Components of Historical Mortality Improvement

October 2017

This report documents the “Components of Historical Mortality Improvement” project commissioned by the Longevity Advisory Group (LAG) of the Society of Actuaries. The purpose of the project is to compare and contrast methodologies for allocating historical gender-specific mortality improvement (or deterioration) experience in the U.S. into four components (age, period, cohort, and residual), drawing from the methodologies developed previously by the Continuous Mortality Investigation (CMI) of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA). Volume 1 provides the background information and presents the modeling work associated with Route A. Volume 2 documents the modeling work related to Route B, and concludes with a recommendation.