Description: Life insurance companies find themselves in a significantly more complicated environment than that of just a few years ago. Managements face an uncertain investment environment, the real possibility of deteriorating future mortality due to the spread of AIDS, and alternative and competing distribution systems.

Description: The article focuses on implementation considerations for insurance companies that will be implementing both IFRS 17 and US GAAP Targeted Improvements. Many of the practical considerations are common to both implementations and will also be of interest to readers who are only implementing one of these changes.

Description: This article discusses the discount rate that should be used under GASB 45. Public employers now find themselves in a similar situation to private sector employers in the early 1990's in that GASB 45 requires them to measure liabilities including post-retirement medical liabilities using accrual accounting.

Description: Panelists at this session of the SOA 2004 San Antonio Spring Meeting discuss the implications of a Statement of Position [SOP-03-1]. Reserving issues related to common features of variable annuities, universal life and variable universal life are explored.

Description: 1998 Valuation Actuary Symposium. In this open forum questions were fielded by the panel of experts. Some of the questions: 1. How do you pick spreads for use in your reinvestment strategy? 2. What's generally being done in terms of dynamically modeling policyholder lapsation? 3. How do companies treat riders and dump-in premiums and estimated gross profits for GAAP? 4. What impact does the current interest environment have on testing you are going to do this year? 5. Are there any suitable techniques for trying to aggregate the variable products with the fixed products?

Description: This session at the 1998 Valuation Actuary Symposium looks at FAS 133, GAAP accounting for derivatives, including the impact on financial statements, implementation issues, and implications for the valuation actuary.

Description: This article discusses the adoption of the AICPA Statement of Position SOP 03-1 altering the way earnings emerge under FAS 97 and the impact of the enactment of SOX control requirements.

Description: Importance of non-GAAP operating earnings

Description: As a follow-up to a previous five-part series on accounting for ceded reinsurance under LDTI, this article focuses on one issue that has, until now, been left without a general solution—how to measure the reinsured portion of a direct loss from capping a net premium ratio or flooring a liability. After acknowledging limited guidance on the issue, the article describes the various events that can lead to a loss, how reinsurance protects against loss, and how that is translated into formulas for measuring the reinsured portion of a loss.

Description: One major feature of the OECD's two-pillar regime is that MNEs would base the calculation of taxes due on book-based financial statements. The article provides a summary of how these rules operate along with suggested actions insurers can take today to prepare for timely compliance.