Actuarial Mathematics XLVIII: Competing Decrements, Cohort Service Tables and Pension Benefit ValuationTextbook
Motivation
The established IFoA actuarial mathematics syllabus discusses the relevant mathematics (https://actuaries.org.uk/media/yfnkmkbq/cm1_syllabus-2026-_final-proof.pdf). CM1 actuarial foundations form the mathematical background. A pension service table projects active members through competing causes of leaving employment, including retirement, death, disability and withdrawal. A comprehensive valuation must account for those mutually exclusive events without creating or destroying pension scheme members. Dickson, Hardy and Waters Chapter 9 discusses pension service tables and Chapter 8 introduces multiple decrement models. Earlier missions consider a single-year decrement law and mortality variance; this mission develops multi-year cohort conservation and a complete reconciliation between two implementations of cause-specific pension benefit valuation.
Setting
Exact actuarial equivalence is conditional on the stated model assumptions. The previously known actuarial mathematics in the published textbooks motivates these original-derived Lean targets. They remain unproved until real theorem solutions are accepted. Nontrivial cashflow and probability examples exclude vacuous zero-benefit substitutes, and the resulting identities can support future actuarial missions.
An initial active-service cohort l(0) is projected to year N. For each year t, d(t,j) records the nonnegative number of scheme members leaving active service due to cause j during that year, where causes are mutually exclusive. The service-table accounting law is l(t+1)+sum_j d(t,j)=l(t). Individual cause probabilities conditional on active membership are q(t,j)=d(t,j)/l(t) when l(t)>0. The probability of remaining active at year t is l(t)/l(0). The unconditional probability of a specified exit is d(t,j)/l(0). A benefit amount b(t,j) and a discount factor v(t) attach to that exit event. The expected present value can be constructed either directly from unconditional cause exit mass or by multiplying active survival and conditional cause probability.
Formalization targets
All declarations below are original derived CM1-style formal results. The supporting milestone order builds an intentional mathematical chain to a single root theorem.
Pension cohort accounting
This block contributes 11 theorem targets and 4 definitions. The model distinguishes direct source identities from hypotheses used to extend them to a general cashflow or life-contingent valuation system.
Representative theorem ActuarialValuation.cm1ServiceValid_telescoping:
All exits during the horizon plus active lives at its end exactly reconcile to the initial cohort.
Cause probabilities and transitions
This block contributes 10 theorem targets and 4 definitions. The model distinguishes direct source identities from hypotheses used to extend them to a general cashflow or life-contingent valuation system.
Representative theorem ActuarialValuation.cm1ServiceMassPartition:
The full pension cohort partitions into all competing causes of exit and eventual continued active service.
Benefit cashflows and service value
This block contributes 10 theorem targets and 3 definitions. The model distinguishes direct source identities from hypotheses used to extend them to a general cashflow or life-contingent valuation system.
Representative theorem ActuarialValuation.cm1ServiceCohortValuation_fundamental:
The nontrivial capstone simultaneously proves full multi-year service-table probability conservation, consistent cause-specific pension benefit PV and nonnegative liability.
Capstone theorem
The main target is ActuarialValuation.cm1ServiceCohortValuation_fundamental. The nontrivial capstone simultaneously proves full multi-year service-table probability conservation, consistent cause-specific pension benefit PV and nonnegative liability.
Significance
The professional actuarial syllabus provides the background to this reusable work (https://actuaries.org.uk/media/yfnkmkbq/cm1_syllabus-2026-_final-proof.pdf). A service table must reconcile deaths, retirements, withdrawals and remaining active membership throughout the projection. The multi-period accounting result says cumulative decrement counts plus terminal active count equal the original cohort; after normalisation, the corresponding probabilities sum to one. This provides an important actuarial QC invariant. The same model supplies a direct payment valuation and a survival-conditioned valuation, which must match if probability denominators and calendar payment dates are consistently defined. Both the conservation invariant and cashflow equality can be reused for scheme funding, actuarial gain analysis and member-level pension cost models.
Difficulty
Each decrement cause must form a disjoint partition and the yearly cohort equation has no additional inflow from new entrants. To divide by remaining active service, survivor counts must be nonzero in each year where conditional rates are used. At the terminal horizon no more cause payment years are included. The exact finite-sum telescope must account for every annual exit once and only once. Negative claim sizes, negative exit counts or zero initial cohorts cannot support the probability interpretation. The capstone deliberately validates both valuation routes rather than obtaining equality by defining the two formulas identically.
Formalization scope
The results model a closed, finite cohort with given competing decrement counts. They do not infer cause-specific hazards from observed data or assume independent causes. Causes are disjoint observed outcomes; the conditional exit probabilities sum with the surviving-in-service probability to one. The service table can later be enhanced by new entrants, state transitions and pension commencement options, but these are outside this precise closed-cohort theorem. The calculations retain common valuation dates and financial units for all benefits. The root establishes probability conservation, PV equivalence and nonnegativity, and is reusable in other pension missions.
These are original derived finite/analytic CM1 formalisation targets rather than reproductions of a numbered textbook theorem. Exact Lean binder declarations are authoritative. The complete source uses targeted Mathlib imports and no local Lean compilation. All proof bodies remain genuinely open and do not constitute accepted results. Assumptions about negative rates, survival, policyholder independence, discounting and benefit timing must be preserved exactly.
Selected references
- David C. M. Dickson, Mary R. Hardy and Howard R. Waters, Actuarial Mathematics for Life Contingent Risks (2009), Chapters 8 and 9. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/actuarial-mathematics-for-life-contingent-risks/multiple-state-models/BFEB2CD04A3EA012FCB1C7E3A326E9A0
- Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, CM1 Actuarial Mathematics Syllabus (2026). https://actuaries.org.uk/media/yfnkmkbq/cm1_syllabus-2026-_final-proof.pdf
- Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, CM1 Actuarial Mathematics Syllabus (2026). https://actuaries.org.uk/media/yfnkmkbq/cm1_syllabus-2026-_final-proof.pdf