Description: Full version of Product Matters! November 2003, Issue No. 57.

Description: The Marketing and Distribution Section just celebrated its one-year re-birthday-a very exciting milestone, to be sure. I term it a "re-birth" as we are not really "new" but we did expand upon our Non-Traditional Marketing base into our current form. Nonetheless, we are exhibiting some traits of a true one-year old (no drooling or diapers, thankfully). From News Direct, September 2006, Number 54.

Description: Discusses the use of a multi-tier Scalable Cloud Actuarial Infrastructure, SCAI, to meet capacity challenges for actuarial computing.

Description: This presentation is a panel discussion, session 54PD, from the 2004 Spring Meeting of the Society of Actuaries, held June 14-15 in San Antonio, TX. This session covers the impact of segmentation and underwriting on expected mortality and morbidity. Panelists discuss the importance of data mining and customer selection on ultimate experience, setting up direct marketing applications with the right type of questions to maximize responses but limit risk, the use of prescription drugs and other databases, and industry practices for obtaining customer information. Discussion from participants is included. From the Record of Society of Actuaries, Volume 30, No. 2.

Description: Full version of Long-Term Care Newsletter, September 2005, Issue No. 15.

Description: This article explains how the use of technology and data can help a company be successful in the simplified issue life insurance market. Prescription drug profiles are a valuable new source of data for this purpose.

Description: Feature article discussing what American actuaries can learn from their European counterparts about actuarial modeling.

Description: To better understand the product development process and practices currently used at insurance companies, the Society of Actuaries Marketing and Distribution Section Council initiated a Product Development Survey in the summer of 2006. The goal of the survey was to identify company practices for product development by asking individuals with product implementation responsibilities about the process followed at their companies. For this survey, the “product development process” was viewed holistically – encompassing everything from how ideas are generated through to how products are monitored post-launch. Also, all aspects of the product development process were considered – marketing, actuarial, underwriting, finance, customer service, IT, legal/compliance, etc.

Description: Runoff LTC blocks present a wide range of business risks. Outsourcing certain tasks to third parties can help mitigate these risks.

Description: Full version of NewsDirect Newsletter, September 2005, Issue No. 51.