Description: Discusses how AG 34 provides a clarification of CARVM for variable annuities with MGDB’s.

Description: 1999 SOA Annual Meeting, San Francisco. This panel discussion dealt with several new product types and the accounting profession's efforts to provide guidance. The five product types below do not fit neatly into the rules set forth in Statement of Financial Accounting Standards 50 and 97: 1. Variable annuities with guaranteed living benefits. 2. Equity-indexed products. 3. Market-value-adjusted annuities. 4. Annuities with a front-end bonus feature. 5. Investment contracts with no significant source of profit other than interest spread.

Description: From a session at the 2000 Valuation Actuary Symposium held in Washington DC, September 14-15, 2000 Discussion of guaranteed minimum death benefits, guaranteed minimum income benefits, and guaranteed minimum accumulation benefits on variable deferred annuities, along with floor guarantees on variable immediate annuities. This session described the types of benefits found in the marketplace along with the associated risks. Current reserving practices, risk management techniques, and the latest American Academy of Actuaries AAA and National Association of Insurance Commissioners NAIC developments are discussed.

Description: The article described two methods for calculating the benefit ratio described in AICPA Standard of Practice SOP 03-1. Method 1 calculates the benefit ratio as the quotient of the expectation of A and the expectation of B where A is benefits and B is assessments. Method 2 calculates the benefit ratio as the expectation of the quotient of A and B.

Description: This article outlines the IRS directive published in July 2014, which provides a safe harbor treatment for variable annuity hedging gains and losses relating to VA contracts issued before Dec. 31, 2009.

Description: Tidbits include discussions about: Policy loans in excess of cost basis, treatment of loss adjustment expenses, LAE, for life insurance companies, and separate account investments in group trusts.

Description: ASU 2018-12 introduced a new concept called “market risk benefits” (MRBs). MRBs are a new accounting classification for benefits within deposit contracts, offering protection from “other than nominal market risk.” This applies to products with account values, including variable and indexed annuities with guaranteed living or death benefits attached (aka GMxBs). ASU 2018-12 Section 944-40-30-19D mentions both a non-option and an option-based valuation approach to account for MRBs. This article considers the option-based approach. The purpose is to highlight weaknesses in the current application of the option approach to MRBs, propose an alternative method, and consider the benefits of the new approach. The intent of this article is to persuade practictioners / actuaries / accountants that this is a better approach for applying the fair value option method to market risk benefits.

Description: Variable Annuity DAC: A Survey of Current Practice by Laura J. Hay and Elizabeth Rogalin from The Financial Reporter, December 2002, Issue No. 51. Examines the DAC calculation for Variable Annuities and the possible write down of DAC under revised assumptions.

Description: In session 118 TS of the Washington Annual Meeting panelists discuss the growth in variable annuities and the increased insurance industry exposure to mortality risk associated with GMDB. The focus of this session is on current practices in the areas of reserving for GMDB and modeling the GMDB risk. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 23, No. 3.

Description: 1999 SOA Annual Meeting, San Francisco. The panelists provided a brief description of the guaranteed benefits offered on Variable Annuities in both the U.S. and Canada, followed by an in-depth comparison of current issues, including risk assessment, reserving, and cash-flow testing.