Description: Businesses across the board have been drastically impacted by the effects of COVID-19 over the course of 2020, and insurance was not immune. Perhaps most relevant to this industry’s current capital and liquidity concern is the prevailing low interest rate environment. This has been a global trend in the last decade, and treasury rates in much of the developed world are at or near zero. Reduced investment returns limit an insurer’s ability to achieve their desired return on equity, eliminating previously profitable strategies that depended on the leverage of life and annuity balance sheets. Focus and activity have instead shifted to other methods to counteract the low interest rate markets and accompanying capital strain. Examples include increased mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity within the insurance industry and an increasing focus by private equity firms in the insurance market for asset-intensive products, both of which reflect the goal of increasing yield rates on capital.

Description: Collateralized Loan Obligations have been around since the 1980’s, but recently have become a hot topic in the insurance industry. Join a panel of experts for an introduction to the asset class, covering areas such as the history of CLOs, why they’ve become more popular recently, the risks and returns of the asset class, and how actuaries can learn more.

Description: Sales of index-linked annuities such as FIAs and RILAs have been setting new records while sales of traditional VAs have been declining. This webcast will survey the latest generation of FIA and RILA products, examining the impact of the current market environment and how the landscape is expected to change when the FED starts cutting interest rates.

Description: The SOA and American Academy of Actuaries announce updated financial planning tool for retirement.

Description: The pandemic and other current events have greatly impacted the risks that individuals face during retirement. Join us to explore this topic as the results of the Society Actuaries 2021 Retirement Risk Survey are presented. Discover the findings regarding retirement concerns, preparedness and understanding individuals in the U.S. nearing retirement or those who are already retired. This marks the 11th iteration of this biennial survey completed through the SOA Research Institute’s Aging and Retirement Strategic Research Program.

Description: Learn how modernization of data, models, and technology are influencing workflows. This webcast will address how workflows are changing in response to new regulatory requirements and the impacts the changes have on modeling and end-to-end future state operating models. Industry leading actuaries will discuss: How team collaboration can increase quality and speed of reporting to internal and external stakeholders How to strengthen controls and compliance frameworks across finance and actuarial departments How to modernize actuarial input/output for strategic analysis and insights How to attract and retain top talent by improving opportunities for actuaries There will also be dedicated time to ask questions of those who have made the transition.

Description: This article provides an EV overview, current industry usage, key considerations illustrated by MetLife’s strategic spin-off of Brighthouse Financial, as well as implementation notes.

Description: The Federal funds rate increased by 4.25% in 2022 with further increases in 2023, which have already resulted in a liquidity crisis for a few banks. As the rapid increase of the interest rates pushed the new money rates above the yields of many life insurers’ investment portfolios, insurance companies are facing a dilemma between compressed margins from peer pressure and the concern with liquidity shortfalls and realized capital losses should mass surrenders happen. This paper discussed main emerging risks under rising interest rate environment, and several ways to mitigate these risks.

Description: The document is a report on the impact of inflation in retirement based on survey findings conducted by the Society of Actuaries Research Institute in partnership with Optimity. It includes survey questions and results, along with observations on the impact of inflation on personal finances.

Description: Presenters will discuss difficulties within the new NAIC ESG, such as how the model deals with interest rate flooring and its treatment of the linkage between equity and treasury bond returns. They will also discuss the documentation and governance process surrounding the new NAIC ESG.