Description: The author shares the importance of creating a personal development plan.

Description: A compilation of reader responses is presented to a real life situation posed involving a management, leadership, or other business decision. This issue’s case study involved whether a 'promotion' was truly such, and what should be the actuary's next step.

Description: A real life situation is posed involving an actuarial management decision, and readers are invited to suggest "What Would You Do?"

Description: A compilation of reader responses is presented to a real life situation posed involving a management, leadership, or other business decision. This issue’s case study involved what to do about a product line that wasn't living up to expectations.

Description: How does mortality experience impact earnings under the new GAAP financial framework? This article discusses how to isolate key components from financial models related to decrements, as well as how to handle the changes in the financial reporting landscape including: the aggregation of insurance policies into cohorts, dynamic reserving, and the limitations imposed by caps and floors. Looking at the components of earnings, such as the present value of benefits, expenses, and premiums, and how these elements interact is critical to form a comprehensive earnings story.

Description: It is with great pleasure that we announce the winner of the “2024 Best Article” in Reinsurance News. Amongst a pool of exceptional articles, the article “What Does the Future of Mortality Look Like?” submitted by Adam Jedynak and Connie Cheng was chosen by the jury as the victorious submission. The article appeared in the June 2024 issue of Reinsurance News. It explores recent shifts in mortality, including post-COVID excess mortality, and looks at the impact of medical advancements and societal changes on mortality.

Description: This article outlines Georgia State University’s (GSU) innovative approach to actuarial science education in response to the evolving demands of the profession, including data science, AI, and climate risk. It highlights a comprehensive pipeline that supports students from early career exploration through high school outreach, into personalized undergraduate academic paths, and onto professional readiness. Key features include project-based learning integrated into core actuarial courses, hands-on technical training in R and Python, and industry-aligned case studies.

Description: The SECURE Act of 2019 requires an annual disclosure to participants in defined contribution plans. The intention is to help participants understand the relationship between their account balances and the estimated retirement income—that might be provided from those balances. But the disclosure requirements lack the features needed to provide meaningful information to many participants, which can be misleading if not well understood. Consequently, this provides an opportunity for actuaries to work with retirement plan sponsors to improve the disclosures.

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: An update on the activities of the JRMS