Description: Future mortality improvement has been a common assumption in life insurance and annuity pricing and forecasting for many years. However, experience over the last decade suggests this might be an assumption that merits reconsideration in the United States. This article will take a closer look at factors that impact mortality improvement trends and discuss why insurers may want to reevaluate product designs to better manage the associated mortality risk. We then introduce a product idea with this in mind, where premiums are based on a life expectancy index and insurers share the risk (and opportunity) or mortality improvement with policyholders.

Description: This article examines the changes in U.S. regulatory reserve and risk-based capital requirements that will significantly impact the insurance industry and practicing actuaries. It summarizes activity related to principles-based reserves and risk-based capital initiatives during 2005.

Description: This update column from ACLI the “General Explanations of the Administration’s Revenue Proposals for Fiscal Year 2022” (Green Book).

Description: Read the February 2020 issue of Product Matters! published by the Product Development Section. Newsletters provide practical information for the working actuary, articles on trends that impact sections and news about section activities.

Description: To understand the relationship between lifestyle behaviors and mortality, RGA investigated a national, health-related, mortality-linked data set provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). RGA Strategic Research Actuary Julianne Callaway discusses the company's findings.

Description: The article discusses recently-issued regulations under section 807 of the Internal Revenue Code, concerning the computation and reporting of reserves. The provisions addressed generally relate to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

Description: This article describes the availability of experience rating within COLI and BOLI programs and compares the effects of including or excluding this feature.

Description: Against a background of recent capital market downturns, this article discusses the need for increasing the focus on risk control with respect to variable annuity and life products. This article originally appeared in the September 14, 1998 issue of The National Underwriter, a publication of the National Underwriter Company, and is reprinted here with permission.

Description: Discusses Internal Revenue Service Ruling 2011-9. Since ruling now applies to all taxpayers, not just the taxpayer in a prior private letter ruling, taxpayers that have taken a contrary position in past tax years may need to amend prior tax returns.