Description: Discussion of solvency problems and the actuary's role in addressing them in the life insurance industry.

Description: The Occidental Life Insurance Company position paper: Mortality Fluctuation Reserve for Stock Life Insurance Companies is reproduced. The methods chosen are considered to conform to the Audit Guide for Stock Life Insurance Companies issued by the AICPA in December, 1972.

Description: This article discusses the calculation of mean reserves in certain cases where terminal reserves are negative and proposes a minimum reserve formula which produces adequate mean reserves in all cases.

Description: This article announces the availability of The Valuation Actuary Handbook. The purpose of this handbook is to provide assistance to all actuaries who need to use cash-flow testing to validate the appropriateness of reserves. It is a “how to” manual that contains the most up-to-date considerations and techniques for the valuation process.

Description: This article makes a case for implementation of a mortality fluctuation reserve in GAAP accounting.

Description: This article describes the mortality tables that the Board of Governors of the Society of Actuaries is recommending to the NAIC as successors to the 1958 CSO Table

Description: Addresses U.K. actuarial discussion regarding “maturity guarantees”, i.e., the reserves necessary to support promises contained in investment-linked contracts.

Description: Documents the error in the Smoker/Nonsmoker CSO Tables accepted by the NAIC, and the expected approval of the NAIC to accept use of both the erroneous and the correct mortality rates for all regulatory purposes.

Description: This article provides a formulaic method of comparing unit reserves on different valuation bases. This enables a duration-by-duration comparison of the components of the calculation on two different valuation bases. This can be done ignoring taxes or assuming taxes are recognized in calculating the expected return on capital in pricing.

Description: An increasingly popular tool in estate planning is the Joint Life policy payable upon the second death. The design and pricing of this policy is influenced significantly by cash value and reserve requirements. This article discusses two methods for calculating these values.