Description: Examines the trends affecting the distribution system for the industry's products, and the regulatory and tax environment in which life companies operate. Also looks briefly at the state of competition in the industry.

Description: The author discusses how China is poised for dramatic changes in its life insurance industry that will raise both opportunities and challenges. The author notes that China has particularly spectacular growth prospects, and given the nature of the business, the industry will have an almost insatiable appetite for capital. However, In order to accomplish this, China's insurance industry needs to advance its financial management and improve its ability to produce transparent financial information, in a timely and reliable manner. The author compares China’s current position in the life insurance compared to other Asian countries, and describes the steps needed to improve its financial management.

Description: This article presents an interview with Prakash Shimpi about his career and the practice of Enterprise Risk Management [ERM]. Shimpi, FSA, CFA, joined the Tillinghast business of Towers Perrin in November 2004 as practice leader with global responsibility for ERM.

Description: Discusses potential implications of increasing life spans in many areas.

Description: This article is an interview with Phelim Boyle, an educator, actuary, PhD, author, financial engineer and recipient of the IAFE/ SunGard Financial Engineer of the Year Award and perhaps best known for his research into Monte Carlo methods.

Description: Discusses the market, demographic, and macroeconomic factors that affect actuaries' choices for the assumptions they use in the pricing and valuation of many insurance products.

Description: This article examines employee stock option ESO cost accounting, the characteristics of ESO schemes, the requirements and recommendation of FAS 123R and SAB 107. It also explains why the lattice model is probably the best approach to measuring the cost of stock option grants.

Description: The risk/delivery/protection framework was first presented to participants in the SOA's Long-Term Care Think Tank seminar in a survey. That survey was designed to get participant opinions on how the system might evolve over the next five to 10 years. The results of the survey are summarized in the article.

Description: This article is an interview with Laura Bennett, FSA, CEO of Embrace Pet Insurance. Her company provides one–of–a–kind pet insurance. The Actuary recently asked Bennett some questions about her unusual use of actuarial training.

Description: This article is an interview with A. Haeworth Robertson, former chief actuary of the Social Security Administration, about his career.