Description: One of the most fundamental concepts in actuarial practice is the time value of money. For any work in which future cash flows are allowed for, such as reserving or pricing, it is natural to discount to present values so that an appropriate amount of money can be set aside today, allowing for future investment returns. This article discusses yield curve extrapolation methods along with the benefits and drawbacks of these methods.

Description: Part I of a four-part series on insurance product regulations around the world. Provides a good high-level summary of the regulations as of 2002.

Description: Provides an overview of India's insurance market and the important role of the actuary.

Description: This article presents the idea that a New Product Notebook, which contains all of the aspects of a product's development and is accessible to all involved, can make the product development process more efficient.

Description: This article summarizes the treatment of changes in the basis for determining life insurance tax reserves under prior law and describes the changes enacted by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. It further explains the procedures for changing the basis of computing reserves under the new rules as outlined in Revenue Procedure 2019-10, the IRS’s December 2018 guidance on the subject, and discusses the uncertainties that remain.

Description: This article explores how the ideas in Abundance, the bestselling book by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, offer a fresh lens for understanding both society and the life-insurance industry. The book contrasts two ways of thinking: a scarcity mindset that assumes limits, protects the status quo, and manages decline; and an abundance mindset that believes capacity can expand through innovation, investment, and imagination. The article traces how these philosophies appear in American history, politics, and public policy—from immigration rhetoric to wartime mobilization—and shows how over-regulation often traps entire sectors in scarcity. Against this backdrop, the article argues that life insurance remains anchored in scarcity thinking, even as other industries—streaming, digital platforms, and the sharing economy—have embraced abundance with transformative results. The protection gap illustrates the issue: U.S. households face a US$25 trillion shortfall in mortality coverage, yet actuarial practice tends to price narrowly, underwrite cautiously, and focus on existing insured lives rather than millions of underserved families. The article calls for a shift toward abundance through broader underwriting, inclusive product design, alternative data, parametric solutions, regulatory engagement, and financial literacy. By choosing abundance, the industry can close protection gaps and redefine its role in expanding opportunity.

Description: Discusses the early days of India's opening up of it's insurance markets and the actuarial profession.