Description: Chairperson’s column discussing the Marketing and Distribution Section initiatives.

Description: A new wave of life insurance buyers is finally here - but are we ready? In this article, Richard De Sousa shares proprietary research about the Millenial generation, its beliefs related to life insurance, and its preferences when it comes to learning about, purchasing, and engaging with life insurance products, advisors and companies. Also explored is the foundational role that technology and wellness play in driving the kind of experience that will attract millenial buyers. After reading this article, you will better understand the characteristics of this new generation as well as the innovative companies that are targeting them, and learn about different and novel ways to better engage with customers and enhance the value of your own products and services.

Description: This essay explores the role that the emerging defined contribution retirement system may be playing in the growth of wealth inequality in the United States. The current system leaves many Americans with little or no retirement savings. Those with higher accumulation levels appear to invest proportionally more in equities, which may have an exponential effect of balances over long time periods. The author hypothesizes that willingness to take investment risk involves the relationship between the amount an investor has accumulated and what she/he needs in order to cover basic costs of living. This is one reason that investors with greater accumulation levels may be able to earn higher rates of return. The essay concludes by suggesting that the U.S. defined contribution system should include all workers and provide additional fiduciary guidance. Examples reforms, both in the U.S. and other countries, are provided.

Description: Spark offers a way to get some dramatic speed and scalability advantages over the Map-reduce methodology whenever you are doing iterative data processing and particularly when you want interactive data analysis capability. Find out why “lazy execution” can be a desirable characteristic when dealing with big data.

Description: The need for the rapid evolution, or maybe a revolution, of the Insurance business platform is a necessity in the new economy. The key drivers are technology combined with rapid improvements in customer experience, or more accurately the expectations of the customer’s experience. For Insurers that have begun the transformation to a digital business they will recognize the opportunity to take advantage of their head-start with a platform business, while others will see the evolution as an opportunity to “leap frog” into the digital business leadership.

Description: Book review of the latest edition (4th) of Life, Health, and Annuity Reinsurance by John Tiller, Jr and Denise Fagerberg Tiller

Description: Mandatory implementation of life principle-based reserves (PBR) is just around the corner, and there is no shortage of work to do, as most products have yet to be moved to PBR. Oliver Wyman recently completed its 2019 PBR survey, with more than 40 participants covering 85 percent of the individual life market, including 23 of the top 25 life writers and five reinsurers. This article will expand on the key survey findings including implementation trends, analysis to date and recent discussions on the treatment of non-guaranteed reinsurance.

Description: Most industry professionals acknowledge that funding retirement needs will almost always require disciplined savings over a period of decades. Today, we are less than 30 years from the second half of the 21st Century. However, a majority of the Millennial and Gen Z generations are either not eligible for or are not using today's tax-preferred options for funding retiree medical and Long Term Care (LTC).

Description: This article covers domestic and international developments in the carbon market, offers some reflections on potential opportunities for actuaries in the carbon markets and provides insights into the skills needed to develop a successful carbon market practice.

Description: A critical step in valuing a company for the purpose of financial reporting is the computation of the market value of economic surplus (MVES). This article provides a novel approach to the valuation of MVES that is stable and reasonably immune to “market noise.” Current approaches to the calculation of economic surplus of an insurance company generally define such surplus as the market value of the assets (MVA) supporting the liabilities less the market value of liabilities (MVL). While MVA is observable in the market, MVL is typically computed directly, without regard to the underlying supporting assets. Subtracting MVL from any value of assets that changes with market movements results in an unstable surplus. Consequently, a surplus that is not fully reflective of market sentiment has been rejected by many. This same approach is further used in the calculation of market consistent embedded value (MCEV) when a balance sheet approach is used .