Description: How to make the third pillar of the pension system develop faster is a hot topic in the field of social security research in recent years. Its development is facing three dilemmas: cognitive dilemma, economic transformation dilemma and incentive dilemma. According to the order from easy to difficult, four suggestions are put forward: to build the third pillar system by introducing personal accounts; to separate individual accounts from urban and rural residence insurance and put them in the third pillar; to integrate housing funds into the third pillar; to turn short-term bank savings into long-term pension reserve by improving social welfare.

Description: Editor’s note: This is the first article in a series of three covering the Society of Actuaries (SOA) Competency Framework. The subsequent articles will appear in future issues of the Actuary of the Future newsletter. The Society of Actuaries (SOA) Competency Framework is a powerful tool to enable you to design your future. Though it has been the SOA’s instrument for prioritizing continuing education and support to members since 2010, many actuaries are still not fully aware what a potent tool it can be to them in planning their personal careers.

Description: 2011 Enterprise Risk Management Symposium, Chicago. This paper explores cognitive and behavioral theories that can be applied to explain why emerging risk is often overlooked, downplayed or ignored. It also proposes an innovative framework for managing emerging risk within an overall enterprise risk management program.

Description: In this article, the author presents a case for using a Risk Return On Capital approach as a way to integrate desirable properties of the Economic Value Added approach and the Return On Risk-Adjusted Capital approach. The EVA approach has a shortcoming in that is does not reflect rating agency capital. The RORAC is computed as the ratio of expected total underwriting return to allocated risk capital, and represents the expected return for both benign and potentially consumptive usage of capital. The RROC approach measures returns after reflecting the mean rental cost of rating agency capital. Returns that are a reward for exposing capital to risk of loss are measured after reflecting the cost of carrying capital to support premium written and loss reserves.

Description: The purpose of this article is to provide a high level summary of the paper “Variance of the CTE Estimator” by B. John Manistre and Geoffrey H. Hancock that appeared in the North American Actuarial Journal in 2005. The authors also expanded on some of the results.

Description: The August/September 2014 edition of The Actuary magazine—the Society of Actuaries’ flagship publication.

Description: A study of disability experience examines cost burden and degree of disability, and how these measures vary across different subpopulations.

Description: First, the presenters will discuss long term asset mix for an insurance company. Many people attempt to find a perfect solution. Unlike tactical calls on the trading floor, a good strategic asset allocation analysis oftentimes requires the understanding the company's liability and a good long term view of the economy. Many challenging issues arise during this analysis: Best method or metric to determine the optimal asset allocation strategy, alignment with risk tolerance, variation for inforce versus new business, asset classes and derivative instruments available and fit into the modeling exercise. We will attempt to answer these questions by comparing a few popular measures in an Efficient Frontier Analysis. Second, the presenters will cover derivative from a practitioner's point of view. Derivatives are perceived as complex, risky investment vehicles from the public. However, derivatives are commonly used in various areas. Hedging is always a common topic in management discussion. Actuaries should keep current on this important topic. We will provide an overview on the current usage of derivatives in insurance companies. They will also touch on how derivatives are used in product development, the ongoing changes in the derivatives regulation and challenges faced by insurance companies from the practitioner's perspective.

Description: The SOA's Competency Framework for Actuaries is a tool to help actuaries make decisions related to their individual professional development and career management plans. It applies systematic, sound approaches to selecting professional development opportunities, focusing on the skills needed to go beyond technical and specific actuarial analysis. This is an Excel file that facilitates that process by providing a personal planning workbook.

Description: Investigate the concept of value annuities and the potential cost-effective differences when compared to traditional annuities by attending this webcast. Value annuities are an alternative lifetime income solution where longevity and investment risks are born by a pool of annuitants rather than a centralized insurer. Join this webcast for a closer look at the practicalities of designing and administering a value pool. There will also be a focus on the legislative, regulator and supervisory implications.