Description: In this article, the authors give their overview of sessions that they attended at the June 2012 Life and Annuity Symposium. The sessions discussed are Life Insurance Illustration Regulation (15 years later), Advanced Mortality Topics, and Life and Annuity Product Development Strategies in the Wake of Low Interest Rates.

Description: This article delves into a new line of statistical thinking of the author, that may be useful for product development actuaries. The key concept is how product design can produce products that diversify quickly, meaning that the company can be confident of a profitable product line, based on fewer sales than might be true for other designs.

Description: An interview providing two retirement actuaries’ perspectives on a report that analyzes many different studies on retirement adequacy.

Description: The final results of the 2012 Society of Actuaries (SOA) Life Reinsurance Survey are now available. The survey captures individual and group life data from U.S. and Canadian life reinsurers. New Business production and in-force figures are reported with reinsurance broken into three categories: Recurring reinsurance; Portfolio reinsurance; and Retrocession reinsurance.

Description: Fourth installment in an ongoing series of articles adapted from Michael Carroll's "Awake at Work", applying Buddhist principles to the challenges faced by actuaries. This installment examines the often chaotic work circumstances faced by actuaries and encourages the reader to see such situations as opportunities for personal and professional growth.

Description: This research scorecard will keep section members informed about research projects sponsored or co-sponsored by the Financial Reporting Section.

Description: After a summary of FASB decisions in their GAAP Targeted Improvements project, this article describes several issues that will need to be resolved either by the board or in actuarial practice and argues for seeking solutions that provide meaningful results without overly complicating valuation processes.

Description: Stories about the good that LTC policies do for some insured.

Description: Article from the Pension Section News, June 2000, on the simple logic of health care inflation. This article is reprinted with permission and ran in the April 2000 issue of Health Section News.

Description: Congress once again turns to defined benefit pension plans as a misguided source for financing programs that have nothing to do with retirement.