Description: Few product innovations have transfigured the variable annuity (VA) industry as much asguaranteed living benefits (GLBs).

Description: Life and annuity markets around the world have seen increasingly complex investment-combined products, including universal life, fixed indexed annuities, variable annuities with a wide variety of guaranteed benefits, indexed variable annuities, etc. Insurance companies are facing unprecedented exposure to financial risks in addition to traditional mortality and longevity risks. The risk assessment and modeling for such complex designs by conventional methods often focus heavily on their market competitiveness and profitability. However, there seems to be a lack of quantifiable and systematic approach to assess investment risks associated with investment combined products. The objective of the proposed work is to develop a framework for quantifying and analyzing various forms of contractual designs and showcase different techniques to assess the trade-off between competitive contractual designs and their practical implications with regard to the difficulty of risk management.

Description: Few product innovations have transfigured the variable annuity (VA) industry as much as guaranteed living benefits (GLBs).

Description: The IRS believes that any segregated asset account comprised of a pool of individual securities will run afoul of the investor control doctrine. This article articulates that such a conclusion would be deeply flawed based on the administrative, congressional, and judicial precedents involving the investor control doctrine.

Description: The article summarizes PLRs 201515001 and 201519001, in which the IRS addressed the treatment of a non-qualified deferred annuity contract under the investor control doctrine and other applicable rules. The contract provides a guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit and investment options that correspond to “public” mutual funds. The IRS concluded that the investor control doctrine will apply to treat the contract purchaser as the owner of the mutual fund shares for federal income tax purposes. The IRS also addressed certain other tax aspects of the arrangement. The effect of the rulings is that the contract will be taxed similarly to a contingent deferred annuity (where the policyholder holds the mutual fund shares in his or her own brokerage account), while being structured like a traditional deferred variable annuity (where the insurance company holds the shares in its separate account).

Description: This article summarizes information on the regulatory aspects of variable annuities, both federal and state, and offers thoughts on corporate structure, product, marketing and sales commissions.

Description: This discussion at the 1968 Annual Meeting covers equity-oriented product issues including deciding to sell variable annuities, sales methods, the effect of SEC regulations, and new equity product ideas.

Description: This panel discussion reviews various viewpoints, actuary's, agent's, and regulator's views on equity products. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1969, Vol. 20, Pt. 2, No. 60.

Description: This session 8 PD of the 2004 Valuation Actuary Symposium focuses primarily on the Academy's development of nonformulaic statutory risk-based capital and reserve standards for death and living benefits.

Description: ASU 2018-12 introduced a new concept called “market risk benefits” (MRBs). MRBs are a new accounting classification for benefits within deposit contracts, offering protection from “other than nominal market risk.” This applies to products with account values, including variable and indexed annuities with guaranteed living or death benefits attached (aka GMxBs). ASU 2018-12 Section 944-40-30-19D mentions both a non-option and an option-based valuation approach to account for MRBs. This article considers the option-based approach. The purpose is to highlight weaknesses in the current application of the option approach to MRBs, propose an alternative method, and consider the benefits of the new approach. The intent of this article is to persuade practictioners / actuaries / accountants that this is a better approach for applying the fair value option method to market risk benefits.