Description: Implementation of GAAP Targeted Improvements will impact data, reporting, resourcing and governance. This provides an ideal opportunity to rethink some of the data and reporting processes currently in place and how they can be improved to create effective and scalable solutions for the future. With the transition date already behind us for public companies and preparation in motion, we will share insights into how organizations have started to tackle implementing the GAAP Targeted Improvements. The presenters will share insights on data and process challenges and possible solutions, as well as a 'smart compliance' approach to comply with the most valuable aspects of compliance. Resourcing strategies for successful implementation will also be discussed.

Description: This third session in the Munich Re series continues with an exploration of responses to the changing workplace landscape from those inside the industry. The presenters will focus on practical approaches to identifying new opportunities, and on ways in which traditional products and sales channels are changing to meet emerging needs. Are voluntary benefits still relevant? Yes, but they are changing. While the first session provided an overview of the future workplace, this session will provide an overview of the current and evolving voluntary benefits market. Sales processes and products will be challenged to change to keep up with the new workplace dynamic. The presenters share strategies for developing products and sales channels that are robust and flexible enough to address evolving customer needs.

Description: Digital is the main reason over half of the companies on the Fortune 500 have disappeared since 2000." (CEO Accenture). We cannot be sure how global technology megatrends will disrupt the life insurance industry, but we can be certain that the future will not look like today. As large quantities of available data are no longer owned by insurance companies and statistical techniques become more accessible to non-statisticians, the pressure to keep up with technological advancement increases. Life actuaries must think critically about and be prepared for the coming changes and position themselves as leaders in an industry lagging behind in new technology adoption.

Description: On July 17, FASB announced a deferral of the compliance deadline for the new Long Duration Targeted Improvements (LDTI) guidance: “a one year deferral for larger SEC filers and a two or three year deferral for all other entities.” This article highlights the opportunity for companies striving to comply to modernize in light of this deferral, and it provides a few specific suggestions to companies who pursue this path.

Description: This article discusses the procedures, advantages and vendors of web conferencing services.

Description: This article stresses the importance of treating your IT network infrastructure as an indispensable utility as is required to run your email, Internet access, printing needs and a host of other mission-critical applications that you cannot function properly without.

Description: Feature article that supports the statement that actuaries who are competent coders will differentiate both themselves and the companies they work for. Coding ability will be useful no matter what tools are utilized every day and all of those tools and communities contribute to moving actuarial processes out of the “Spreadsheet Age.”

Description: The popular press plays an important role in public perception regarding automated vehicles. In contrast to the excitement generated two to three years ago, we are now in a period of “reverse hype” with most articles focused on the slow pace of development and concerns regarding possible negative impacts on traffic congestion and growth of suburbs. To help describe current trends and highlight differences between the cars we see on the street today and driverless vehicles, this report relies on three market-related definitions; safe, self-driving and driverless.

Description: This paper explores how molecular biology, specifically epigenetics, may impact the life insurance industry, and considers the effects of utilizing epigenetic biomarkers for underwriting.

Description: This article looks at our use of technology- then and now. A reprinted article from the very first Pension Section News in June 1989, written by Barbara Choyke and titled '1,100 View SOA’s First Teleconference,' is juxtaposed against a view of today’s webcast communications.