Description: Summary of research project designed to document method to credit interest rates to account value based products. The investment year method (IYM) can theoretically align with investment strategy and be fair to policyholders. These products were designed in the 1980s with guaranteed nominal rates above what is currently accessible so most products credit the guaranteed rate. This paper documents how it could be resurrected during the next interest rate cycle.

Description: How insurers can include a liquidity score and liquidity stress scenarios as part of their asset liability management (ALM) protocol.

Description: Over a short span of two weeks, the financial system has observed the collapse of two mid-sized U.S. commercial banks, California-based Silicon Valley Bank (“SVB”) and New York-based Signature Bank, and a takeover of troubled Credit Suisse by a rival in Europe. Other banks that serve a similar demographic as SVB, such as First Republic Bank and PacWest Bancorp, have also experienced an elevated level of customer deposit withdrawals while their stock prices plummeted. The U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) quickly stepped in and guaranteed all deposits from the failed banks to prevent a broader crisis in the banking system. The current turmoil in the financial system is a stark reminder of the importance of effective risk management and regulation.

Description: Survey of appointed actuaries about asset adequacy testing techniques currently being used in 2012.

Description: Generally, the assets acquired by financial institutions have their values determined by established capital markets. However, the firm's liabilities become customer's' private placement assets and their value must be calculated by the firm. This monograph discusses the theoretical bases for modeling the liabilities consistently with the assets. From Asset-Liability Integration, M-FI02-1.

Description: This article deals with enterprise risk management and how the techniques contained within the discipline can help prevent unforeseen large mistakes in strategy, product design, and product management

Description: This article discusses asset-liability management from two different paradigms, one a simulation of the firm as an external observer e.g. shareholder would view it, and the other a “still life” at a given moment from an internal viewpoint.

Description: The author discusses how the use of a weighted average dollar duration book yield, WADD, rather than the more traditional book yield determined by book value or market value weighting, can provide a better basis for determining the crediting rate on the liabilities.

Description: How to set asset assumption, at the cycle or through the cycle and other considerations

Description: The article explores the use of economic capital modeling to deliver value to clients by improving the financial security of many individual lives around the world in a cost-effective way.