Description: Feature article discussing the American Academy of Actuaries Academy review of the various risk-based capital RBC formulas for health insurance products.

Description: I.R.C. § 4371 imposes an excise tax on policies issued by foreign insurers or reinsurers covering U.S. risks. The application of the tax to funds withheld reinsurance can raise difficult questions. The IRS’s position is that an accrual concept applies, although that position is questionable. Taxpayers that instead determine the excise tax by looking only to actual payments made by the ceding company to the reinsurer or to the net amount of the ceded premiums after adjusting for the allowance paid by the reinsurer have a variety of arguments to support their position. The language of the premium excise tax, the regulations thereunder, the legislative history of the provision, and the very nature of an excise tax all support the position that the tax applies only when there is an actual payment. Other Code provisions that use similar language as well as the Supreme Court also support this view.

Description: One of the dangers in any sort of modeling, whether for insurance experience or in financial portfolios, is becoming too reliant upon statistics and models, and not keeping reasoned, experienced judgment in sight. This article provides ways to address adverse experience possibilities resulting from misestimation risk.

Description: Read the February 2017 issue of Taxing Times published by the The Taxation Section. Newsletters provide practical information for the working actuary, articles on trends that impact sections and news about section activities.

Description: This article explains the issue causing from asset dependency discounting as required by IFRS 17, and proposed some possible methods to solve the issue.