The Society of Actuaries (SOA) is an educational, research and professional organization dedicated to serving the public, its members and its candidates. The SOA's mission is to advance actuarial knowledge and to enhance the ability of actuaries to provide expert advice and relevant solutions for financial, business and societal problems. The SOA's vision is for actuaries to be the leading professionals in the measurement and management of risk.
The objectives of the Pensions Institute are 
*to undertake high quality research in all fields related to pensions
*to communicate the results of that research to the academic and practitioner community to establish an international network of pensions researchers from a variety of disciplines to provide expert independent advice to the pensions industry and government. We take a fully multidisciplinary approach. For the first time disciplines such as economics, finance, insurance, and actuarial science through to accounting, corporate governance, law and regulation have been brought together in order to enhance strategic thinking, research and teaching in pensions. As the first and only UK academic research centre focused entirely on pensions, the Pensions Institute unites some of the world's leading experts in these fields in order to offer an integrated approach to the complex problems that arise in this field. The Pensions Institute undertakes research in a wide range of fields, including:
*Pension microeconomics The economics of individual and corporate pension planning, long term savings and retirement decisions.
*Pension fund management and performance. The investment management and investment performance of occupational and personal pension schemes.
*Pension funding and valuations. The actuarial and insurance issues related to pension schemes, including risk management, asset liability management, funding, scheme design, annuities, and guarantees.
*Pension law and regulation. The legal aspects of pension schemes and pension fund management.
*Pension accounting, taxation and administration. The operational aspects of running pension schemes.
*Marketing. The practice and ethics of selling group and individual pension products.
*Macroeconomics of pensions. The implications of aggregate pension savings and the impact of the size and maturity of pension funds on other sectors of the economy (e.g. corporate, public and international sectors).
*Public Policy. Domestic and EU social policy towards pension provision and other employee benefits in the light of factors such as the Social Chapter of the Maastricht Treaty and the demographic developments in Europe and other countries. Research disseminated by the Pensions Institute may include views on policy but the Pensions Institute itself takes no institutional policy positions.