Description: Companies exempt from PBR can benefit by borrowing ideas and lessons learned from companies that perform and operate in a PBR world. The presenters will discuss VM requirements related to governance policies, as well as assumption and margin setting, plus model validations and controls which can benefit smaller insurance companies. Attendees will learn about new actuarial practices and how the PBR methodology and Valuation Manual can influence their work and highlight available resources.

Description: Traditionally the SOA formulates pedagogic excellence in terms of the Marzano Taxonomy. For example, the "analysis level" consisting of generalization, specification, classification, contrast, matching, and error identification, is considered superior to the "retrieval level" consisting of rote memorization such as recognition, recall, and using. In this presentation, we first show that pedagogic excellence can be equivalently, but more simply, formulated in terms of executive function and goal-setting. Here executive function refers to problems requiring multiple mental modalities - such as, formal, verbal, computational, and graphical - for their solution. Goal-setting refers to the skillful breakup of a complex problem into a sequence of subgoals each of which is clearly formulated, challenging, but achievable timely. Light examples from the literature illustrate these concepts. Five "challenging FM problems": reinvestment, refinancing, multiple rate/deposit problems, pricing deferred bonds using a term structure, and obscure loan problems, illustrate the following fundamental techniques of goal-setting and executive function: i) a fellowship approach to teaching preliminary exam material, ii) using subgoals to give difficult homework, iii) alternating between different mental modalities to achieve elegant brevity in solutions, iv) goal-setting reflecting familiar vs. new, and v) skillful definition of unit subgoals.

Description: Court is in session and you are the jury! Follow along as challenging aspects of actuarial professionalism are explored in a court-like setting. Deliberate based on what you already know from your own experience, as well as what you learn in this session. Then, deliver your verdict accordingly. Who says learning about actuarial professionalism can't also be fun?

Description: Table of Contents for the 1999 annual meeting of the Society of Actuaries, held in San Francisco, October 1999

Description: Court is in session and you are the jury! Follow along as challenging aspects of actuarial professionalism are explored in a court-like setting. Deliberate based on what you already know from your own experience as well as what you learn in this session, and then deliver your verdict accordingly. Who says learning about actuarial professionalism can't also be fun?

Description: LON-CAPA is a full-featured course management, learning content management, and assessment system. It was initially developed by Michigan State University under several National Science Foundation grants. You can run LON-CAPA for free on your own dedicated server. Purdue University has used LON-CAPA to create a robust online homework system for the Financial Mathematics material of the FM Exam. This homework system is in the public domain and may be used by any university running LON-CAPA. This session will provide additional information and include a demonstration of the system.

Description: Join this interactive session and increase your creative confidence. Design pros from University of Toronto Rotman School of Management will discuss how to use design thinking to solve problems big and small. Be prepared to roll up your sleeves and do some hands-on exercises to help unlock your innovative thinking. Who knows what creative solutions we might come up with! This session will be of interest to actuaries of all experience levels and disciplines. Don't we all have problems to solve?

Description: Our ability to think and act quickly serves us well on a day-to-day basis. When we're faced with long-term, impactful decisions, we need to think differently. The very behaviors that enable us to react quickly to our daily work can make us jump to the wrong conclusion when exploring new topics. Cognitive biases--systematic tendencies to derivate from rational calculations--can hinder our abilities to conduct open dialogue and process new and different opinions. A 'de-bias' strategic decision-making process can help take bias out of meetings and lead to better outcomes. The presenters will provide behavioral tools and insights to attendees who need to participate or lead discussions that are part of a big-bet decision.

Description: Summary of the 2002 Member and Candidate Research Findings

Description: Many SOA members are familiar with the Actuaries' Climate Index, the result of an early and critical effort by North American actuarial organizations to grapple with the impact of climate change on our constituents. But did you know that the SOA continues to produce research on the nexus of environmental issues and the actuarial profession? And did you know that under its Strategic Research Program Initiative, the SOA has elevated its commitment to research through the development of a Climate and Catastrophe research program?