Description: Regulatory change and increased focus on internal risk management are driving a renewed interest in model efficiency. In this session, we will review several new and existing tools, that show significant promise for advanced modeling of equity linked products. These include: • Clustering • Use of unique--and potentially a different number of--scenarios for each policy • Semi Monte Carlo (SMC) – this is a proprietary technique that is similar to a combination of Monte Carlo and numeric integration • Using a neural network approach to optimize some of the more complex and manual aspects of clustering and improve the fit of the clustered model • Combining SMC with the use of unique scenarios per policy

Description: Retirees will face the societal issue of inadequate savings with likely insufficient time to rectify the situation. They need immediate growth, but also the disciplines of risk management. They typically do not know how to engage with these two aspects in a harmonious manner on their own. Insurance companies are in the business of providing the solution but regulators have been clamping down in favor of simpler and more transparent products. In addition, the market reality over the last decade has been that insurers have stock betas at a multiple to the general markets with PE ratios well below. A panel of senior professionals from writers of retirement product business will present their vision of how the insurance industry can address the above dilemma, including the risks underlying the writing of the business, impact of financial markets, and regulations in the development of the business.

Description: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is expected to change the insurance industry more in the next 10 years than it has changed in the past 100 years. Rapid advancements in computing power and the exponential growth of Big Data are creating more opportunities to incorporate AI techniques and methodologies into actuarial work. This session is for the practicing actuary who would like to learn more about AI and how to use it to analyze insurance data. At the conclusion of the session, attendees will be able to understand the fundamentals of AI, to build an AI model and to identify AI opportunities in their work.

Description: The implementation and execution of IFRS17 requires the insurance industry to re-define the skill set matrix of Actuary, Accountant and IT practitioner. Professionals with the ability to, 1. understand the business context of IFRS17, 2. gain insight from complex actuarial & accounting & data system 3. communicate technical content in a compelling way, will be the key players of the future Finance function of the insurance industry. They will also become the foundation of the new formations of IFRS17 delivery team containing hybrid or cross functional capabilities. This presentation will discuss: 1. the new skills, ranging from account posting to data governing, required by actuaries to stay relevant in a digitalized Finance function under the IFRS17 world 2. the actuarial related roles available within an E2E IFRS17 reporting process 3. the potential formation of the IFRS17 reporting team

Description: ACA risk adjustment has now been in play for years. The original intent of risk adjustment was to help stabilize the market through measuring risk levels of each issuer. However, the risk adjustment program may have introduced additional uncertainty due to annual market shifts and model changes, making risk adjustment estimation is a difficult task. This article analyzes the results over time, including impacts from market changes and model changes.

Description: Chairperson's corner for January 2020 In the Public Interest.

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: Producing a crystal-clear balance roll-forward on time, obtaining a fresh model output the first time or providing model results for your business partners with a tight turnaround all depend on one thing: how fast the model engine runs. Authors explored various reasons behind significant computational power consumption, and discussed different ways to speed the computational process such as in-force population compression, model use case consolidation, code simplification and streamlining, and infrastructure automation, etc.

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: Tax considerations in structuring and pricing long-term care transactions. Includes consideration around the form of reinsurance and the unified loss rules applicable to stock transactions where they is a bargain purchase (also known as a tax basis step-down)