Description: This presentation discusses the use of Conditional Tail Expectation CTE as an alternative to other pension valuation methods.

Description: Presentation at the 41st Actuarial Research Conference held on August 10-12, 2006 in Montreal, QC. This paper considers the problem of extending regime-switching models for asset returns to the situation with multiple asset markets. The conditional tail expectation CTE is highly sensitive to the assumed dependence structure between the regime models for the different markets. A Monte Carlo simulation is used to illustrate the cost of misspecification. The authors find that the model most commonly used by practitioners is worse than all of the alternatives that they investigate.

Description: This session will serve as a guide on how to implement a factor-based optimization in the Strategic Asset Allocation process. The session will review a factor-based investing approach and cover the top-down macroeconomic drivers of risk and return for various asset classes. We will then illustrate implementation of this investing approach and determination of an optimal Strategic Asset Allocation through a pension fund case study. There will be an interactive element to the session as the factor sensitivities of various portfolios can be examined in real-time.

Description: This presentation from Session 19 of the SOA June 2005 New Orleans Health/Pension Spring Meeting discusses the risks faced by retirement plan sponsors, and puts them into context with their operational risks. It covers what actuaries can do to help manage and mitigate risks, and how current regulatory frameworks can inhibit risk management processes. It also discusses the consulting challenges in helping clients find long-term solutions, and how to manage toward those solutions in the short-term. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 31, No. 2.

Description: The conditional tail expectation [CTE] is a popular actuarial risk measure and a useful tool in financial risk assessment. Under the classical assumption that the second moment of the loss variable is finite, the asymptotic normality of the non-parametric CTE estimator has already been established in the literature. That result, however, is not applicable when the loss variable follows any distribution with infinite second moment, which is a frequent situation in practice. With a help of extreme-value methodology, this presentation offers a solution to the problem by suggesting a new CTE estimator, which is applicable when claims losses have finite means but infinite variances.

Description: In this session, panelists will lift the curtain on the main features of investment grade (IG) private placement bonds and below investment grade (BIG) private debt and compare them with available public bond and bank loan alternatives. The panel will examine the motivations for insurance companies and pension funds to invest in private debt and the legal, diligence and operational requirements to maintain a private debt portfolio. We will also conduct a 2017 private placement market review and look forward to 2018’s likely new USD and non-USD issuance and which industry sectors are likely to issue. This session will also cover their risk and reward characteristics, and the structural intricacies of the various IG and BIG debt types and whether there is sufficient compensation for illiquidity and other risks.

Description: From the 41st ARC: a presentation focusing on risk management of a pension plan whose benefit is the greater of a defined benefit DB and a defined contribution DC plan. Hedging strategies are derived and illustrated, recognizing that the DB guarantee is like an option.

Description: Presented at August 2011 Actuarial Research Conference. Summarizes the Heston model, discusses hedging equity indexed annuities, and provides numerical results of the Black-Scholes and Heston hedging strategies.

Description: Presentation from the 2006 41st Actuarial Research Conference focusing on the declining usage of expert opinions in the actuarial profession.