Description: Actuaries are accustomed to considering how much conservatism is appropriate in their estimates, whether made for pricing or for mea- surement of liabilities. In the proposals for a new standard on accounting for insurance contracts, this conservatism is referred to by the International Accounting Standards Board IASB and the Financial Accounting Standard Board FASB of the United States as the risk adjustment.

Description: Review of modeling of impact of proposed GAAP changes and commentary on preparedness based on company survey.

Description: Update on accounting and capital/RBC issues subsequent to tax reform.

Description: The purpose of this paper note is to highlight the similarities of results from the amortization of initial life insurance acquisition costs by means of an acquisition cost amortization schedule similar to that used by accountants versus a set of actuarial-type acquisition cost natural reserve factors appropriately applied to beginning and ending in-force units.

Description: Considerations when developing internal models for use in Solvency II.

Description: This article is a brief review of the Society of Actuaries 1981 monograph ‘Adverse Deviation,’ by John C. Wooddy et. al. The author of this review notes that the monograph describes the approach - devised by the Committee on Theory of Risk - to ‘the problem of providing appropriately for the risks of adverse deviation in a GAAP valuation under the specifications of the ‘Audit Guide for Stock Life Insurance Companies.’

Description: This paper explores a reserving technique in which profits are recognized as a percentage of assets. Followed by a discussion of the paper.

Description: Understanding the Deferred Acquisition Cost (DAC) asset balance movements from one reporting period to the next can be a challenge when reportinged under FAS 97. The mechanics of FAS 97 call for an amortization ratio (i.e., k factor) that forces the amortization of the DAC asset to be matched to the earnings received over the life of the product. However, the fact that the k factor is dynamically set results in “unlocking” components of the DAC rollforward. This article shows how the basic equation for the amortization ratio can be used to derive equations that provide insights into what the DAC balance represents. Furthermore, partial derivatives of these equations are used to show how unexpected changes in the Estimated Gross Profit (EGP) stream impact the amortization and unlocking components of the DAC rollforward.

Description: Purchase GAAP for Equity-Indexed Annuities

Description: This article describes how there are many kinds of plans and arrangements under which qualified annuities are issued, and the rules governing them differ considerably.