Description: Discover an update on recent developments affecting U.S. retirement plans, such as regulatory guidance, new legislative proposals, recent court cases and recent trends. Experienced pension actuaries will share their perspectives on these issues and the impact on plan sponsors.

Description: Discuss interaction between defined benefit (DB) plans and defined contribution (DC) plans. Hear more about the impact of DB plans on DC plan design and vice versa. Learn about the differences in DB and DC plan governance and cross-over opportunities between these plan solutions.

Description: Explore concepts related to self-awareness, social awareness, self-management and relationship management. Go beyond understanding what emotional intelligence (EQ) is to discover how to use it to build skills that enhance intelligence, education and experience to more quickly and consistently reach personal and professional goals.

Description: Insurers have long relied on scenario analysis to understand the long-term impacts of potential business decisions, but the advent of rapidly changing market environments and a growing desire to optimize capital has spurred business leaders to leverage new tools in order to explore potential options. Companies are beginning to explore new analytical solutions that trade-off accuracy for speed for a more robust approach to impact quantification. In particular, they are looking at the use of additional what-if scenario models, built from the top down, to support decision-making processes. Actuaries can help take charge in the development of these top-down analyses by leveraging data and actuarial techniques to supplement their existing models. In this way, business leaders can simultaneously rely on the actuarial rigor of typical standalone cash flow projection models, while also receiving support for real-time business decision-making. The potential of what-if scenario modeling can help actuaries unlock a powerful new approach to scenario analysis to enable more rapid decision-making. Learning objectives: In this session we will discuss the fundamental concepts of what-if scenario modeling in an actuarial context, including: - Core principles and components of what-if scenario modeling - Common challenges and considerations around the implementation of what-if scenario modeling - Potential solutions to challenges and their implications

Description: This session on Innovations in Underwriting will explore the latest advancements in underwriting technology and methodologies. It will focus on how these innovations are transforming the insurance industry, making underwriting processes more efficient, accurate, and customer-friendly. Topics will include the integration of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and big data analytics into underwriting workflows. Additionally, we'll discuss emerging trends in risk assessment, automation of underwriting tasks, and the implications of these changes for underwriters and insurance professionals. Attendees will have the opportunity to learn from industry experts and participate in discussions on how these innovations are reshaping traditional underwriting practices. Learning Outcomes: - Gain an understanding of the latest technological advancements impacting underwriting, including AI, machine learning, and data analytics. - Learn how these innovations can streamline underwriting and pricing processes, improve accuracy, and reduce costs. - Explore new risk assessment methods and discover how automation is changing the underwriter's role. - Identify best practices for integrating innovative technologies into existing underwriting and actuarial pricing frameworks.

Description: In this session, we will explore recent industry-wide studies focusing on mortality and policyholder behavior patterns across both Life and LTC lines of business. The Life study analyzes extensive data collected over 2018-2022, providing a unique perspective on trends heading into, during, and emerging from the pandemic. The study covers 2.5 million deaths and over 5 million voluntary surrenders and fund lapses across term and permanent life products. The LTC analysis will focus on the components of policyholder termination, with an additional perspective of total termination patterns prior to, during and post-pandemic periods. The analysis will examine cohorts of policyholders to identify the area of largest deviations from expectation and how that translated into short term results as well as where we are today. The aggregation of experience across participating companies provides insights into areas where a particular insurer’s data is not credible on its own, including: older ages, preferred/standard classes and more. At the conclusion, attendees will have an understanding of how experience emerged and considerations for setting assumptions going forward.

Description: Once upon a time, with enough advanced notice and a well-planned out meeting agenda, you could get all the Key Decision makers (KDMs) in the same conference room. Now, many companies have allowed KDMs to move to geographically diverse locations and this is no longer the norm. Has business been impacted? Have productivity and sales been impacted? We will discuss the significant changes that have occurred in our industry when we went from pre-COVID to a post-COVID virtual world. When key contacts and KDM's no longer come into the office 5 days per week, 8 hours each day, how do you visit their office in person? Do all the KDM's still live in close proximity to the office? Are hybrid meetings effective? How do you maintain frequency of contact? In-person, virtual? This will cover learnings, best practices, ways to spur productivity, comradery and new ways of working together more effectively. Sales managers and others can glean helpful insights that will make them more effective in working with and managing their client base.

Description: Artificial intelligence (AI) presents numerous opportunities in the insurance and financial industries. It also comes with heightened model, operational, legal and compliance, financial, and data risk. In this session, we will discuss speculation that emerging AI capabilities have sparked the fourth industrial revolution, examine what is different about this most recent round of capabilities, and examine why industry experts warn about the heightened risks the use of AI presents. We will review a framework - which includes AI ethical principles, standards, and best practices - to govern the use of AI. This will include a cross-reference of relevant Actuarial Standards of Practice as well as industry guidance like the NAIC Model Bulletin on the Use of AI Systems by Insurers. This framework will help actuaries and insurance professionals gain confidence that - if governed appropriately - we can reap the vast rewards of using AI systems in our industry.

Description: This session will discuss basic and advanced hedge modeling concepts. It will explain common hedge strategies used to support guarantees and options embedded within life and annuity products and the materiality of these products within the US. Attendees will learn how Machine Learning acts to reduce the computer processing needed to simulate the dynamic hedging of product liabilities projected in the future across many stochastic scenarios. Actuaries working in consulting, software development, and a large life insurance company will provide a wide range of hedging viewpoints ranging from a broad industry perspective to a hedging practitioner. Attendees will obtain a comprehensive understanding of a novel ML approach to modeling dynamic hedges and the hedge optimization opportunity it presents.

Description: Behavioral Science is a powerful tool to enhance customer experience and improve outcomes across the life insurance value chain. This session will cover the foundations of behavioral concepts in a life insurance context and discuss practical areas that can benefit from behavioral science including customer engagement, disclosure, and retention. The session will leverage recent SOA research and specific experience in communication campaigns and call center best practices to translate theory to quantified results. Attendees will leave with an appreciation for potential challenges and practical steps to measure and demonstrate the value of implementing behavioral science.