Description: This article explores how the ideas in Abundance, the bestselling book by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, offer a fresh lens for understanding both society and the life-insurance industry. The book contrasts two ways of thinking: a scarcity mindset that assumes limits, protects the status quo, and manages decline; and an abundance mindset that believes capacity can expand through innovation, investment, and imagination. The article traces how these philosophies appear in American history, politics, and public policy—from immigration rhetoric to wartime mobilization—and shows how over-regulation often traps entire sectors in scarcity. Against this backdrop, the article argues that life insurance remains anchored in scarcity thinking, even as other industries—streaming, digital platforms, and the sharing economy—have embraced abundance with transformative results. The protection gap illustrates the issue: U.S. households face a US$25 trillion shortfall in mortality coverage, yet actuarial practice tends to price narrowly, underwrite cautiously, and focus on existing insured lives rather than millions of underserved families. The article calls for a shift toward abundance through broader underwriting, inclusive product design, alternative data, parametric solutions, regulatory engagement, and financial literacy. By choosing abundance, the industry can close protection gaps and redefine its role in expanding opportunity.

Description: Brigham Young University - Idaho

Description: The Mortality Improvement Model series reflects a progression of refinements in how shifting mortality patterns are measured and projected. The base Mortality Improvement Model provides the core framework for estimating long-term changes in mortality using demographic trends, historical experience, and actuarial judgment. Subsequent versions in the MIM-2021 line build on that foundation: v2 incorporates updated post-pandemic data and initial methodological adjustments; v3 strengthens the model with improved smoothing techniques and refreshed assumptions; and v4 delivers the most recent and comprehensive enhancements, integrating the latest experience studies and calibration improvements to support more stable and reliable projections. Together, the versions show a consistent evolution toward higher accuracy and stronger alignment with emerging longevity trends.

Description: Review the list of candidates who earned Fellowship (FSA) with the Society of Actuaries in December 2025.