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Actuary-Info
http://actuary-info.blogspot.com/
a Dutch/English Blog with non-conventional, witty, remarkable, or serendipitous news, about the actuarial 'sidtes' of life.
148 articles
Risky and Happy 2012
From Actuary-Info, 1 month ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles
A happy new year to all Actuary-Info readers!While actuaries and other risk mangers are still trying to cope with 'real' (btw: what's really real') risks, a lot of other people are still worried about the risk of risks:The end of the worldas (assumed) predicted by the Mayans! Maya Calendar ExplainedConsult Cathryn Reese-Taylor (program director, department Archeology University of Calgary) (or read this link) for who's interested in the interesting explanation behind the end of the Maya...
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Sylvester: ABP, Cut Pensions'
From Actuary-Info, 1 month ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles
At the end of 2011, let's take a short view on the madness around cutting pensions.As a leading example, I'll discuss ABP, a Dutch 240 billion pension fund and one of the largest pension funds in the world.Being fanatic blog readers and actuaries, you're probably 'in' for a teasing joke on Sylvester or 'New Years Eve'. As you all know communication is key in the pension business. However, as pension investment results get more volatile and complex (in? time) to explain, communication about...
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Humor: Pickles Risk Management Lesson
From Actuary-Info, 1 month ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles
All credits to the author of Pickles:Brian CraneOriginal Sources /Links: - Gocomics : Pickles - The art of making Pickles - Pickles Wikipedia- Brian Crane
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Forecast Period Principle
From Actuary-Info, 1 month ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles
As actuaries we mostly try to shape the data for our models (ALM, Stress Tests, Assessments, Etc.)? on basis of economic scenarios. Recently we have experienced (Sub prime crisis, Bank crisis, Country crisis, Currency crisis, Debt crisis, etc) that our economy isn't that stable as we might perhaps have estimated or hoped (what's the difference nowadays') ............. In other words:Our Economy is chaotic by natureTherefore, to learn how to shape our data, models and equations in a more...
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River Deep Mountain High Actuary
From Actuary-Info, 1 month ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles
As actuaries we execute Risk management by the book. We dive deep into the tails of our risk sea and try to catch every small risk until we reach the value of the Planck constant. This approach was a proven method to success during the last decades. Our current financial crisis shows us that no asset class is free of risk. This crisis forces us not only to dive deep but also to look at the high mountains of economic risks and emotional winds.....In other words, to survive the next decades, we...
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Humor: Past Performance is...
From Actuary-Info, 3 month ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles
To protect (!) the customer more and more, investment funds feel the need? - or are obligated - to communicate about the expectation of their funds' future return. One of the most used non- or disinformation statements funds use, is the line:Past performance is no guarantee of future resultsA general lesson is that all prefab communication lines and static communication tools are doomed tot fail, as communication is context and time dependent.ModelsJust as Communication, your Actuarial,...
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A Better Life
From Actuary-Info, 3 month ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles
The new (June 2011) 'OECD Health Data 2011' report shows the latest insights in health spending costs. Here are some results for the main OECD countries:Health CostsTotal health spending accounted on average for 9.5% of the GDP for all OECD countries (main countries: 9.8%). Public health is? a substantial? part? of? health? funding? in? all? OECD? countries.Control Health CostsKey question is: will relative 'big rising spenders' like The...
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Humor: Peanuts: Risk Free
From Actuary-Info, 3 month ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles
Risk free rates are an illusion. Risk free is an illusion. Everything in life is 'Free Risk'.... . Don't think about Risk as 'Peanuts'... It's not, as Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Woodstock show...
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How to catch Risk'
From Actuary-Info, 3 month ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles
Desperate attempts to catch Risk in new regulatory standards like Basel (II/III) for banks and Solvency (II) for insurers seem a dead end street....What is happening'That's the question we're about to answer in this blog!Here are some observations:Risk WeightingAll new risk valuating standards are based on Risk Weighting. Some assets (or liabilities) are assumed to be more risky than others. In practice, every asset class that has been identified as more or less 'safe', has turned out to be...
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Sustainable Discount Rates
From Actuary-Info, 3 month ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles
Steering pension funds on a 'one point' Coverage Ratio is like trying to proof global warming on a hot summer day...... It's useless.Why'First of all the complete pension fund balance sheet is based on market value. As there is no substantial market for pension liabilities, this implies that pension liabilities have to be valued on basis of some kind of arbitrary (artificial) method. In the U.S. this has led to the (irresponsible) high discount rate of 8% for state pension funds based on the...
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