Description: A panel of actuaries and investment experts share their experience with the AG53 requirements for Asset Adequacy Testing. They will discuss challenging areas in the inaugural year of the consideration of complex assets as well as discuss potential areas of future regulatory expectations.

Description: While a rising sea helps all ships, the insurance industry is a ship that hasn't seen much water in the past decade. Examine valuation and product management considerations in a high interest rate environment

Description: Discuss a comparison of the U.S. general and insured population mortality experience and how COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 excess deaths impacted the populations differently. Discover the population mortality experience in the UK with a focus on the recent emergence of excess deaths for non-COVID causes. The long-term implications on the insured population will also be explored. Wrap up with a discussion of different conditions of long COVID, including organ impairments.

Description: As the size of the life reinsurance market in Bermuda has grown to over half a trillion dollars at the end of 2021, more and more actuaries are getting involved with this 21 square mile North Atlantic island in one way or the other. Come explore a fundamental understanding of the Bermuda solvency framework and an overview of its upcoming changes.

Description: The Society of Actuaries Predictive Analytics and Futurism Section, the Financial Reporting Section, the Investment Section and the Canadian Institute of Actuaries are pleased to release a new and improved version of the 2005 Society of Actuaries (SOA) Delphi study of four economic variables. Performed by Theodore J. Gordon, the research acquaints actuaries with the application of futures methods that could supplement traditional actuarial forecasting practices.

Description: In *From Distress to Distinction*, Chris Droussiotis explores a novel approach to valuing distressed companies using option pricing theory, drawing parallels to the financial challenges faced by startups. With over 30 years in banking and startup advising, he emphasizes that both distressed firms and early-stage ventures endure periods of negative cash flow but retain potential for recovery. He combines Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) and the Black-Scholes Option Pricing Model to evaluate distressed firms’ recovery prospects and debt sustainability. A case study on Spirit Airlines illustrates this approach: though its current equity value is negative, projected future cash flows suggest significant potential recovery. Droussiotis concludes that strategic valuation, using trend, peer, and expected analysis, can reveal hidden value in distressed companies, guiding effective investment and restructuring decisions.

Description: Leadership lessons for actuaries. Insights into what Asset Intensive Reinsurance is all about.

Description: ALM actuaries are critical to insurance companies and pension funds—monitoring ALM positioning, measuring risk exposures, and informing the investment decision making process. However, there are opportunities for actuaries to further increase their impact by expanding their scope and embedding actuarial expertise throughout the investment lifecycle. This session will cover new and enhanced ALM techniques to improve ALM risk and return outcomes, including better integration of credit and market risk measurement, and enhanced liability-driven investing strategies.

Description: Businesses across the board have been drastically impacted by the effects of COVID-19 over the course of 2020, and insurance was not immune. Perhaps most relevant to this industry’s current capital and liquidity concern is the prevailing low interest rate environment. This has been a global trend in the last decade, and treasury rates in much of the developed world are at or near zero. Reduced investment returns limit an insurer’s ability to achieve their desired return on equity, eliminating previously profitable strategies that depended on the leverage of life and annuity balance sheets. Focus and activity have instead shifted to other methods to counteract the low interest rate markets and accompanying capital strain. Examples include increased mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity within the insurance industry and an increasing focus by private equity firms in the insurance market for asset-intensive products, both of which reflect the goal of increasing yield rates on capital.

Description: Collateralized Loan Obligations have been around since the 1980’s, but recently have become a hot topic in the insurance industry. Join a panel of experts for an introduction to the asset class, covering areas such as the history of CLOs, why they’ve become more popular recently, the risks and returns of the asset class, and how actuaries can learn more.