Description: The average person spends from one third to one half of every waking hour thinking about the past or present. We talk to ourselves when we do. Psychologists have identified three steps you can take to make your self-talk more positive. This will make you happier and better able to achieve the goals you set at home and at work.

Description: A review of model inputs, suggested methods to getting comfortable with the data that your model is using, and data validation lessons

Description: The Joint Risk Management Section's chairperson explains the Joint Risk Management Section Council members plans for the coming year, with a heavy focus on research and continuing education.

Description: The article describes a new professional experience course in actuarial science at the University of Toronto, including details on its key building blocks and student assessments. It also discusses different teaching modes (in-person vs. online). It should be of interest to institutions looking to add industry internships and experiential learning into their actuarial education.

Description: Presenting the customer a measurable value of life insurance that makes the advice process transparent to both the customer and adviser.

Description: In this article, I give a few notes as the outgoing chair of the Education and Research Section Council.

Description: News for the SOA International Section members

Description: S&P reissued a second Request for Comment (RFC) in May 2023 that proposed changes to their insurer capital adequacy methodology and assumptions, and suggested these proposed changes may become effective at the end of 2023. This paper is to highlight the notable changes between the current capital model criteria and the proposed model. We also discuss major changes from the first RFC and the second RFC, as well as several key items that still require enhanced guidance and clarification. Our analysis is based on information gathered from S&P's public comments, conversations with industry participants, and publications released by S&P Global as of July 2023 when this paper was written. Most U.S. life insurers are rated by S&P using their U.S. Life Statutory Capital model, while other insurers use the GAAP/IFRS Capital Model. Statutory financials will remain the starting point for U.S. life insurers under the proposed model, however there will be additional adjustments made to these numbers in an effort to create consistency and comparability with other accounting and solvency regimes.

Description: Read this Chairperson's Corner for the March 2024 issue of International News to learn more about planned meetings and upcoming events.

Description: This article studies several pedagogical uses of tables, particularly as they apply to actuarial teaching.