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In civil engineering, no building can be sounder than the foundation on which it rests. A similar comment applies to statistical analysis, which is obviously limited by the quality of the underlying data.
Keep taking the tablets
Earlier Gavin wrote about a number of mobile devices from which you could run Longevitas software services, including a Nokia telephone and an iPod Touch. This is not a result of specifically designing for these devices, but it is a handy benefit from following the open, published standards for web development.
The limits of limits
Is there a limit to life expectancy?
Seven questions for projections by cause of death
I have written several times about the challenges in creating mortality projections based on cause-of-death data. Those interested in the details can consult my recent paper published in a special edition of the British Actuarial Journal.
Caveat emptor
I wrote earlier about survivor forwards as a means of transferring longevity risk. One natural question for investors to ask is: what is the likelihood of loss exceeding a given amount?
Order, order!
Mortality improvements can be analysed in a number of ways. A common desire is to want to separate mortality improvements into components for period and cohort. However, this is much trickier than it seems, as we shall show here. In particular, the order in which calculations are performed can be very important.
Business benefits of statistical models
In a recent meeting I was asked by a reinsurer what the advantages were of using statistical models in his business. The reinsurer knew about the greater analytical power of survival models, but he wanted more.
Currency devaluation
I have written before on aspects of the CMI's new deterministic projection model. One hoped-for goal was that the CMI 2010 model would become a "common currency" for communicating mortality-improvement bases.
Model risk
Investors in longevity risk are particularly interested in extremes — they want to know the maximum loss they are likely to bear for a given probability. Reinsurers can be even more strongly interested in extremes, especially if they have written stop-loss reinsurance.
Devil in the detail
Last week I wrote about the judgment by the European Court of Justice which bans the use of gender in insurance pricing after 2012. An interesting aspect is the areas of insurance business which may not be affected.