Description: This article presents recent perspectives on the understanding and measurement of pandemic risk.

Description: Microinsurance mechanisms provide coverage to low income earners, but a growing middle class is often lacking adequate access to insurance services. The author explores ways in which insurance may be more accessible.

Description: The world around us keeps changing F.A.S.T. propelling life insurance companies to respond with F.R.E.S.H. product solutions.

Description: Highlights of the 1997 International Underwriting Congress with an in depth discussion of 1 critical illness policies and 2 Use of population data where little insurance data exists.

Description: In this article, the author talks about how the actuarial profession can position itself as the natural choice for complex risk management work.

Description: The pension and longevity risk transfer market is growing rapidly, with British-pioneered pension and longevity de-risking emerging outside of the UK and US, with over $270bn in transactions completed globally since 2007. Emerging markets include the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, France and Australia. This article describes the solutions available to plan sponsors who are looking to secure member benefits and achieve a lower risk future, and provides real-world examples of companies who have used innovative solutions to meet their unique needs.

Description: In this article, Tze Leong introduces the subject of Takaful (Islamic insurance) to a worldwide audience based on his experiences and observations in Malaysia and its surrounding region. Through this, he shares some reflections that we could apply to the conventional insurance market.

Description: The editor discusses editorial board changes, welcomes new section council members, and mentions highlighted articles in this issue.

Description: The letter from the president features an excerpt of SOA President Mark J. Freedman’s address to members at the 2013 SOA Annual Meeting & Exhibit calling for the profession to embrace international development, seek out new opportunities for growth, and become involved in research and public policy.

Description: This article provides an introduction to group supervision and group capital and its importance in today's increasingly global insurance market. Additionally, the article examines the various methods used in practice for calculating group capital and the factors that companies should consider as they develop their group capital management strategy.