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: Introducing tools to help actuaries explain non-traditional DAC and SOP reserve movements no non-actuarial audiences.

Description: Continued look at unlocking of traditional contract valuation assumptions, this time examining the frequency of true up for actual experience.

Description: Continues the look from previous articles at unlocking of traditional contract valuation assumptions, this time examining the effects of lapses.

Description: Illustrates the effects of different approaches to updating GAAP valuation assumptions for traditional life contracts.

Description: Response to Life Insurance 2020 Foresight – A Call for Essays. An essay stating the author’s vision for the future of the life insurance sector. Focus is on the retirement savings need in the future both in the private individual sector and in the public sector.

Description: Since the adoption of FAS 157, there has been much concern about the use of a company's own credit risk in the valuation of liabilities. To fully assess the implications of this requirement, the author argues that more research will be required.

Description: Adjusting GAAP reinsurance reserves to account for reinsurance protection against the events that trigger direct reserve constraints (such as NPR capping or LFPB flooring) can be a challenge any time. Ceding a block of business that is already in force increases the challenge—especially if one of those constraints was already present at inception of the reinsurance. This article builds on previous work (published in the July 2022 and June 2023 issues) to show how to measure initial reinsurance reserves in a way that complies with AICPA guidance and prepares for effective measurement of subsequent changes in the effects of the constraints.

Description: After a summary of FASB decisions in their GAAP Targeted Improvements project, this article describes several issues that will need to be resolved either by the board or in actuarial practice and argues for seeking solutions that provide meaningful results without overly complicating valuation processes.

Description: Full version of The Financial Reporter, Issue No. 70, September 2007.