Description: This is the final article in a five-part series about accounting for reinsurance under GAAP Targeted Improvements to the Accounting for Long-Duration Contracts (LDTI). It looks at some concerns that arise when new reinsurance is purchased to cover previously-issued contracts. The article describes what formal guidance is available. Where that guidance leaves off, the article presents practical solutions to achieving performance objectives.

Description: Loss ratio formulas that make it a good tool for financial analysis, with modifications for level premium business such as disability income and long term care.

Description: The article summarizes implications of rising interest rates on U.S. GAAP and statutory financial reporting for life insurers, highlighting potential tailwinds from steady increases and headwinds from sharp increases. We further provide insights into how insurers can leverage ALM programs and interest rate risk hedging practices to favorably position themselves in a rising rate environment

Description: Adjusted earnings has long been a fundamental KPI for investors to assess the core financial performance of a company. As a non-GAAP measure, there is a divergence in practice of how individual companies define adjusted earnings and what activities management views as “core” to their business. The arrival of US GAAP LDTI has led insurers to revisit their existing adjusted earnings framework as the new standard introduces additional “accounting noise” that if left unadjusted obscures the true underlying drivers of performance. This article provides key insights on the influence US GAAP LDTI has had to the adjusted earnings calculation, highlights changes from the pre-LDTI framework, and showcases key themes observed from public insurers 2023Q1 10-Q filings.

Description: GAAP's elimination of gross profit as a basis for amortization of deferred acquisition costs enables the accounting for reinsurance of universal life contracts to better reflect the economic protection provided by reinsurance. This article takes a fresh look at the standards of accounting for universal life contracts and for reinsurance, then puts them together to find the techniques that best account for that protection.

Description: This is the third in a series of articles about accounting for reinsurance under GAAP Targeted Improvements to the Accounting for Long-Duration Contracts (LDTI). It looks at some techniques that have been used to account for long-duration reinsurance under existing GAAP (before LDTI). It looks at whether and how those techniques can be updated to comply with the updated standards and evaluates their effectiveness against compliance, performance, and simplicity objectives.

Description: In 2014 several aspects of the ACA are driving the need for valuation actuaries to consider establishing payables or receivables during 2014 or at year-end. These programs include the 3Rs (risk adjustment, reinsurance and risk corridors) on insurers’ financial statements. As each of these programs includes a retrospective settlement process, financial statements may need to include estimates of amounts payable or receivable. The health insurance providers (HIP) fee and cost-sharing reductions (CSRs) and their potential impacts on insurer financial statements also need to be considered. The Society of Actuaries Health Section Council and Financial Reporting Section Council jointly developed a survey to gauge how actuaries are progressing with respect to these new potential assets or liabilities. The survey was sent to the members of the Health Section and the Financial Reporting Section. This article summarizes the results of that survey.

Description: Discussion of the increased use of reinsurance in the life insurance industry, including the causes and implications

Description: GAAP's elimination of gross profit as a basis for amortization of deferred acquisition costs enables the accounting for reinsurance of universal life contracts to better reflect the economic protection provided by reinsurance. It also makes it easier to assess the effectiveness of different techniques. Building on the analysis of an earlier article, "A Fresh Look at Accounting for Reinsurance of Universal Life," this article presents a practical approach to estimating the ineffectiveness of several existing techniques at accounting for the economic protection provided by reinsurance. The article ends with a summary of what a company might do to improve the effectiveness of its reinsurance accounting.

Description: The article addresses treatment of products with indirect participating features (e.g. declared credited rates) under IFRS 17. Some of the questions that are answered include classification, stochastic modeling requirements, application of the illiquidity premium, methods to systematically allocate between P&L and OCI, and use of locked in discount rates for CSM purposes.