Description: Decentralized finance, or DeFi, is an emerging financial system powered by blockchain technology. This research report aims to introduce actuaries to DeFi and help them develop a solid understanding of DeFi. It will begin with addressing “what is DeFi?” by providing an introduction on blockchains and DeFi. It will then discuss in further detail the key characteristics, applications, opportunities, and risks of DeFi. After providing the foundation, this report will discuss the potential adoption of DeFi and its interaction with the current financial system (sometime referred to as traditional finance for contrast with DeFi), and the implications for practicing and aspiring actuaries. In addition, a glossary of terms used in DeFi and a brief history of the development of DeFi have been included in the appendix.

Description: The Society of Actuaries will be offering this webinar series intended to educate and investigate aspects of life insurance, annuity, and long-term care product tax compliance. Developed by the Taxation Section, participants will be brought up to date on recent Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidance and learn about the newest tax issues related to product design and administration. Legal, IRS and product development experts will provide vital insights into the challenges of developing and administering products within the requirements of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) and allow ample opportunities for questions and information exchange. This session will feature legal, tax, actuarial and compliance experts. Recent legislative changes will be emphasized, including the Secure Act/Secure Act 2.0 and other items/questions that experts have seen increased industry activity.

Description: Presenters will discuss difficulties within the new NAIC ESG, such as how the model deals with interest rate flooring and its treatment of the linkage between equity and treasury bond returns. They will also discuss the documentation and governance process surrounding the new NAIC ESG.

Description: "Through both informed policy debate and opinionated social media, there are many current event health topics actively discussed and debated. The question remains... how does one separate out subjective information, seek objective analysis, and at the same time consider where there might be more research needed to come to conclusions? This session will use several current event topicsas examples and discover insights as to where research has been performed, what it may or may not cover, and also note where lines are still blurred and may need further details to be studied. Topics that may be discussed include: How valuable and exact is the use of risk-adjustment for Medicare Advantage What is the health and mortality impact of receiving COVID-19 vaccinations"

Description: This report is a discussion of the significant challenges involved in attempting to research with robust analysis the impact of disparities in health care access, cost and quality of care on financial wellness across racial, ethnic, socioeconomic and other demographic groups in the U.S. for reasons other than or in addition to income, wealth or employment status.

Description: This webcast will walk through several statistical methods for imputing race and ethnicity from U.S. datasets, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses, talking about how to use them and evaluating their accuracy, and telling you where you can get code packages as well as a free dataset to try the methods out.

Description: Guidance and a model for actuaries to use when performing their professional services related to Medicaid (Title XIX) and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP or Title XXI) managed care capitation rate setting.

Description: Investigate the importance of collaboration with accounting, underwriting, sales, marketing and other professions as an actuary when you attend this webcast. Cross-functional positions can cause unique challenges to arise, like various experts attempting to balance growth and profitability. Discover an opportunity to learn about relevant ASOPs and dive deeper into contemporary examples that highlight specific professionalism issues that can develop.

Description: The instructors in this boot camp session will highlight the SOA's work on an updated Medicaid underwriting margin model. This research project includes an excel model, a set of instructions and a paper describing the key components of underwriting margin, including cost of capital and risk margin.

Description: In September 2017, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) issued the “C-ROSS Phase II project construction plan”, planned to be used across three years’ time, by perfecting the regulations, improving the operational mechanism and strengthening the regulatory cooperation.