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: ReFocus is an annual global conference for senior-level life insurance and reinsurance executives hosted jointly by ACLI and the Society of Actuaries (SOA). This event features top-notch speakers, thought-provoking sessions, and superior networking opportunities.

Description: Join us for an exciting session as Actuarial Innovation & Technology Strategic Research from the SOA's Research Institute unveils two recently published research reports: ""Unveiling the Life Insurers' Actuarial Transformation Journey and the Impact of Analytics"" and ""Exploring Revolutionary Advances in Underwriting: An Initial Assessment of Epigenetics, Medical Tests, and Wearables"". In the first report, we delve into the evolving landscape of life insurers' Actuarial Transformation efforts, shedding light on their future prospects and emphasizing emerging Advanced Analytics techniques. The second report serves as the inaugural installment of a series dedicated to identifying promising innovations for underwriters and actuaries, and it promises to alert the SOA to the latest developments. During this session, our presenters will provide an insightful overview of the key findings and key takeaways from both research reports. By the end of the session, attendees will gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for the invaluable research conducted in these areas.

Description: LIMRA and the SOA Research Institute have completed the most up-to-date study of group life experience. The results include breakdowns for Basic Life, Supplemental Life, and Portability coverages and analysis for Life Insurance, Waiver of Premium, and Accidental Death & Dismemberment claims.

Description: Most people will now have had some exposure to Large Language Model tools such as ChatGPT and will have been impressed by their ability to write essays or generate computer code. However, fewer people will be aware of the next phase of AI, which will turn AI chat assistants into more fully fledged AI colleagues. These emerging set of tools come under the broad term of “AI agents”, which are AI-based systems which have capabilities beyond a simple chat interface and are able to interact with external tools, access data, and most importantly have the capability to plan and perform arbitrarily complex tasks. In this talk we will explore the emerging field of AI agents and discuss our experiences using such frameworks to build end-to-end actuarial modelling solutions and demo some POCs we have been working on for the audience. We will also cover topics related to building such complex AI systems including: prompt-engineering fine-tuning retrieval augmented generation function calling specific AI agent frameworks and how they will allow AI to participate in all the different stages of the actuarial modelling process from coding and testing to documentation and analysis.

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: Situated at the intersection of psychology, neuroscience, sociology, and economics, behavioral economics (BE) centers on applying an honest understanding of human behavior to practical problems. This report is designed to provide general familiarity to the reader interested in the subject of BE and motivate additional research on the topic.

Description: The goal of the third survey in this series is to collect and disseminate information on best practices around sales and the issuance of new business. The survey was directed at staff directly involved in assessing the impact of recent events on new business processes.