The ninth International Longevity Risk and Capital Markets Solutions Conference was held in Beijing from 6-7 September.
This was hosted by the China Institute for Actuarial Science, Central University of Finance and Economics in China (CUFE).
CUFE has the only Institute for actuarial science in China, and its long relationship with the IFoA goes back to the late 1980s.
The longevity conference is a platform that draws academics, practitioners and policy makers, and other experts from all over the world to address the impact of longevity risk on aging population. At the invitation of the event organisers, David Hare, president, attended the conference in Beijing and gave a pre-dinner speech on the challenges for actuaries in dealing with longevity predictions. In his presentation, David described how actuaries were playing their part in developing thinking to underpin the models used to project future life expectancy. He also highlighted the vital role that judgement and communication play in dealing with the intrinsic uncertainty that existed in these projections.
While attending the conference, David was also interviewed by the China Insurance News. He was asked to discuss issues such as what the Chinese insurance industry could be doing to deal with the ageing population, and how they could manage the longevity risk through product design.
David was also asked to give advice to the Chinese actuaries, for which he emphasised professionalism as well as relevance.