Description: Discusses the financial-guarantee insurance industry, including: [1] a brief history, [2] types of coverage offered, [3] pricing, reserving, and equity considerations, and [4] applicable regulation. From the 1988 Record of Society of Actuaries, Vol. 14, No. 4B.

Description: This panel discussion, which occurred at the October 1982 Society of Actuaries Annual Meeting in Washington D.C., presented information on the management of assets in relationship to liabilities. The information was based on a report from the C-3 Risk Task Force. Topics included: 1. Design of investment strategies to develop cash flow patterns appropriate with the liabilities. 2. Structuring the company to assure that investment returns are channeled to appropriate lines of business. 3. Valuing liabilities to appropriately recognize the relationship between assets and liabilities. 4. Should the actuary be concerned with certification of assets as well as liabilities? 5. Equity among lines contributing to investable cash flow.

Description: In this paper, chapter V of the 1987 Valuation Actuary Handbook, the authors start with a discussion of how the recent economic environment with volatile interest rates has changed the valuation and surplus management process to one more dependent on actuarial judgment. In a discussion of surplus policy, the authors identify four “layers” of surplus which have been identified by scenario testing. These surplus layers, along with policy reserves, are based on specific invested assets. The paper discusses implications for the future and notes the actuary’s ability to advise management on surplus adequacy is a basic tool of risk management.