Description: The SOA Research Institute’s Aging and Retirement Strategic Research Program and Canadian Institute of Actuaries are pleased to make available the first of two reports that look at Benefit at Risk (BaR) in lifetime pension pools.

Description: In this webcast, we will overview the recent trends in the pension landscapes, as well as discuss investment solutions that assist with navigation through volatile market conditions. Learn more about the challenges that investors face now, as well as in the past. If you're ready to dive into the issues of investing during a period of inflation, monetary tightening and turbulent financial markets, then join us and discover more about what's going on in the pension and retirement industries.

Description: As results emerged showing the influence of COVID-19 on recent mortality, the Society of Actuaries Research Institute’s Mortality and Longevity Strategic Research Program Steering Committee (MLPSC) began to ponder what it means for the future. Was the coronavirus pandemic just a temporary shock to U.S. mortality with mortality quickly returning to prepandemic levels upon its conclusion or a lingering factor in future U.S. mortality from the potential occurrence of new coronavirus variants, post-COVID-19 conditions (“long COVID”), deferral of needed health care treatment, a fatigued health care system and other elements? Only time will provide the answers to these questions.

Description: This article is a summary of the SOA Research Institute report published in April 2023 on Megatrends Impacting the Future of Retirement Plans.

Description: Many retirement actuaries have experience developing, implementing, and monitoring Liability Driven Investing (LDI) strategies for plan sponsors. These strategies typically involve modifying a plan’s investment strategy to remove a significant portion of the investment and interest rate risk now or at some point in the future when specific triggers are met. The tactics often involve the use of fixed income assets to cash flow and/or duration match the liabilities. In the spirit of helping actuaries expand their roles in an evolving defined contribution world, this article explores the application of LDI and derisking strategies within defined contribution and individual retirement accounts. The economic theory behind this approach is called the lifecycle hypothesis, or lifecycle finance. The benefits of the lifecycle finance method are that it provides a safe approach to save for retirement and a secure source of floor income during retirement. Similar to pension plans, each individual has his or her own idiosyncratic needs, wants, and risks that should be considered. Actuaries are uniquely situated to help defined contribution plan sponsors, individuals, and even themselves implement the lifecycle finance approach by developing and distributing tools and methods that focus on income (rather than wealth), LDI strategies, and personalization.

Description: Gather with members and non-members in the China actuarial community to discuss recent topics and related issues in areas such as macroeconomic sharing, pension, investment, product strategy, and more.

Description: The SOA Research Institute tasked the Workforce Science Institute to investigate how retirement benefit plans can affect a plan sponsor’s workforce and business results. The following is an interview with Rick Guzzo and Haig Nalbantian co-founders of the Workforce Science Institute who are the researchers on this project. The interview gives a helicopter view of the project as well as provides some “food for thought” on how retirement plans can be designed to produce an effective workforce.

Description: Come discuss how reinsurers can work side by side with insurer to better develop products, and lift in the areas that reinsurers have more experience, help matching products with distributions (or vice versa) and provide advanced technologies associated with tools and software. The speakers will also present Direct to Consumer plan from various points of view, i.e., distributors, carriers, and reinsurers. Some case studies will also be presented where traditional reinsurers and asset-intensive reinsurers helped insurers bring products to life.

Description: The SOA Research Institute Aging and Retirement Strategic Research Program and Retirement Section are pleased to make available a research report that examines megatrends and potential paradigm shifts, and how they may impact the future of retirement and retirement plans, as well as the macro forces that will shape those trends.