DATE: Tuesday, March 27, 2001
1:00 Registration begins; 2:00 Workshops; 5:10 Bar opens; 5:45 Dinner
PLACE: Donald E. Stephens Convention Center (formerly Rosemont Convention Center)
in the Conference Center, main level, down escalator after walkway skybridge
5555 North River Road
Rosemont, IL 60018
(847) 692-2220
COST: $60 with dinner, $50 without dinner
Workshop sessions expected to be approved for Professional Development credit by the PD Committee of the Society of Actuaries are labeled as (PD Credit Pending). See the list below for subsequent approval of credit, or click here for the comprehensive SOA website list.
We welcome and encourage non-actuaries to attend our workshops because information covered is relevant to a wide range of work within insurance and consulting business.
Beverages will be provided before and between the session times.
2:00 p.m. Sessions
1. The New Society of Actuaries Textbook: "US GAAP for Life Insurers" – Dan and Ed were members of the nine-author team that wrote the book. They will discuss the events leading up to the writing of the book, describe the objectives and intended audience of the book, and give an overview of its contents. They will then proceed to give some additional insights into the portions of the book in which they played a primary role, namely: expenses, capitalization, deferred annuities, purchase accounting, and shadow adjustments.
Dan Kunesh, Principal, Tillinghast-Towers Perrin, 2150 E. Lake Cook Rd, Suite 260, Buffalo Grove, IL 60089
Ed Robbins, Executive Vice-President and Chief Actuary, Zurich-Kemper Life Insurance Cos, One Kemper Drive, T-1, Long Grove, IL 60049
2. Long Term Care Issues – Kurt Giesa will discuss current hot issues facing
actuaries who practice in the long term care arena .
Kurt Giesa, MMC Enterprise Risk, 411 E. Wisconsin Av, Suite 800, Milwaukee, WI 53202
3. X-Factor Testing – This workshop is intended to provide a review of the key steps in the process of testing the appropriateness of X factor mortality per the terms of Regulation XXX. Key steps include: preparing data, calculating aggregate death claim distributions, constructing the hypothesis tests, interpreting results, and addressing the credibility of results. The workshop will also allow attendees to share their views and raise questions relating to X-factor testing.
(PD Credit Approved: eligible for 1 unit)
Ken Thieme, 2nd VP, Lincoln Re, PO Box 7808, Fort Wayne, IN 46801,
Tracy Choka, 2nd VP, Lincoln Re, PO Box 7808, Fort Wayne, IN 46801
Drew Tindall, Actuarial Consultant, Lincoln Re, PO Box 7808, Fort Wayne, IN 46801
4. Variable Annuities – Product Design Issues
(PD Credit Approved: eligible for 1 unit)
Don Abbs, Allstate Life Insurance Co, 3100 Sanders Rd, Suite M2, Northbrook, IL 60062
Jim Baumstark, Allstate Life Insurance Co, 3100 Sanders Rd, Suite M2A, Northbrook, IL 60062
5. Tax Update – Cherri and Bud will present recent developments
Cherri Divin, Bud Friedstat, KPMG LLP, 4205 Davco Way, Louisville, KY 40241
6. Data Mining – Basic Concepts, Getting Started – Basic overview of the concepts of data mining. This presentation will also address steps to launch a project, and information technologies to consider beyond the data mining software tools. A guest vendor will give a demonstration of a data mining
application.
Stephen D. Galvan, President, eBizIntell, Inc., Oakbrook Terrace, IL sgalvan@eBizIntell.com
Matthew Adams, SPSS
7. E – Security – Threats and How They Can Be Addressed. The very qualities that make e-business attractive also make it susceptible to increased risk. Without proper controls, companies may find their prized customer list and confidential financial information in the hands of a hacker — or even worse,
their competition.
Jay Schulman, KPMG LLP, 303 E. Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL 60601
3:05 p.m. Sessions
8. GAAP Update – Mike will address various topics including FAS 133, business combinations and IASC
Mike Hughes, Ernst & Young LLP, 233 S. Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL 60606
9. Privacy Regulations – A status report on regulation, including: background and discussion of future directions; content of the 2000 NAIC Model Regulation (with comparisons to the 1982 Model Act); compliance considerations and potential impact on actuaries.
