Canadian Parliament, Ottawa, Canada.

In order to meet the needs of social security actuaries, statisticians and other professionals engaged in the financial management of social security schemes, enhancing and promoting actuarial research and applied techniques are major ISSA activities. An important component of these activities is the triennial International Conference of Social Security Actuaries and Statisticians.

The 16th International Conference is aimed particularly at actuaries, statisticians, economists and financial experts from ISSA member organizations and addresses the following themes:

1. Improvements in life expectancy and sustainability of social security schemes.
2. Optimal financing and self-adjusting mechanisms for sustainable retirement systems.
3. Financial crisis and its impact on long-term sustainability of pension plans (round table
   with international experts).
4. Assumptions in the actuarial evaluation process.

Demographic development, deteriorating dependency ratios and increases in life expectancy are major causes of expected increases in pension expenditure, and the issue of optimizing pension financing under a changing demography and a volatile economy is of paramount importance in many countries with social security schemes providing substantial benefits to retirees under the defined benefit principle.

Programme highlights:

• Round table moderated by Robert Brown, Chair of the International Actuarial Association’s Social Security Committee, and including Nicholas Barr, Professor of Public Economics at the London School of Economics, Michael Cichon of the International Labour Office and a representative of the World Bank.
• Keynote speech: Life-expectancy links – the quiet revolution in pension policy, by Edward Whitehouse, Head of Pension Policy Analysis, Social Policy Division. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
• Keynote speech: Optimal financing and self-adjusting mechanisms for sustainable retirement systems, by Anne Drouin, Chief, International Financial and Actuarial Services, International Labour Office.
• Keynote speech: Demographic and economic assumptions used in actuarial valuation of 14 social security and pension schemes, by Pierre Plamondon, Chief Actuary, The Quebec Pension Board, Canada.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

Background information: Programme and reports of the 15th International Conference of Social Security Actuaries and Statisticians, Helsinki (Finland), 2007 >>