Description: This section presents book reviews and summaries of recent publications. Reviews: '1975 Annual Reports of the Board of Trustees of the Federal OASDI Trust Funds...' by the US Congress, 'Providing Adequate Retirement Income' by Schulz, Carrin, Krupp, Peschke, Sclar and Steenberge, 'Ernst & Ernst GAAP - Stock Life Companies' by Posnak, 'Reports of the Quadrennial Advisory Council on Social Security' by US Government, 'Fundamentals of Private Pensions' by McGill. Digests also included.

Description: This paper argues by means of a mathematical demonstration that: 1. Natural reserves are not appropriate for adjusting earnings of mutual life insurance companies under GAAP. 2. Adjusted earnings developed by using statutory net level premium reserves together with a nonadmitted asset equal to the present value of unamortized variable acquisition expenses, and, if material, possibly with the reserves for terminal dividends, should bc accepted under GAAP, provided that dividend scales are suitably designed. 3. Other approaches which are essentially equivalent to that in bullet #2, such as those involving historical asset share funds, should likewise be acceptable.

Description: The actuarial profession is faced with a problem of determining delta-ized reserves on a basis which will include appropriate provision for adverse deviations in mortality, lapses, interest rates, and expense rates. This paper describes briefly a method which could be used to solve this Followed by papers submitted by 2 authors problem in a flexible manner.

Description: This paper identifies and discusses certain critical GAAP issues, such as the development of appropriate valuation assumptions, the applicability of the lock-in principle, and the evaluation of recoverability of deferred acquisition cost. In addition, the paper describes a valuation procedure that may be used to implement prospective changes to current valuation assumptions for in-force policies. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1981, Vol. 33.

Description: This paper presents a policy-year model for GAAP valuation of reinsurance accepted on the coinsurance and modified coinsurance bases. Also presented are the interrelationships between the model's methodology and statutory accounting procedures, a discussion of experience-refunding situations, and a demonstration of the model's ability to yield GAAP profits as a level percentage of premium. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1981, Vol. 33.

Description: 1974 SOA Meetings, Dallas and Montreal. This paper is the digest of discussions held at concurrent sessions of the referenced meeting. Topics covered: 1. CORPORATE FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT OF STOCK LIFE INSURANCE COMPANIES. 2. PENSION FUNDING ASSUMPTIONS. 3. DIRECTIONS AND GOALS OF ACTUARIAL RESEARCH. 4. VARIABLE LIFE DEVELOPMENTS. 5. LIFE INSURANCE AND CONSUMERISM. From Transactions of the Society of Actuaries 1974, Vol. 26, Pt.2D, No. 75 AB.

Description: The paper describes an approach for determining reserves for reinsurance accepted for use in financial statements prepared according to generally accepted accounting principles. Followed by a discussion paper submitted

Description: This paper was prepared in order to set down some of the approaches which might be followed in carrying out the mandate to apply GAAP to stock life insurance companies. Followed by discussion papers submitted by 2 authors

Description: This paper considers two principles which at present are given little weight in accounting for investments: 1. the reported earnings of a business entity should not change solely because an investment is sold at a capital gain or loss and the proceeds are reinvested, and 2. the accounting treatment of common stock investments should not vary according to the portion of the issuer's outstanding common stock which the investment represents. The implications of these principles are explored in accounting for bonds, stocks and business combinations. A discussion of this paper is included.

Description: Existing actuarial literature does not provide a consolidated comparison of the available alternatives for accounting for universal life. This paper will analyze the similarities and differences between the existing prescribed method and the proposed alternatives. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1987, Vol. 39.