Description: NewsDirect article that discusses the benefits of automating the underwriting process. Underwriting speed, the east of case submission and sales support stand out as the most important factors.

Description: An interview with Dawn Helwig on developments in the Long Term Care market.

Description: Review of a research project, co-sponsored by the SOA, which examined 83 organizations and over 150 programs that measure the quality and efficiency of hospitals and physicians.

Description: Discussion of some of the debated aspects of the new health care law from an actuarial principles perspective.

Description: The article described recent major advances in measurement of health programs and providers in the public and private sector.

Description: Latin America has acquired an economically strategic importance in the process of globalization that it did not have a decade ago. The region has attracted significant attention and investment by the international insurance industry. This article explores some issues related to the growth in supply of insurance companies capacity, the relatively slower pace of growth in consumer demand for their products, and the factors that companies can identify in forming their strategies to achieve their objectives.

Description: Review of a seminar held on the new professional development requirements for Hong Kong

Description: This article discusses capital market cycles, specifically considering whether or not 2008 was a good time to buy. It concludes that “stocks have likely only recently entered the buying opportunity range on an aggregate basis. However, from a psychological and risk management perspective, we should strongly consider that stock prices will revert beyond the mean for many years, perhaps even decades, before they get better.”

Description: In this Chairman’s corner column, Tom Anichini suggests several sources for finding investment related continuing education content. In addition to archived SOA presentations and recordings, other potential sources include pertinent academic and practitioner periodicals, blogs, podcasts, conference and seminar websites, and networks of academic publications and working papers.

Description: Describes outlook for inflation, generally higher in the US and lower in Japan/Europe. Enumerates macroeconomic drivers of inflation, and comments on the pace of inflation-linked debt issuance globally.