Description: Chairperson’s column addressing the changes the new year will bring.

Description: The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) met on May 21,2015 to discuss it ongoing project to make targeted improvements to accounting for long-duration insurance contracts. This article discusses those improvements and their ramifications.

Description: This article provides an overview of the different types of real world interest rate scenarios that practitioners use in the life insurance industry and explores different approaches to building those generators.

Description: Evidence is building from the physical sciences that we are starting to reach some of earth’s limits. Unless we can find some technological solutions, once these limits are reached, we can expect to see a very changed world. Instead of having constantly increasing resources available to us, we can expect ever-decreasing resources to be available. Instead of seeing year after year of growth, increasing longevity and improving morbidity, we can expect the opposite.

Description: Models are useful in illustrating various facets of complex phenomena, but they are inherently limited.

Description: We discussed impacts of procrastination and strategies to harness the power of inertia to aid individuals in their pursuit of future financial well-being.

Description: We discussed impacts of procrastination and strategies to harness the power of inertia to aid individuals in their pursuit of future financial well-being.

Description: Discussion of competing theories for valuing public pension liabilities. Emphasis on revised Actuarial Standards of Practice that focus on the purpose of the measurement.

Description: Introduction to option pricing using Black-Scholes. Discussion on the limitations of Black-Scholes and of its alternatives such as Heston. Clear, accessible explanation of key results of mathematical finance including risk-neutral valuation.

Description: Financial economics is the discipline underlying all financial services. No matter what your area of specialty or your role in your organization, an understanding of financial economics is essential. As you will learn in this module, financial economics is the study of how individuals and institutions acquire, save, and invest money. These activities are fundamental to institutions and individuals. Thus, not only will this module help you be a more knowledgeable actuary, it will also help you with your personal financial planning.