Description: Businesses across the board have been drastically impacted by the effects of COVID-19 over the course of 2020, and insurance was not immune. Perhaps most relevant to this industry’s current capital and liquidity concern is the prevailing low interest rate environment. This has been a global trend in the last decade, and treasury rates in much of the developed world are at or near zero. Reduced investment returns limit an insurer’s ability to achieve their desired return on equity, eliminating previously profitable strategies that depended on the leverage of life and annuity balance sheets. Focus and activity have instead shifted to other methods to counteract the low interest rate markets and accompanying capital strain. Examples include increased mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity within the insurance industry and an increasing focus by private equity firms in the insurance market for asset-intensive products, both of which reflect the goal of increasing yield rates on capital.

Description: A description and status update on all recent research reports sponsored by the Financial Reporting Section.

Description: Thoughts on the future of financial reporting.

Description: Provides an update, as of September 2022, on Financial Reporting Section sponsored research projects in process and those recently completed.

Description: This article focuses on the market risk benefit (MRB) measurement model and will examine a generic guaranteed minimum death benefit (GMDB) in the context of LDTI and its impact from both the ceding entity and the reinsurer standpoints.

Description: Feature article giving an update on the International Standards of Actuarial Practice and International Actuarial Notes.

Description: This article is an update, as of March 2019, on Financial Reporting Section sponsored projects in process and those recently completed.

Description: Feature article discussing the actuarial response to the global financial crisis and the actuary’s influence on IFRS.

Description: Relates actuarial discussions at a special meeting of the Insurance Accounting Committee of the IAA in Toronto in September regarding the IASB’s exposure draft, Insurance Contracts.

Description: Feature article discussing expected future regulation changes for financial reporting.