Description: VA reserve and capital reforms are effective 1/1/20 and the first year of reporting under the new framework requires several key milestones for annuity valuation actuaries to achieve. Discuss key implementation issues, including the new standard projection, optionality around hedge treatment and taxation, discuss disclosure requirements as well as the PBR report requirements. Overall focus on decisions to be taken by a valuation actuary with respect to reporting under the new framework.

Description: In this paper the authors present a proposed solution to some difficult problems which have plagued those who have designed variable benefit plans. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1963, Vol. 15, Pt. 1, No. 43.

Description: Reinsurance has been available for VA Guarantees for over 20 years. During that time, the reinsurance market for VA Guarantees has undergone frequent and sometimes violent transformations. Where does the market stand today? What forms and structures of reinsurance are available? Which VA Guarantee designs and features are easier to reinsure? Is reinsurance offered on both newly issued policies as well as in force/legacy books, and which vintages are difficult to reinsure? In an age of sophisticated hedging programs, what role does a reinsurer play in helping a VA writer manage this highly volatile risk? In this session, we will hear from a reinsurer that is actively writing new VA Guarantee reinsurance treaties in the U.S. and around the world, and from a VA writer that has successfully partnered with a reinsurer to enhance its VA product offering

Description: From a session at the Spring meeting of the Society of Actuaries held in San Antonio, Texas, June 14-15, 2004 The panelists discuss the benefits of hedging variable annuity guarantees, the challenges they face and how they keep score.

Description: 2004 SOA Annual Meeting and Exhibit, New York. In this discussion, panelists looked at the economic cost of guarantees in VA products and explored some of the methods, concentrating on hedging, that companies are using to manage their exposures.

Description: This presentation, session number 7PD, took place at the 2000 Annual Meeting of the Society of Actuaries, held October 15-18 in Chicago. The panelists discusses current separate account product topics including quantifying the cost of guarantees such as minimum death benefits and minimum living benefits, and equity-indexed product investing and hedging. Discussion from participants is included. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Volume 26, No. 3.

Description: There is no “industry standard” approach to managing the vega (volatility) risk inherent in Variable Annuity Guarantees, Fixed Indexed Annuities and other equity-linked obligations. In this session, we will introduce and analyze a range of reinsurance solutions, including full vega risk retention, full vega risk transfer and more sophisticated or custom structures that split the vega risk between the insurer and the reinsurer in various ways. We will also explore other approaches in bespoke risk coverage and show the impact of different assumptions on a generic “VA Guarantee Cost Estimate” that has been developed by Munich Re.

Description: Representing a large indexed annuity writer, the speakers will discuss the growth and evolution of the market for index annuity products. Moreover, the challenges that growth has introduced and how those challenges are being met. While much of the market consists of simple, accumulation-oriented S&P 500 based strategies with 0% return floors, a significant portion of industry sales come from more complex products with highly customized index strategies and other features, such as living benefit guarantees. Attendees will gain a broad understanding of the indexed annuity market, product and features, operational difficulties in risk management arising from product design, and how actuarial and hedge professionals are managing these issues.

Description: In this session, a company will share its experience on managing risks underlying the equity-linked insurance guarantees and what lessons were learned over these years as it adapted its strategies to suit the current market environment.

Description: Discusses the ways in which insurers can position themselves in today's annuity marketplace, the market-value-adjusted fixed annuity, and marketing of annuity products through the stock-brokerage channel. From the 1988 Record of Society of Actuaries, Vol. 14, No. 2.