Description: A defined contribution plan with a defined benefit minimum guarantee is valued as a put option or exchange option. This paper compares the resulting price with the actual additional contribution rate used by one public sector plan, and considers extensions of the option theory to allow more accurately for the pension plan characteristics.

Description: This paper endeavors to obtain the explicit formulas of the probability of ruin in a Markov-modulated model where claim intensities, claim sizes and premiums vary according to a Markovian environment.

Description: Nonparametric regression tries to ?nd a relationship between the predictor and the response without assuming shape of estimated regression function. Its theory and methods are well developed for the case of completely observed vectors of predictors and responses. In many applications, including actuarial, some components of the observed vectors may be missed. Ignoring missing data and using known methods of nonparametric regression may yield inconsistent estimation. Theoretical results on optimal nonparametric regression with missing data are presented, and an applied actuarial example is discussed.

Description: A discussion on how, as some have worried, we are entering uncharted territory for countries such as the United States and the Eurozone, as large amounts of money are being expended to stave off major global financial crises.

Description: Describes joint meeting in February 2015 between Investment Section representatives and NY Society for Quantitative Analysts, on pension investing in an LDI framework.

Description: Read the December 2018 issue of Small Talk published by Smaller Insurance Company Section. Practical information on trends that impact sections and activities.

Description: Don’t Manage Your Time Maximize Your Time by Dan Coughlin from The Stepping Stone Newsletter, January 2004, Issue No. 13.

Description: This article presents a case study that examines the implication of using real-world interest rate scenario generators with a block of fixed deferred annuities. We contrast cash flow testing results based on New York 7 deterministic scenarios to stochastic scenarios generated with the Academy Interest Rate Generator , as well as an alternative economic scenario generator designed explicitly to capture the risk of a persistently low interest rate environment and the transition to a rising interest rate environment.

Description: In physics and engineering education, Fermi problems require solutions based on good approximate calculations with little or no actual data, involving making justified guesses and deducing bounds without using sophisticated tools. The idea of Fermi problems are of particular relevance to today's actuaries, as pricing, reserving, and financial reporting involve more and more complex stochastic components. The paper discusses some approximate solutions developed in academia in the spirit of Fermi problems.

Description: Actuarial modelers need to engage and leverage IT expertise in the design, maintenance, and control of actuarial models.