers recent accidental death mortality experience applicable to both ordinary life policies and other accident products, presents a possible new valuation accidental death benefits mortality table for U.S. business, and provides several sources for actuaries interested in more information about accidental death mortality.

Description: The Society of Actuaries (“SOA”) Research Institute is the research arm of the SOA, providing objective, data-driven research that brings together tried and true practices and future-focused approaches to address societal challenges and business needs. The Institute provides trusted knowledge, extensive experience and new technologies to help effectively identify, predict and manage risks.