Description: This paper demonstrates that extreme value theory (EVT) can be used as a tool to model policyholder behavior in the extreme tail. This paper applies EVT to the study of variable annuity dynamic lapse behavior in the extreme tail. It illustrates a process whereby a company can fully model policyholder behavior, including the extreme tail, with existing data. No judgment about the extremal behavior is necessary.

Description: This paper, first published in 1982 in the Transactions of Society of Actuaries, Vol. 34, discusses the phenomenon of durational antiselection, a commonly observed steady and seemingly irreversible increase in loss ratios on mature blocks of individual health insurance policies. The author, William F. Bluhm, constructs a model to explain the deterioration of loss ratios over time, and to quantify the cumulative antiselection effect. This paper was awarded the 1980-82 Triennial Prize. The paper includes written discussion and the author’s review of discussion.

Description: A Towers Perrin proposal for pension funding reform discussed at the Future of Pension Plan Funding and Disclosure Symposium, held July 14-15, 2005, Washington, DC.

Description: This paper addresses the stochastic modeling for managing asset liability process. We start with developing a jump-diffusion process for evaluating of the liabilities of the insurance company in general. We then formulate the ALM process into a stochastic control problem. With this approach, we present a Bel|man-Dreyfus Fundamental type formula for ALM process in terms of the solution of a system of algebraic equations and partial differential equations.

Description: This study presents a new framework which can measure integrated marked risk and credit risk for portfolios consisting of various assets through continuous time horizons. In a simulation, the study shows that asset type, initial rating, time horizon and asset return distribution assumptions are all significant factors to influence the portfolio value distributions and hence the integrated VaRs. From 2007 Enterprise Risk Management Symposium, M-AS07-1.

Description: The Strategic Risk Register System SRRS is proposed by the authors as a new approach to modeling and visualizing the interconnectivity of risks in an ERM context. SRRS has been successfully applied in practice, and a case study is deployed to demonstrate the methodology.

Description: This paper, originally published in 1992 in the Transactions of Society of Actuaries Vol. 44, deals with a topic that is becoming increasingly important to actuaries in most fields of practice. “Without relying on formulas, this paper presents the important concepts underlying the theory of arbitrage-free pricing of interest-rate-contingent cash flows.” This paper, by James A. Tilley, won the 1992-93 Annual Prize, and the Halmstad Prize for 1992. The paper includes written discussion and the author’s review of the discussions.

Description: This paper asserts that funding is the natural result of managing liability, and, from there, examines some of the funding liabilities of pension plans. From The Future of Pension Plan Funding and Disclosure Monograph, M-RS05-1.

Description: Capital allocation by percentile layer has important advantages over existing methods. It highlights a new formulation of value at risk and other capital standards, recognizes the capital usage of losses that do no extend into the tail and captures the disproportionate capital usage of severe losses. From 2007 Enterprise Risk Management Symposium, M-AS07-1.

Description: This paper outlines a risk measurement framework in which risk measures are derived by qualifying cash-flow-based risk measures on the state of the firm's debt capacity. This risk framework overcomes some of the weaknesses of the popular 'at-risk' framework. From 2007 Enterprise Risk Management Symposium, M-AS07-1.