Description: A DC plan design information that could align with organizational goals allowing for benefits for both higher and lower paid employees. It works amazingly easy for 403(b) plans but can also work well with 401(k) plans. You can model the design to see what works best for your organization to ensure passage of nondiscrimination tests and alignment with budget.

Description: This article summarizes the key changes to VM-31 requirements in the 2020 version of the Valuation Manual for both life and variable annuities, and compares and contrasts the requirements for each. In addition, the article offers insights into common issues and recommendations for VM-31 reports from the viewpoints of a regulator, consultant, and company actuary.

Description: Health claims are not normally distributed. Claims Forecasting can be improved by understanding the entire distribution of plausible values of future claims, for example knowing there is an 80% chance future claims are between $340 and $375 PMPM. Confidence intervals around our estimates allow us to understand for each range around the best estimate (for example +/- 1%) what is the probability that future claims will fall in that range. Quantile Regression is a mathematical technique where you can estimate any percentile of the claims distribution you are looking for as a function of demographics, diagnosis indicators, prior cost variables, or other significant predictors. You can see which coefficients are important at different parts of the distribution. Individual and group distributions can be constructed. There are numerous applications in pricing and underwriting, stop loss, provider profiling, ACO target setting, allocation of group risk charges based on volatility, discounting strategy, and experience analysis.

Description: Python is the leading programming language for data science. Python programming is one skill that actuaries should acquire. It facilitates analytic work, and the available visualization tools help to communicate ideas. In this article, I use a traditional actuarial problem, mortality modeling, as an example.

Description: This article discusses the state of risk management practice in the banking industry in the Middle East. Risk management in the Middle East is complicated by data quality problems and corporate governance issues.

Description: This article discusses the problems facing long-term care insurance. These include slowing sales, large premium increases and carriers exiting the market. The author suggests that the public needs to be better educated and that insurers need to find innovative ways to design products that are sustainable, yet sufficiently affordable to be attractive to a wide variety of buyers.

Description: This article describes the upcoming initiative to offer all fellowship-level examinations twice per year. It also provides the recommended order for taking FSA examinations and modules by track.

Description: This article describes the impact of the global acceptance of the SOA’s Chartered Enterprise Risk Analyst credential.

Description: An exchange of ideas between David Ingram and Jesse Hobbs about the stages of risk.

Description: In this article the author uses the backdrop of the Isner/Mahut 2010 Wimbeldon match that lasted an unlikely 183 games to discuss several diverse areas that provide opportunity for risk management.