Description: This article contains reviews of the following books: 1. 'Fundamental Mathematics of Life Insurance' by Floyd S. Harper and Lewis C. Workman, 2. 'Mathematics of Compound Interest' by Marjorie V. Butcher and Cecil J. Nesbitt, 3.'Compound Interest and Annuities-Certain' by D. W. A. Donald, 4. 'Demography' by P. R. Cox, 5. 'The Spirit and the Uses of the Mathematical Sciences' edited by Thomas L. Saaty and F. Joachim Weyl, 6. 'Ethics, Morality, and Insurance' by John D. Long, 7. Reports of the 1971 Advisory Council on Social Security, 8. 'Medical Care at Public Expense' by Mark V. Pauly 9. 'Eleventh Actuarial Valuation of the Assets and Liabilities under the Railroad Retirement Acts as of December 31, 1968, with Technical Supplement' by the Railroad Retirement Board, 10. 'Nouvelles tables-types de mortalité' by Sully Ledermann, 11. 'A Table of Expected Working Life for Men, 1968' by Howard W. Fullerton, 12. 'Disability-Determination and Evaluation' by Henry H. Kessler, 13. 'Industrial Safety Statistics: A Re-examination' by Jerome B. Gordon, Allan Akman, and Michael L. Brooks, 14. 'Pensions and Severance Pay for Displaced Defense Workers' by Hugh Folk and PauI Hartman, 15. 'Trends and Variations in Fertility in the United States' by Clyde V. Kiser, Wilson H. Grabill, and Arthur A. Campbell, 16. 'Benefit Plans in Junior Colleges' by Francis P. King, 17. 'The Consumer's Guide to Insurance Buying' by Vladimir P. Chernik, and 18. 'Private Pension Scheme Finance' by Sylvia and Leslie Tutt. Notices of other studies and articles are also included. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1971, Vol. 23, Pt. 1, No. 67.

Description: This discussion looks at steps insurance companies take to regain a greater share of the available savings dollars, developing trends toward a separation of the insurance and investment elements of life insurance contracts, as wells a the feasibility to make endowment and other investment-type contracts more attractive by reduction or redistribution of first year expenses.

Description: This informal discussion from 1960 discusses the Society of Actuaries Examinations. Specifically, the panelists discuss several syllabus changes, including the elimination of Part 1, the English exam, and giving the preliminary examinations twice yearly, a change from annual, and the extent to which this will help recruit more candidates. They also discussed the proposed “two-pronged” system of Fellowship exams and the extent to which this might attract more qualified candidates, and speed up the overall process of completing the exams.

Description: This is a discussion of the paper, 'Group Annuity Mortality' by Ray M. Peterson, which presents the Group Annuity Table for 1951 with projection factors. The paper is reviewed, an additional projection method is suggested with illustrations, discussion of the difficulties of using projected rates for premiums and reserves, and critiques are provided.

Description: This is a panel discussion about H.R. 10 pension plans, i.e., tax deferred retirement savings plans for the owners of an unincorporated business and its employees. The following questions are addressed: To what extent is coverage under H.R. 10 being provided under individual policies and under group contracts? What problems are presented in each approach? If special plans are used, what provisions must be included? If normal contracts are used, what modifications or endorsements must be made? What plans are generally used? If split-funding is not used with normal contracts, how are increases in contributions handled? To what extent are trust or custodial accounts being used? From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1964, Vol. 16 Pt. 2.

Description: This discussion examines miscellaneous topics. Topics include actuarial training, final salary pension plans and hospitalization and surgical insurance. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1960, Vol. 12, No. 34.