Barb Niehus, Niehus Actuarial Services Inc, 5215 Old Orchard Rd, Suite 750, Skokie, IL 60077
Marilyn Saunders, CNA Insurance Cos, 43 South, CNA Plaza, Chicago, IL 60685
(PD Credit Approved: eligible for 1 unit)
10. Life Regulatory Update – A discussion of current hot topics .
Rick Browne, Bud Friedstat, Derek Houle, KPMG LLP, 303 E. Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL 60601
11. Hedging Strategies for Variable Annuity Guarantees The issues include difficulties in defining the risks you are hedging against, and whether a risk is hedgeable or unhedgeable. Steve will explain risk-neutral valuation for hedging purposes as well as a variety of hedging techniques.
Steve Stone, Allstate Life Insurance Co, 3075 Sanders Rd, Suite G5D, Northbrook, IL 60062
12. Speed Reading – Actuaries, especially those taking exams, are often confronted with volumes of reading material. Alan will introduce speed reading techniques and conduct an introductory lesson. This is a repeat of a session the Chicago Actuarial Association held a few years ago.
Allan Goldin, President of Power Reading, 630-852-3272, ttpwr@aol.com
13. The Future of the Profession **CANCELED**
14. Customer Service in the E-Business Environment **CANCELED**
4:10 p.m. Sessions
15. Health Regulatory Update – This session will highlight the numerous regulations that have been passed at the federal level and discuss the cost impact. Proposed legislation will also be discussed. Audience participation will be welcomed.
Karen Bender, Principal, MMC Enterprise Risk, 411 E. Wisconsin Av, Suite 800, Milwaukee, WI 53202
16. The New President's Medicare Plan & Its Impact on Insurance – This session will highlight the plans of the new administration to reform the Medicare program and how the reforms will impact current Medicare products. We will also discuss the potential financial impact on employer-sponsored plans and the viability of the current Medigap market.
Dale Yamamoto, Hewitt Associates, 100 Half Day Rd, Lincolnshire, IL 60069
(PD Credit Approved: eligible for 1 unit)
17. Fixed Annuities, Deferred & Immediate – The session will discuss new products, including bucket annuities, term/annuity combos and bonus. It will provide a comparison of the sales volume of the various product designs and how they stack up against variable annuities. Pricing and reserving
issues will be considered. (PD Credit Approved: eligible for 1 unit)
Susan Sell, Milliman & Robertson Inc, Two Conway Park #180, 150 Field Dr, Lake Forest, IL 60045
18. Financial Reporting for Variable Annuities – Updating progress on statutory reserving for variable annuities with minimum guaranteed income benefits, and US GAAP reserving for variable annuities with minimum guaranteed death benefits.
Vinaya Sharma, Allstate Life Insurance Co, 3100 Sanders Rd, Northbrook, IL 60062
Scott Wright, KPMG LLP, 303 E. Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL 60601
19. An Alternate Regulatory Perspective-How Bank Regulators Evaluate Bank Risk CANCELED**
20. There are two approaches to extreme value theory. The traditional approach is concerned with limiting properties of the minimum or maximum of a random sample. Another approach is based on exceedances over a high threshold. For applications in finance and insurance, the second approach is more relevant. In particular, it can incorporate explanatory (or auxiliary) variables into modeling and predicting the occurrence of exceeding the threshold. This talk provides an overview of the extreme value theory and its application.
An application of EVT is Value at risk (VaR) calculation. VaR is concerned with financial market risk. It is a single estimate of the amount by which an institution's position in a risk category could decline due to general market movements during a given holding period. We shall compare VaR based on EVT with those based on other methods, including RiskMetrics and GARCH models. Other applications of EVT are in finance and insurance also discussed.
(PD Credit Approved: eligible for 1 unit)
Ruey Tsay, University of Chicago Graduate School of Business
21. Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Reinsurance Q&A Game – Reinsurance has traditionally been used primarily as a risk management tool. As insurance products become more complex, the use of reinsurance is no longer confined to just risk management. This session focuses on the key concepts of
reinsurance, including its financial reporting aspects. The speaker will use a graded sequence of multiple-choice questions, ranging from the basic to the advanced, to lead the audience to a deeper understanding of the topic. At the end of the session, the audience should have gained a higher level of
knowledge in financial and risk reinsurance.
Vincent Tsang, Arthur Andersen LLP, MS27-13, 33 W. Monroe St, Chicago, IL 60603