Description: Global events have resulted in significant changes in the workforce. As companies continue to adjust to the 'new normal', what does this mean? How will employee benefits be impacted by these trends? Explore where we are today, as well as potential impacts to retirement strategies. By the end, you'll be able to describe recent workforce trends and impacts to retirement strategies as the workforce settles down.

Description: The Society of Actuaries Retirement Section Research Committee has sponsored a retirement project on the impact of megatrends and paradigm shifts on retirement plan design and funding. Various aspects were examined in the context of the future of retirement plans, including: Sociocultural Economic Technological Health and Long-term Care Environmental Presenters will address how the future is changing and challenge accepted thinking about retirement issues, as well as highlight new areas for consideration. At the end, you will have a better understanding of megatrends and how actuaries and others may address the changes in retirement plans.

Description: Modeling Approaches and Challenges focuses on approaches to real world simulation and the challenges and considerations in real world simulation. Topics include: A frequency domain approach to build realistic multi-horizon scenarios. (Ortec approach) Cascade models structure linking models for major asset classes and economic variables. (Moody’s approach) Overview of models, calibrations & approaches within the context of different use cases. Deterministic & stochastic approaches. Importance of model re-calibration flexibility. We will also discuss specific insights into considerations and challenges in real world simulation, which include topics like: Setting capital market assumptions and/or calibration targets. Assumptions about correlation and causality. Calibrating the model to capital markets assumptions. Validating the model against capital market assumptions. Role of history, market data and stylized facts. Importance of back testing. Calibrating the model to multiple investment horizons. Inclusion of alterative asset classes such as private equity, infrastructure, and direct real estate. Associated issues of limited data, illiquidity and greater uncertainty about calibration targets.

Description: Emerging Applications of ESG Methods offers ground-up insights on cutting edge applications of economic scenario generation. The course will focus on the incorporation of climate change risk in scenario modeling and investment applications of ESGs. The following topics will be covered: Approaches to climate risk modeling. Climate risk is very different than classical financial economic risk. Radical uncertainty is amenable to scenario analysis and lack of data. Building special deterministic scenarios that go beyond NGFS requirements as well as bespoke scenarios. Holistic Approach to Climate Risk Modeling. Overview of different Climate Risk Modeling Applications. Use of ESG scenarios for Strategic Asset Allocation (SAA). Liquidity risk management.

Description: Over the last few years, a significant amount of US annuity and pension business has been reinsured with offshore companies, both affiliated and non-affiliated. Hear experts discuss different reserve and capital regimes between the US and offshore jurisdictions, as well as US regulator concerns and responses. The attendees will learn the reasons companies use offshore reinsurance, and improve their understanding of the discussion of proposals to increase US regulator and consumer comfort with companies outside of US jurisdiction.

Description: The SOA Research Institute's Aging and Retirement Strategic Research program focuses on a variety of stakeholders: individuals, benefit plan sponsors and administrators, financial service companies and society at large. The program partners with other SOA Research Institute strategic research programs, and it also partners with outside organizations. It builds on 25 years of work from the Committee on Post-Retirement Needs and Risks and many of its projects have a multi-disciplinary focus. The program aims to respond to the needs of stakeholders by assessing societal challenges and helping find solutions in a changing world. This session presents an overview of the work of the program, including key findings of research reports from the program, consumer education, and related work the SOA Research Institute is doing in this area.

Description: As we step out of a historical pandemic that put words like life expectancy and mortality rate on everyone's vocabulary, we suffer some measure of intellectual PTSD. This dark period magnifies our cognitive bias as we try to understand future mortality, a key variable both for life insurance and pension plans. Does our propensity to quantify and the attractiveness of new predictive modeling tools cloud our judgment? Check out a reflection framework and insights on scientific discoveries that will allow you to develop plausible scenarios that will enrich your thought process. The panelist will start by presenting what is new when we think about future mortality. We will then facilitate the generation of plausible scenarios by the audience and explain how we evaluate them. There will be no answers, but the relevance of your mortality questions will definitely improve.

Description: The Society of Actuaries (SOA) Research Institute's Aging and Retirement Strategic Research Program has released a collection of essays addressing the impact of inflation on retirement and retirement-related issues. Join us as we explore the content of these essays and other findings from the ongoing SOA research project about inflation and retirement.

Description: Critical factors to consider as we age include where we live, who we interact with, how we get the help and support we need when we need it, and how our health care is organized and delivered. Underlying this is how we finance the cost of specialized housing, care and support. Some communities are age-friendly where we can obtain supportive services, others are not. Some people choose to live in senior housing which integrates support services, others choose to live in the community among people of all ages. Some health care systems are well designed to meet the needs of older people, others are not. The cost of living for older adults, considering all of these factors, varies by community. Explore more about the perspective of older adults, how communities have structured to meet their needs, and how society as a whole is becoming aware of and addressing a growing aging population.

Description: In this introductory session, we set the stage for the Symposium’s entire ElderTech track. We’ve seen increasing technology adaptation by the elderly in many areas of their lives, including socializing, health care, mobility, home monitoring, insurance, investing and financial planning. Panelists will provide an overview of the current state of ElderTech and how they believe it will evolve in the short and long term. Panelists will also discuss the problems ElderTech is trying to solve, consumer pain points and why ElderTech has become so important recently.