Description: An interview of the winning co authors of the SOA essay contest on how differences in wealth and retirement outcomes are experienced by people of different races and ethnicities and to promote a better understanding of the underlying issues surrounding the differences.

Description: 2022 Welcome and Strategic Themes for the Marketing and Distribution Section Council.

Description: The IFRS Foundation’s establishment of the International Sustainability Standards Board is a major step toward achieving relevant, decision-useful sustainability information for market participants that is comparable across industries and jurisdictions.

Description: A recounting of all the accomplishments the Joint Risk Management Section had in 2021 crediting those responsible for their successful completion.

Description: Climate risk modeling is taking center stage. With businesses increasingly expected to show how they assess, adapt to, and mitigate the risks of climate change, companies are asking: What is the right climate risk modeling approach for our business?

Description: A note to the section members from the outgoing and incoming section chairs.

Description: Actuarial functions are being asked to do more with less: being challenged to provide more value to the business through applying insight and foresight. This article examines ways in which actuaries can provide business insights with very limited investment. The article provides actionable steps that actuaries easily apply to their daily work.

Description: Businesses across the board have been drastically impacted by the effects of COVID-19 over the course of 2020, and insurance was not immune. Perhaps most relevant to this industry’s current capital and liquidity concern is the prevailing low interest rate environment. This has been a global trend in the last decade, and treasury rates in much of the developed world are at or near zero. Reduced investment returns limit an insurer’s ability to achieve their desired return on equity, eliminating previously profitable strategies that depended on the leverage of life and annuity balance sheets. Focus and activity have instead shifted to other methods to counteract the low interest rate markets and accompanying capital strain. Examples include increased mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity within the insurance industry and an increasing focus by private equity firms in the insurance market for asset-intensive products, both of which reflect the goal of increasing yield rates on capital.

Description: Discusses the recent firing of the Social Security Commissioner and the president's legal authority to do so.

Description: A discussion with an experienced actuarial manager on how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted people management and what we can learn and apply in the actuarial profession going forward.