Description: 1998 Valuation Actuary Symposium. In this open forum questions were fielded by the panel of experts. Some of the questions: 1. How do you pick spreads for use in your reinvestment strategy? 2. What's generally being done in terms of dynamically modeling policyholder lapsation? 3. How do companies treat riders and dump-in premiums and estimated gross profits for GAAP? 4. What impact does the current interest environment have on testing you are going to do this year? 5. Are there any suitable techniques for trying to aggregate the variable products with the fixed products?

Description: 1996 Valuation Actuary Symposium. Questions asked and answered included: 1. What do regulators expect or want as far as asset adequacy analysis for shorter-term liabilities such as IBNR? 2. What responsibility does the appointed actuary have in verifying reserves for reinsured business? 3. If the assets for the market value adjusted annuity are held in a separate account and valued at market, what rates should be used to present value the projected guaranteed benefits? 4. May a company perform the cash-flow testing based on the low level of reserves held in the domiciliary state rather than the higher reserve actually held in the state with the special state in filing? 5. Have there been any situations where an opining valuation actuary has been held personally responsible?