Description: Insurance is a technically demanding, risk-based, capital intensive business. It is therefore not surprising that the industry is fertile ground for the development of technical models used to measure and price risk and manage capital. This session presents the forces which have significantly influenced the evolution of risk and capital management techniques and organization in the insurance industry, including regulatory changes, financial market instability, enlightened self-interest and ultimately a focus on shareholder value creation. Combining over 20 years in the industry in risk and finance roles with a rigorous academic approach, the presenter will provide insights into the most important business questions which insurers face today and the technical tools and frameworks used to answer them.

Description: In recent years, China's aging population is worsening, the fertility rate is decreasing year by year, the dependency ratio is increasing day by day, the people's diversified pension needs are increasing day by day. In order to actively participate in the construction of multi-level and multi-pillar pension insurance system, steadily promote the reform and development of pension finance, and serve the people's diversified pension needs, commercial pension insurance, as the third pillar, is in urgent need of rapid development. This speech analyzed the future prospect and strategic position of pension from three dimensions of industry development, company development and continuous demand of customers. It also discussed how to develop the third pillar pension insurance rapidly from three aspects: national policy, individual pension consciousness and channel cognition.

Description: This session will include a brief outline of the origin of the tontine from when it was first introduced by the government of England in the 17th century through its disappearance in the early 20th century. As we explore the history of tontines, we will discuss their multiple references throughout English (and French) literature, often vilified by most authors using them as their subject, and how they bear little resemblance to the insurance product that many contemporary financial scholars advocate as a viable annuity concept for today and the future. The presenters will cover the practicality of reintroducing a modernized version of these longevity pooling arrangements (i.e., where aggregate longevity risk is shared among a group and not incurred by the issuer) as a retirement savings vehicle. They will also touch upon different aspects of tontines, such as risk management and regulatory issues.

Description: In this session, attendees will learn about the state of the developing reinsurance market for Pension Risk Transfer/Group Annuities in the United States. Discover fundamentals of the primary (group annuity) market and evaluate market forces influencing the lack of significant reinsurance volume of the same nature. This will include a compare and contrast to the PRT and PRT reinsurance markets in other regions that have seen material secondary market volume (such as the UK).

Description: CMS provides a significant and growing amount of information that can be leveraged by actuaries. Between the public use and research files CMS makes publicly available, large amounts of information that can be assimilated to help understand the who, what, when, where and how of Medicare. With the CMS allowance of supplemental benefits to address SDOH, adding SDOH data into your data landscape is critical to better understand your members' cost drivers. The presenters will focus on the depth and breadth of data available, summarize any restrictions on the use of the data, and identify areas where access to the new data can provide more meaningful insights.

Description: Traditionally the SOA formulates pedagogic excellence in terms of the Marzano Taxonomy. For example, the "analysis level" consisting of generalization, specification, classification, contrast, matching, and error identification, is considered superior to the "retrieval level" consisting of rote memorization such as recognition, recall, and using. In this presentation, we first show that pedagogic excellence can be equivalently, but more simply, formulated in terms of executive function and goal-setting. Here executive function refers to problems requiring multiple mental modalities - such as, formal, verbal, computational, and graphical - for their solution. Goal-setting refers to the skillful breakup of a complex problem into a sequence of subgoals each of which is clearly formulated, challenging, but achievable timely. Light examples from the literature illustrate these concepts. Five "challenging FM problems": reinvestment, refinancing, multiple rate/deposit problems, pricing deferred bonds using a term structure, and obscure loan problems, illustrate the following fundamental techniques of goal-setting and executive function: i) a fellowship approach to teaching preliminary exam material, ii) using subgoals to give difficult homework, iii) alternating between different mental modalities to achieve elegant brevity in solutions, iv) goal-setting reflecting familiar vs. new, and v) skillful definition of unit subgoals.

Description: The presenters in this session will discuss the simultaneous use of DB and DC plans. With the continued growth of DC assets and the freezing of DB plans, it is increasingly common to see DB participants with a DC plan that is more than just supplemental. Because of this, it is important that retirement professionals see DB and DC plans as not just competitors for contributions, but as partners. The presenters will discuss how that partnership can work and how the presence of a DB plan can influence the design of DC solutions such as target date funds.

Description: The prospects for China's health insurance has increased significantly in 2018, incentivized by a series of favorable government policies to support the development of commercial health insurance. However, the market still lacks relatively mature products and services. Overall there is a common understanding in the industry that good coverage plus service is the foundation for health insurance future development, and product innovation plus care management is key for an insurance company to maintain sustainable development in the competition. In this presentation, Dr. Yang will discuss the market trend both at home and abroad with respect to health management as well as its impact on product design, pricing and cost control. With the development of internet and big data, today’s health actuary has a special role in taking advantage of the digital transformation and achieving a high-quality and efficient health care service model.

Description: The speaker will share his insights into the hedging challenges faced by FIA and VA business in the current market environment.

Description: This session provides actuaries who work with group life and disability products with the opportunity to participate in a moderated discussion with their colleagues. The specific topics will be those of interest to attendees, but are likely to include recent experience trends, product development, pricing and reserving.