Description: This article is an interview with Laura Bennett, FSA, CEO of Embrace Pet Insurance. Her company provides one–of–a–kind pet insurance. The Actuary recently asked Bennett some questions about her unusual use of actuarial training.

Description: The goal of the session was to provide actuaries with an overview of the experiences of being an independent actuary and several details to be considered when setting up your own business.

Description: Letter from the president. After a long, but gratifying, six-year journey, the SOA’s basic education restructuring is now fully implemented. Basic education (i.e., through FSA) now reflects a sound, solid continuum.

Description: Editorial on Continuing Education.

Description: Table of contents

Description: Examines the trends affecting the distribution system for the industry's products, and the regulatory and tax environment in which life companies operate. Also looks briefly at the state of competition in the industry.

Description: Chronicles the journey made by Allstate to enhance its process for managing risk and ultimately find ways to better exploit risk opportunities.

Description: State Medicaid agencies have been implementing value-based payment (VBP) models for the last decade and are increasingly exploring advanced population-based payment (PBP) models that increase flexibility, predictability, and accountability for participating provider organizations. PBP models show promise in advancing Medicaid priorities, but are still in the early stages of development, and model design and implementation challenges remain. This article from the Center for Health Care Strategies explores the fundamentals of VBP and how PBP - a particular type of payment model - can help Medicaid agencies achieve goals related to care transformation and quality improvement, revenue stability, and controlling cost of care.

Description: This article is written in response to the article that appeared in the February/March issue of The Actuary entitled Better Standards for Setting Standards written by Dave Kass. It discusses the process itself, the time it takes to develop or change standards and how quickly new ideas should be incorporated in the standards.

Description: MacGinnitie discusses how retirement may change in the 21st century. First, he discusses what forces are shaping current retirement trends and what might happen to redefine retirement in the 21st century. He then examines what this might mean for private pension systems, and how actuaries can adapt.