Description: An exploration of drivers, cohorts and dynamics for policyholder behavior for VA and FIA based on industry experience data, including changes in recent years and the emergence of long-term data in key areas. We will also discuss critical elements to developing a sustainable and coherent framework to translate this complex experience data into assumption models.

Description: The academy generator is now a staple for actuarial practice. Initially confined to regulatory reserving, increasingly companies are using the AAA/SoA generator for a wider and wider range of applications which in some cases may be at the limits of what it was designed for. How is the AAA/SoA generator being applied in reserving, risk management and variable annuity lines of business? What are some of the challenges actuaries face in using this framework and what are the options for addressing them.

Description: The speaker will share his insights into the hedging challenges faced by FIA and VA business in the current market environment.

Description: While our ability to access and analyze large quantities of data is better than ever, many long-term products suffer from sparse data in critical risk areas, such as deep in-the-money lapse experience and long-term utilization rates for income guarantees. The presenters will explore industry-level annuity experience data for these types of situations, and discuss quantitative approaches to addressing them in pricing and other applications.

Description: In the insurance industry, machine learning models are increasingly used to make decisions that affect people's lives. In order to ensure that models are fair, they should be audited for bias. There are no hard and fast rules for bias audit; metrics that can be used to evaluate fairness vary depending on the context in which the model is deployed. In this session, we present a flexible framework that highlights key considerations in bias evaluation that can be adjusted to suit your process. In this session, we will learn about different metrics to assess fairness, discuss open source tools that can be used for bias audit, and walk through a case study.

Description: The proposed revisions to the variable annuity statutory framework and the FASB targeted improvement for long duration contract, motivate life insurance companies to re-evaluate their hedging strategy. Recently proposed revisions of AG 43/VM-21 and C3 Phase II, reward companies that have a clearly defined hedging strategy, if the companies can demonstrate that the valuation model and capital model can estimate real hedge performance accurately. The speakers of this session will discuss the hedging implication of the proposed AG 43/VM-21 and C3 Phase II framework. Additionally, methodology computational requirements, back-testing results under different economic scenarios and the resulting hedge credits of different hedging strategies will be compared, including explicit dynamic hedge and implicit dynamic hedge. The speakers will also touch on the impact of rebalance frequency on the performance of dynamic hedge. Case studies will be presented to provide guidance on practical implementation.

Description: There has been significant discussion of PBR for Life Insurance, but there has also been progress in development of PBR for annuities; including VM-21, VM-22, and future VM-23. The presenters will look at the progress in PBR for annuities and what the future may hold.

Description: An overview of the evolution of equity-based guarantees (e.g. VA, FIA, etc.) over the last few years and discussion the current lay of the land as it relates to the regulatory, issues, capital markets environment in which these products are offered.

Description: Multiple perspectives will be provided on the factors that are driving global interest rates in today's economic environment. Presenters will discuss the historical evolution of interest rates in developed markets, the shifting landscape in the current environment and what savers (particularly insurers and annuity providers) can do with this information. There will also be some discussion on the general macroeconomic environment and credit condition

Description: Regulatory change and increased focus on internal risk management are driving a renewed interest in model efficiency. In this session, we will review several new and existing tools, that show significant promise for advanced modeling of equity linked products. These include: • Clustering • Use of unique--and potentially a different number of--scenarios for each policy • Semi Monte Carlo (SMC) – this is a proprietary technique that is similar to a combination of Monte Carlo and numeric integration • Using a neural network approach to optimize some of the more complex and manual aspects of clustering and improve the fit of the clustered model • Combining SMC with the use of unique scenarios per policy