1.1 The Working Party on AIDS was established in April 1987 to give the profession information about, and to take any necessary action in relation to, the problems posed by HIV infection and AIDS. Three Bulletins have been issued by the Working Party, in September 1987, December 1987 and July 1988 (Institute of Actuaries Working Party on AIDS, 1987, 1987a and 1988a). These Bulletins covered what the Working Party saw as the important aspects of the problem from the point of view of the profession. They outlined what was then known about the epidemiology of AIDS, made some provisional projections as to its possible impact, and the sensitivity of such projections to the assumptions used, examined the implications of the underwriting process in relation to AIDS, and pointed out where action seemed to be required in relation to underwriting, premium rating, product design and reserving.

This paper is the report of a Research Group which has been examining developments in calculating devices, the effects on actuarial work and the future outlook.

The purpose of this brief note is to comment on the methodology used by Benjamin and Michaelson in their estimation of the expectations of life for non-smokers and smokers and the differences between these expectations of life.

The author of this note has discussed the methodology with the first author of this earlier paper and with their research assistant.

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