Description: Many top-performing businesses aren’t just risk aware, but rather risk intelligent. Such a posture helps prepare companies for a major event and can demonstrate to a regulator or auditor that an appropriately strong control framework is in place. Better still, companies gain real strategic value from a “risk adjusted” understanding not only of their threats and vulnerabilities, but also the upside opportunities associated with various risks. It starts with having both qualitative and quantitative information to identify, assess and manage risks. Strategic risk management, at its core, is about creating value by increasing transparency and accountability, and quality of information. More than a mere compliance exercise, effective risk management enables more informed strategic decision making, increased accountability and transparency, a greater likelihood of organizational success, and – ultimately – competitive advantage, as borne out by many studies that correlate risk management and financial results.

Description: Statistics about the MLB players' pension plan funded status

Description: Statistics about the National Basketball Association Players’ Pension Plan and its funded status.

Description: The article is based on a study of causes of insolvency and decisions made by management, regulators, and policyholders over the life cycle of the insolvency.

Description: The author discusses the review of a recent 2001 Wall Street Journal’s semiannual survey of economists’ forecasts, starting by asking if there is a simple way to summarize the results and to extract a consensus forecast, and from this extraction, determine when an individual forecast is significantly different from that of the consensus.This article is reprinted with permission. It last ran in the Jan. 10, 2001 issue of The La Jolla Economics newsletter.

Description: This session will serve as a guide on how to implement a factor-based optimization in the Strategic Asset Allocation process. The session will review a factor-based investing approach and cover the top-down macroeconomic drivers of risk and return for various asset classes. We will then illustrate implementation of this investing approach and determination of an optimal Strategic Asset Allocation through a pension fund case study. There will be an interactive element to the session as the factor sensitivities of various portfolios can be examined in real-time.

Description: Discusses interaction of phased retirement options and public policy, barriers and challenges, and provides a number of suggestions for improving public policy.

Description: Report on the SOA's 1st Annual LTC Operations and Technology Benchmark Survey. Its goals were to provide data to support the development of time and cost benchmarks for LTC operations, identify the most pressing operations and technology issues, and gain insights into the technologies that are being used to administer Long Term Care business.

Description: Study of the Effect of a Flu Pandemic on Economic Values Using the Delphi Method

Description: Canadian employers who sponsor retirement plans have mostly adopted arrangements that qualify for deferral of taxes. It is no longer clear that this is the best choice. Low interest rates and the emergence of Tax-Free Savings Accounts mean that there could be better alternatives for future generations of employees. This research paper re-examines the effectiveness of tax deferral and other fundamental choices.