Description: The Society of Actuaries (SOA) Research Institute received a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) to educate insurance actuaries on the use of wildfire risk datasets and models to be developed by researchers from academia and the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Description: How do Professionalism and the Actuarial Standards of Practice apply as the way we work and tools we use continue to change? Business is conducted via social media and messaging and Generative AI allows for additional scenarios, analysis and oversight. Join us for an interactive session to go deeper into these topics including case studies, polls and a panel discussion.

Description: On January 12, 2023, the Arizona Blockchain Applied Research Center (AZ BARC) and the SOA Research Institute jointly ran a workshop on the use of blockchain technology in insurance and financial industries. The workshop included presentations focused on academic research in the blockchain space by Arizona State University, AZ BARC and an industry expert panel assembled by the SOA Research Institute. This document summarizes the research highlights and the discussions that occurred during the two-hour workshop.

Description: This fifth call for essays aimed to gather perspectives, opinions and data on how to advance the state of effective retirement planning tools, products, and strategies to assist individuals, financial advisors, employers and other stakeholders. The goal was to meet two objectives: (1) identify retirement risks, and (2) how to better plan for and maintain a secure retirement.

Description: This paper explores how molecular biology, specifically epigenetics, may impact the life insurance industry, and considers the effects of utilizing epigenetic biomarkers for underwriting.

Description: The popular press plays an important role in public perception regarding automated vehicles. In contrast to the excitement generated two to three years ago, we are now in a period of “reverse hype” with most articles focused on the slow pace of development and concerns regarding possible negative impacts on traffic congestion and growth of suburbs. To help describe current trends and highlight differences between the cars we see on the street today and driverless vehicles, this report relies on three market-related definitions; safe, self-driving and driverless.

Description: Session 5A: Creating Continuity in Behavioral Health for Medicaid & ACA Beneficiaries

Description: This newsletter provides a regulation outlook for the use of AI/ML in insurance industry, interpretations of regulatory expectations and what insurers should consider when managing risks associated with the development, implementation and use of AI/ML models/tools.

Description: The global doubling of information content has been estimated to occur at a rate of every 12 hours, and conceivably faster. This ‘infowhelm’ is a double-edged sword for insurers. While maximization of the global knowledge base can fuel innovation, it can occur only in the context of reasonable cost for a higher benefit. The insurance industry – underwriters and actuaries in particular – are challenged to constantly examine new innovations that promise to raise confidence and protective value for insurability, within legal limits. This report aims to be the first of several to alert the SOA of promising innovations for the profession.

Description: The objective of this paper is to provide a practical guide with concrete case studies to help actuaries implement artificial intelligence and machine learning (AIML) to help accelerate the speed of analysis for life and annuity actuarial modeling. We do so by researching the existing literature regarding AIML and its applicability to stochastic modeling and exploring case studies.