Description: Describes the Society of Actuaries' Research Expanding Boundaries Funding Pool and the application process for obtaining funds.

Description: Full version of Small Talk Newsletter, October 2006, Issue No. 27.

Description: This is a review of 'Restructuring Retirement Risks,' a collection of papers that examines retirement risks, edited by David Blitzstein, Olivia Mitchell, and Stephen Utkus. The papers, which are a must–read for serious students of retirement systems and a good introduction for those not as familiar with the issues, explore the stresses being placed on those systems and ever–increasing uncertainty as Baby Boomers begin to move into retirement.

Description: Inflation can impact retirement and retirees in a variety of ways. With inflation as a reality in the current economic environment, the Society of Actuaries Research Institute's Aging and Retirement Strategic Research Program has explored this issue in recently published research and essays. This webcast will present results of that work, sharing different aspects of inflation's impact on retirement including savings, investment choices and the impact on retirees themselves.

Description: Review of a report by Alan Mills introducing Complexity Science, a discipline which could help actuaries to model and manage complex systems, such as the health care system.

Description: Article from Risk Management Newsletter, November 2005, Issue 6 on the Risk Management Research Team's requests for proposals. The team’s mission is to develop and produce innovative research in risk management and to showcase actuaries as leading experts in this area. With this in mind, the team set to work this summer on developing and refining several research ideas.

Description: Full version of Risk Management, September 2007, Issue No. 11.

Description: Healthcare costs have been rising faster than general inflation for many years. Early models that predicted this past pattern projected healthcare expenditure growth that continued to outpace total expenditure growth leading to the fallacious position that the whole of the US economy would ultimately be consumed by healthcare. The Society of Actuaries' Pension Section and Health Section Research teams commissioned Professor Thomas E. Getzen of Temple University to construct a resource model for the projection of long term healthcare cost trends that includes capacity constraints to ensure the long-term projection is rational. The motivation for creation of the model was driven by its potential usage as a resource for the estimation of reportable liabilities for retiree healthcare benefits as specified under FAS 106 and GASB 45 accounting statements. This is a zip file containing the following: 1. A background paper on the creation of the health trend model, 2. The model, programmed in Microsoft Excel [xls format], that projects per-person expenditures and growth rates through 2099 using baseline assumptions, but also permits the flexibility for user–inputted alternative assumptions, and 3. Technical documentation providing transparency and support for the ultimate results.

Description: The SOA’s Committee on Finance Research recently made available the results of a research study that explores economic series and provides an Excel-based tool for generating future economic scenarios. From Risks and Rewards Newsletter, August 2005, Issue No. 47.

Description: When the editor at The Actuary first approached me to review the book "Two Guys Read the Obituaries," I must admit to an overwhelming feeling of queasy self–consciousness. What exactly were the character traits of mine that led the editor to think I was a suitable choice to review a book about obituaries? After reassuring myself that I was chosen because I've previously reviewed books for The Actuary, rather than any personality similarities to the death–obsessed character played by Bud Cort in the classic "Harold and Maude," a number of questions immediately sprang to mind. From The Actuary Magazine June 2007