Description: Describes substandard annuities and discusses the market opportunity for them, the associated risk management issues, and the issues companies need to address when competing in the substandard annuity market - underwriting, pricing, sales, administration, financial reporting and risk management practices.

Description: The Society of Actuaries (SOA) published its first COVID-19 research brief on March 10, 2020, followed by regular updates and expansions through June 12, 2020. The comprehensive report included a section of statistics that highlight the pandemic’s impact on economies in the U.S. and Canada. This report shows updates through September 30, 2020, to selected graphs from the Economic and Asset Impact section of the comprehensive report.

Description: This paper is intended to be a resource for actuaries and other professionals interested in learning more about longevity risk. It summarizes the results of the literature review by discussing observed trends and outlook on mortality, development of retirement markets, ways to mitigate risk, summary of products with risk exposure and quantification and management of the risk.

Description: This paper, part of the Society of Actuaries [SOA} ‘Research Projects – Finance/Investment,’ presented by the SOA’s Committee on Finance Research, describes the results of a survey of industry practices on the mechanics and implementation of hedging programs used by life insurance companies to minimize risk for product guarantees on variable annuities.

Description: Survey results for 2008 produced by the Policyholder Behavior in the Tail Risk Management Section Working Group in which insurers were asked about assumptions used with respect to policyholder behavior in universal life policies with secondary guarantees.

Description: This report, sponsored by the Society of Actuaries' Health Section, examines stochastic simulation research found in peer reviewed health journals. In addition, the authors suggest ways health actuaries can apply the modeling techniques and/or findings in their daily work.

Description: This report is prepared to provide a comprehensive overview of the professional financial advice industry including the strengths and weaknesses of currently available approaches to providing (and receiving) financial advice, particularly as part of an employer-sponsored employee benefit. Financial advice is broadly defined to include traditional methods as well as alternative methods to providing personalized guidance. This report is also designed to provide guidance for retirement plan sponsors in making decisions regarding the role, scope, and delivery models of financial advice to plan participants. As appropriate, the report differentiates between investment advice, which includes investment management and asset accumulation decisions, and retirement advice, which includes retirement preparation, security, and planning decisions, and is built upon a thorough understanding of an individual’s personal values and goals. Rather than provide an actionable list for plan sponsors to implement, this report is designed to raise awareness of the issues that are worth considering.

Description: This report identifies and reviews relevant literature with respect to the valuation of private placement debt [PPD] and real estate, develops a case study examining the effectiveness of an actuarial valuation methods for PPD, and proposes guidelines regarding the valuation of illiquid assets.

Description: Research Objective The Society of Actuaries Research Institute General Insurance Research Committee is seeking researchers to identify and analyze the various by-component inflationary forces on pet insurance affordability in the United States and Canada. In addition, we seek ideation of potential solutions that are likely to improve the affordability of pet insurance.

Description: The objective of this report is to provide benchmarking information that will help companies address the needs of internal stakeholders in cost-effectively conducting and implementing an ORSA process. In order to obtain this benchmarking information, a cross-disciplinary survey was conducted to find out what insurance companies understand and expect from an ORSA, the effort required to complete an ORSA, and the benefits from doing so. This survey was undertaken on a global basis, with participants that included life, property and casualty (P&C), often referred to as "non-life" or "general" insurers in territories such as Europe, and health insurance companies in North America (the United States and Canada), Europe, and Asia.