Description: This article provides a summary of the content of the sessions at the recent The 2001 Bowles Symposium at Georgia State University. As the author notes, “The Coming Revolution in Insurance Accounting symposium” focused on the development and practical considerations of a new international accounting standard, generally referred to as fair value accounting.

Description: The author uses a generalized asset risk model to explore C1 risk, drawing heavily from investment theory and pension fund management, applying these to an insurance general account. This article has two parts the first part, contained in this issue of Risk and Reward, describes the basic C1 model itself. The second part, which will be published in the next issue of Risks and Rewards, discusses various implications of the basic C1 model, especially related to managing the company’s investment portfolio.

Description: The US life insurance industry is just beginning to talk about risk management best practices. This article discusses the practices that have evolved in other industries by those before.

Description: This article is an overview of the presentations made at the Advanced Risk Management Seminar. Some topics were 1 the importance of enterprise risk management 2 how policyholder behavior affects the risks of GMBD riders and 3 credit risk.

Description: This articles describes the multi-pillar system of 1 pay as you go and 2 individual capital accounts to fund public pension plans which exists in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Description: The second of three articles exploring the new technology offered by Santa Fe, New Mexico-based Assuratech, Inc. Describes the development of the applied complex adaptive systems technology behind Assuratech’s highly sophisticated program that uses simulation and data mining techniques for accurate, reliable versatile risk modeling.

Description: A primer on Credit Default Swaps

Description: This article discusses Asset-Backed Securities as a low volatility alternative to Intermediate Government Bonds.

Description: This article discusses the use of financial economics in managing pension plans and warns of issues with rapid change in this area.

Description: This chairperson’s corner will address many of the upcoming challenges for the Investment Section, how it might affect you, and how we will call upon you to help. There are a number of changes going on at the SOA, many that I am sure you are aware of. Specifically, the roles for the SOA sections are broadening to include many of the roles and responsibilities that used to reside in the practice areas. While there are some activities and functions that are still being developed further, many of our roles are now very clear. From Risks and Rewards Newsletter, August 2005, Issue No. 47.