Description: The author provides insights into the reasons for the decline of Japanese government bond yields to record lows as of October 1997. This article originally appeared in the November 1997 issue of International Economic Trends, and is reprinted courtesy of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Description: This article notes that life insurance companies have long used sophisticated techniques for appraising capital investment, and explores the question of whether these techniques can be applied to other industries.

Description: This article discusses the demographic trends as the “baby boomer” generation begins to retire, including implications for retirement plans, Social Security, and other considerations. Reprinted from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Economic Letter, Number 98–20, June 26, 1998.

Description: John Shuttleworth explains why our exam syllabus needs updated and shares examples of inconsistencies in the material and actual financial economics. Edward Friend responds to this article.

Description: This articles describes some of the industry issues that new-generation risk modeling technologies can address and the emerging technology of simultion as it applies to risk modeling.

Description: This article presents some thoughts on the role of the investment actuary in the United Kingdom. It is a topical subject, prompted by a feeling that the U.K. profession is not fulfilling its potential in this specialty. The article has three main themes: a Some historical perspective b What the professional actuary uniquely has to offer the investment marketplace and c What the consulting actuaries in the U.K. currently offer their clients.

Description: In this article the author discusses stable value wrap contracts, funds in defined contribution pension plans, which credit interest and guarantee principle. This article discusses current controversies about the classification of the wrap contract and about the relative value of its experience-rated and non experience-rated versions, and concludes that a wrap is not a derivative.

Description: Full version of Risks and Rewards Newsletter, July 2003, Issue No. 42.

Description: The investment risk taken by a pension fund comprises strategic risk and active risk. This paper discusses the relative merits of these two types of risk to the pension fund, possible rationales for the levels of strategic and active risk typically adopted mechanisms for capturing manager skill without taking on equity risk, and issues in setting liability-based benchmarks for investment managers