Description: The surge in interest rates over the past few years presents opportunities for life insurers to enhance their Asset and Liability Management (ALM) positions through asset rebalancing to narrow the duration gap and secure higher risk-adjusted yields. This webcast introduces a robust, efficient and readily-executable, liability-driven strategic asset allocation (SAA) framework and implementation considerations. At the conclusion of the webcast, attendees will learn about the key objectives and practical considerations for a successful SAA.

Description: Lifetime pension pools convert a lump sum into lifelong income, periodically adjusting benefit payouts based on mortality and investment experience. Volatility-targeting strategies can enhance benefit stability by dynamically adjusting the investment portfolio’s exposure to risky assets in the context of these pools, demonstrating superior performance compared to traditional static asset allocation methods.

Description: Since most cash flows being discounted in the value calculation are dependent on the forward rates, in the key-rate calculation forwards (not spots) should be shifted. I will show that if spots are shifted up/down, they would not necessarily result in forwards being up/down for all the years in the particular key rate, resulting in unexpected results. I will further show how metrics calculated by shifting forwards versus spots enhance the accuracy of the approximation of projected value in various rate environments.

Description: ReFocus is an annual global conference for senior-level life insurance and reinsurance executives hosted jointly by ACLI and the Society of Actuaries (SOA). This event features top-notch speakers, thought-provoking sessions, and superior networking opportunities.

Description: This publication presents an exploratory framework that applies volatility signals—specifically the VIX and MOVE indices—to asset allocation decisions. Rather than prescribing a definitive model, the work highlights a potential pathway for linking equity and bond market risk expectations to portfolio construction. The analysis demonstrates how relative volatility between asset classes can inform dynamic weighting, opening the door to more adaptive strategies in shifting market environments. Importantly, this is not intended as a finished methodology, but as a foundation on which more experienced professionals can build. Readers with advanced backgrounds in finance, risk management, or quantitative analysis are encouraged to refine, stress-test, and extend the framework to suit their own investment contexts. By positioning the concept as a starting point rather than a conclusion, the publication invites collaboration and deeper exploration into how volatility-based metrics may enhance long-term allocation models.

Description: As the new VM-22 framework reshapes reserving for non-variable annuities, actuaries face both opportunities and challenges. Our latest insight and highlights what you need to know about assumption setting, model validation and asset optimization ahead of 2026.

Description: Our previous article, “Introduction of Cashflow Matching Strategic Asset Allocation (SAA) Framework,” introduced the concept and included a real-world case study that developed a liability-driven investment strategy for a single line of business (LOB) for a life insurer. This article expands the framework and the case study from a single LOB to simultaneously optimize asset allocation across multiple LOBs. It discusses how this multi-line SAA framework can enable an insurance company to efficiently tag its asset holdings to each LOB, identify opportunities in the public and private asset markets to enhance risk-adjusted returns, and develop a deeper understanding of the trade-off between the degree of cashflow matching and risk-adjusted returns across LOBs.

Description: The SOA Research Institute Aging and Retirement Strategic Research Program and Retirement Section are pleased to make available a research report that examines megatrends and potential paradigm shifts, and how they may impact the future of retirement and retirement plans, as well as the macro forces that will shape those trends.

Description: A Framework for Managing Surplus by David N. Becker from The Financial Reporter, May 1999, Issue No. 39.