In 2006 the Life Section was founded as the latest (up to now) section of the International Actuarial Association (IAA). On September 7–9, 2009, its third colloquium was held in Munich, Germany, under the heading “Beyond Traditional Life Insurance”; the last of these 3 days was jointly organised with the IAA AFIR Colloquium which took place on September 9–11. Indeed, the blurring of the borderline between these sections is apparent from the increasing number of talks which fit to both sections equally well.

To design a programme of one of the first colloquia in a series can be quite challenging, because one cannot rely on a long tradition like the well-established IAA ASTIN and AFIR colloquia. In particular, it needed extra effort to attract a broad range of submitted talks of high quality and a large number of participants as well. The scientific committee of the 3rd IAA Life Colloquium (chaired by Hartmut Milbrodt, University of Rostock) accepted this challenge and combined time-tested features of scientific conferences with other less traditional elements.

To the classical elements belong the invitation of leading experts as keynote speakers to the following four broad topics identified as particularly important to the life insurance industry:

Topic 1:

Biometric risks and their securitization;

keynote speakers: Michel Denuit (Catholic University of Louvain) and Annamaria Olivieri (University of Parma).

Topic 2:

Designing life insurance products;

keynote speaker: Marcus Christiansen (University of Rostock).

Topic 3:

Life insurance and financial markets;

keynote speaker: David Blake (Cass Business School, London, joint invitation with AFIR section).

Topic 4:

Solvency, accounting and the evaluation of life insurance business;

keynote speakers: Paolo Cadoni (Financial Services Authority, London) and Norbert Heinen (B&W Deloitte).

Moreover, about 40 papers were submitted, 32 of which were chosen to be presented in one of the eleven sessions with contributed talks.

Among the less traditional elements of the colloquium was a panel discussion of five eminent practitioners and academics: David Blake (Cass Business School, UK), Paolo Cadoni (Financial Services Authority, UK), Gerhard Rupprecht (Allianz Deutschland, Germany), Thomas Steffen (CEIOPS/BaFin, Germany) and Peter Wright (Deloitte, UK and Czech Republic), chaired by Steven Habermann (Cass Business School, UK). Less than a year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers and with the outlook on the future of the financial industry still seeming rather bleak, the panel discussed the consequences of the financial crisis for the life insurance industry. In particular, the panelists exchanged their views on the use of capital market models, a potential comeback of rule-based regulation (in contrast to principle-based regulation), the role the traditional business model of life insurance with long-term interest rate guarantees will play in the future, and the consequences of the financial crisis for the role of actuaries in life insurance industry. (A more detailed summary of the panel discussion can be found in Der Aktuar 15, p. 162.) Beyond doubt most participants considered the often controversial discussion as one of the highlights of the Life Colloquium.

It is not widely known that in 2007 the scope of the ASTIN Bulletin, which was established 1958 as a journal providing an outlet for actuarial studies in non-life insurance, was broadened to encompass topics relevant for all scientific sections of the IAA. In order to encourage the submission of life papers to the ASTIN Bulletin, a Life Section prize for the best life insurance article published in ASTIN Bulletin was awarded for the first time at the 3rd IAA life colloquium (chosen among articles published between May 2007 and May 2009). The jury unanimously selected the paper “A universal pricing framework for guaranteed minimum benefits in variable annuities” by Daniel Bauer, Alexander Kling and Jochen Russ. Following the award ceremony, Daniel Bauer (Georgia State University) delivered a talk based on an updated version of the prize-winning paper.

Further highlights of the colloquium comprise the award ceremony SCOR-Prize for Actuarial Sciences and an elaborated social programme. Further details of the agenda can be found on the pages following this preface.

The aim of this special volume of the European Actuarial Journal is twofold. Firstly, all aspects of the scientific programme of the the 3rd IAA Life Colloquium are documented in detail; in particular, the abstracts of all talks presented during the Life Colloquium are listed. Secondly, six research papers accepted for publication provide an insight in some of the topics discussed at the colloquium. As the published papers had to pass a rigorous refereeing process, not all submissions could be accepted for publication.

With over 280 participants from over 20 countries all over the world attending several of nearly 40 talks and enjoying other highlights of the conference, the 3rd IAA Life Colloquium was a great success. It would not have been possible without the excellent work of the organising committee (chaired by Kurt Wolfsdorf) and the office of the German Actuarial Association DAV.

Scientific Committee

Hartmut Milbrodt (chairman)

Holger Drees

Hans-Ulrich Gerber

Steven Haberman

Angus S. Macdonald

Ermanno Pitacco

Raimund Rhiel

Mogens Steffensen

Organising Committee

Kurt Wolfsdorf (chairman)

Karl-Josef Bierth

Markus Faulhaber

Manfred Feilmeier

Laszlo Hrabovszki

Johannes Lörper

Norbert Pyhel

Rainer Sauerwein

Roland Weber