Letters submitted to Contingencies regarding the May/June 2018 and September/October 2018 issues.

By Steve Alpert
A year ago, in my inaugural address as Academy president, I challenged the profession to engage in a dialogue about how the public values the contributions of the actuarial profession and how actuarial professionalism guides us in navigating the dynamic relationship among the public, the principal, and the profession.

By John Stokesbury
The other day at the gym, there was this guy wearing a T-shirt that read, “And planks don’t like you either.”

By Wes Edwards
The midterm elections will, among other things, deliver a referendum on the current status of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Americans’ increasing sense that access to quality health care is a right, not a privilege for those who can afford it.

By Steven F. Malerich
To improve accounting for insurance contracts, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has decided to eliminate retrospective DAC adjustments, but to require retrospective updates for traditional life and health insurance reserves.

By Tom Toce
The previous puzzle was “Cryptic Squares,” and I was going to call this one “More Cryptic Squares.” But “Cryptic Squares” had eight 5 x 5 word squares and hence 80 clues—and I’m not making that mistake again!

By Warren Manners

By Josh Feldman
During the dog days of summer, someone saw me struggling while running in the excessive heat and humidity that frequently blankets the Midwest, and asked me why I bother running during the hottest months of the year.

By Sam Gutterman
What’s going on with fertility and mortality, the fundamental building blocks of demography, the endpoints of life?