Description: The article contains a description of the Emerging Topics Community. The focus of the article is what is a community, what makes the Emerging Topics Community special, and benefits of the Community. Included after the discussion on the community are ways to get involved and be a part of the community.

Description: Actuary Dave Dillon describes his role volunteering his time as a teacher in higher education, including the rewards and challenges that teaching offers. He discusses the importance of being attentive to his audience’s pre-existing knowledge and adapting his presentations accordingly. His work as a teacher typically encompasses three distinct domains: 1) acquainting young students with the actuarial profession, 2) educating non-actuaries about public policy issues related to health insurance (including the Affordable Care Act), and 3) instructing current actuaries on advanced methodologies and principles within the field. Recently he taught a health insurance course for actuarial science graduate students at Georgia State University and lectured at Boise State University’s master's program in Population & Health Systems Management. In every teaching and mentoring opportunity, actuaries can contribute to the expansion and prosperity of the profession and are encouraged to pursue these endeavors.

Description: Though some defined contribution plans have added retirement income options in the form of annuities, there is a challenge to retirees in deciding whether to select such options and if so the amount to purchase. This article discusses a variety of considerations that retirees should be aware of when making a decision to annuitize.

Description: This article summarizes findings from a recently published peer-reviewed study in the Journal of Risk and Insurance (Hanewald et al., 2025),[1], which examined how access to housing wealth affects stated demand for LTC insurance in China. We conducted a survey of homeowners aged 45-–64 across 49 cities in China and found that offering reverse mortgages or home reversion products significantly increased stated demand for LTC insurance. This article highlights the study’s key results and implications for insurers, actuaries, and policymakers.

Description: Overview of the regulatory requirements around sustainability reporting in Europe.

Description: Describing background of SOA Committee for Middle East, Africa &Pakistan (MAP) region, activities and future actions.

Description: State Medicaid agencies have been implementing value-based payment (VBP) models for the last decade and are increasingly exploring advanced population-based payment (PBP) models that increase flexibility, predictability, and accountability for participating provider organizations. PBP models show promise in advancing Medicaid priorities, but are still in the early stages of development, and model design and implementation challenges remain. This article from the Center for Health Care Strategies explores the fundamentals of VBP and how PBP - a particular type of payment model - can help Medicaid agencies achieve goals related to care transformation and quality improvement, revenue stability, and controlling cost of care.