Description: Hear from the chairperson on themes in the September 2016 issue of Pension Section News published by the The Pension Section.

Description: In this article, the authors give their overview of sessions that they attended at the June 2012 Life and Annuity Symposium. The sessions discussed are Life Insurance Illustration Regulation (15 years later), Advanced Mortality Topics, and Life and Annuity Product Development Strategies in the Wake of Low Interest Rates.

Description: This article delves into a new line of statistical thinking of the author, that may be useful for product development actuaries. The key concept is how product design can produce products that diversify quickly, meaning that the company can be confident of a profitable product line, based on fewer sales than might be true for other designs.

Description: Fourth installment in an ongoing series of articles adapted from Michael Carroll's "Awake at Work", applying Buddhist principles to the challenges faced by actuaries. This installment examines the often chaotic work circumstances faced by actuaries and encourages the reader to see such situations as opportunities for personal and professional growth.

Description: In this session, panelists will lift the curtain on the main features of investment grade (IG) private placement bonds and below investment grade (BIG) private debt and compare them with available public bond and bank loan alternatives. The panel will examine the motivations for insurance companies and pension funds to invest in private debt and the legal, diligence and operational requirements to maintain a private debt portfolio. We will also conduct a 2017 private placement market review and look forward to 2018’s likely new USD and non-USD issuance and which industry sectors are likely to issue. This session will also cover their risk and reward characteristics, and the structural intricacies of the various IG and BIG debt types and whether there is sufficient compensation for illiquidity and other risks.

Description: In this article, the authors take an exploration of the pertinent life insurance and political history along with a review of certain aspects of federal income tax policy.

Description: An interview providing two retirement actuaries’ perspectives on a report that analyzes many different studies on retirement adequacy.

Description: The final results of the 2012 Society of Actuaries (SOA) Life Reinsurance Survey are now available. The survey captures individual and group life data from U.S. and Canadian life reinsurers. New Business production and in-force figures are reported with reinsurance broken into three categories: Recurring reinsurance; Portfolio reinsurance; and Retrocession reinsurance.

Description: This research scorecard will keep section members informed about research projects sponsored or co-sponsored by the Financial Reporting Section.

Description: After a summary of FASB decisions in their GAAP Targeted Improvements project, this article describes several issues that will need to be resolved either by the board or in actuarial practice and argues for seeking solutions that provide meaningful results without overly complicating valuation processes.