Description: How do combo products fit in the new statutory valuation framework?

Description: The article is Part 1 of two articles that provide a case study for the development of a profitability and risk dashboard. The sample dashboard provides distilled information regarding actual to expected (A/E) ratios for key risks, agent quality scores and customer value scores. The dashboard would also provide the value of new business written, surplus strain, debit balances, and expected losses on debit balances at different levels, down to the agent level. A product mix index is provided, together with visual comparisons of key metrics to the company's business plan. The Part 2 article will add information to the dashboard regarding risk margins, target capital, and company value.

Description: When your goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable Realistic and Time-Based, you’ve got a good foundation for performance improvement.

Description: This article is about how entrepreneur independent business owners can solve their day-to-day frustrations and problems with a simple and useful process for setting goals and building a plan to meet those goals.

Description: A review for the book Younger Next Year by Chris Crowley and Henry Lodge, M.D. and how it ties with the Actuary of the Future Section by Dave Snell. Dave relates to his own experience and finds that among a list of activities that could make you younger, his volunteering experience with SoA certainly helped make him feel a lot better. The article concludes that we have control over how we age and let us all make our future “Strong, Fit, and Sexy—Until You’re 80 and Beyond.”

Description: Discusses creating a user-friendly [and bullet-proof] spreadsheet.

Description: Many experts tout the benefits of index investing, but history tells us that when enough investors do the same thing it tends to end badly. Stay tuned!

Description: Description and specifications for the health section's article-writing contest on the topic of provider payment reform.

Description: Identifying and submitting all appropriate ICD-9 diagnosis codes to CMS will result in a higher risk score for the member and increased payments to Medicare Advantage plans. Milliman's HCC prevalence study illustrates the significant variations in HCC prevalence rates by age/gender, geography, and population type and will assist plans in benchmarking the effectiveness of their own diagnosis code capture efforts.

Description: This article describes the results of three years of work by Blue Shield of California to collaborate with hospitals and physician organizations to reduce cost and improve quality for commercial populations in targeted geographies.