Description: Retirees will face the societal issue of inadequate savings with likely insufficient time to rectify the situation. They need immediate growth, but also the disciplines of risk management. They typically do not know how to engage with these two aspects in a harmonious manner on their own. Insurance companies are in the business of providing the solution but regulators have been clamping down in favor of simpler and more transparent products. In addition, the market reality over the last decade has been that insurers have stock betas at a multiple to the general markets with PE ratios well below. A panel of senior professionals from writers of retirement product business will present their vision of how the insurance industry can address the above dilemma, including the risks underlying the writing of the business, impact of financial markets, and regulations in the development of the business.

Description: Regulatory change and increased focus on internal risk management are driving a renewed interest in model efficiency. In this session, we will review several new and existing tools, that show significant promise for advanced modeling of equity linked products. These include: • Clustering • Use of unique--and potentially a different number of--scenarios for each policy • Semi Monte Carlo (SMC) – this is a proprietary technique that is similar to a combination of Monte Carlo and numeric integration • Using a neural network approach to optimize some of the more complex and manual aspects of clustering and improve the fit of the clustered model • Combining SMC with the use of unique scenarios per policy

Description: What we should look out for heading into one, how long and how deep would one last?

Description: At this breakfast, presenters will provide an update on recent activities of the Disability Special Interest Group. Attendees will also have time to network with their colleagues in the disability industry.

Description: Life insurance carriers increasingly enhance their product offerings with combination products, aka hybrid or combo products, or living benefits. Presenters will discuss the growth in this market, consumer perception and distribution needs, highlight the key features of long-term care (and chronic illness) and critical illness benefits, and posit what the future of this market will bring.

Description: Presenters will discuss mortality improvement as it applies to various lines of business with an emphasis on how individual life findings can be used to fine tune group life assumptions. In particular, it is important to know that there is not a single percentage of annual mortality improvement. Rather, experience shows that the rate of mortality improvement varies by factors such as attained age and target market.

Description: Legacy health insurance carriers are creating internal cutting-edge advancements through intrapreneurs. In this session, experienced intrapreneurs will discuss their roles within the health insurance industry.

Description: The reinsurance market is experiencing unprecedented growth in both frequency and severity of catastrophic medical claims. Most experts identify specialty drugs, new gene therapies and high-intensity hospital in-patient stays as contributing factors. With Rx claims, high-cost drug protocols are creating chronic high-cost cases over multiple years. What can actuaries do to rapidly identify these cases? If identified, what techniques can be used to reduce or manage cost? Panel will include a nationally recognized consulting actuary, health plan executive and reinsurance executive.

Description: On December 21, 2018, the Centers of Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the final rule for Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) in the Medicare Shared Savings Program. 'Pathways to Success' makes sweeping changes and will push ACOs to assume financial risk more quickly. This session will discuss the key changes in the final rule, reasons why providers would remain in the program while being forced to downside risk, and how actuaries can add value to providers who will be taking on millions of dollars of risk in the coming years.

Description: Recent reports have expressed concern over historically high levels of corporate indebtedness, with an increasing share of investment-grade debt now in the BBB category, just above speculative-grade. This session will explore trends in the corporate debt market, with a focus on the risks and opportunities for portfolios in the current environment.