Description: This paper identifies and discusses issues affecting retirees’ abilities to successfully navigate medical insurance choices after their employer retiree medical insurance group benefit plan has been terminated and replaced by an outsourced health reimbursement account (HRA) providing accessibility to a stipend through eligible medical insurance claims submissions.

Description: Regulatory change and increased focus on internal risk management are driving a renewed interest in model efficiency. In this session, we will review several new and existing tools, that show significant promise for advanced modeling of equity linked products. These include: • Clustering • Use of unique--and potentially a different number of--scenarios for each policy • Semi Monte Carlo (SMC) – this is a proprietary technique that is similar to a combination of Monte Carlo and numeric integration • Using a neural network approach to optimize some of the more complex and manual aspects of clustering and improve the fit of the clustered model • Combining SMC with the use of unique scenarios per policy

Description: Andy Rallis delivers his speech at the presidential luncheon of the SOA 2019 SOA Annual Meeting & Exhibit in Toronto.

Description: Read the October 2019 issue of Health Watch, published by the Health Section. Practical information for actuaries, articles impact sections, section activities. This is the first digital-only issue of the newsletter.

Description: Notes on the IAA meeting that took place in D.C. in May

Description: The NAIC has adopted revised VM-21 and AG43 for variable annuities, effective Jan. 1, 2020. The panel of presenters will provide background and an overview of the revisions, discuss detailed aspects of the new CTE Amount Standard Projection and prescribed assumptions, as well as discuss implementation considerations and the implications to hedging. In addition, the panelists will share progress on VM-23, principle-based reserves for non-variable annuities.

Description: Against the backdrop of low interest rates, rapidly expanding data analytic capabilities, and increased consumer demand for better products, many life insurers struggle to innovate their product development initiatives. RGA conducted an online survey in the third quarter of 2018, asking 30 leading life insurance companies in Japan to identify current and future product development trends. A complementary survey of approximately 4,800 policyholders of life products in Japan was also completed in 2018. The findings highlight the product trends for risk, savings and living benefit products being developed, the market segments being targeted, and how insurers are differentiating product offerings through unique features and value-added services. Companies indicated they focused new product development efforts on substandard and standard risk segments, with only 20% pursuing the preferred market. Respondents indicated the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) being used to measure successful product development are predominantly topline – premium, face amount and number of policies.

Description: A critical step in valuing a company for the purpose of financial reporting is the computation of the market value of economic surplus (MVES). This article provides a novel approach to the valuation of MVES that is stable and reasonably immune to “market noise.” Current approaches to the calculation of economic surplus of an insurance company generally define such surplus as the market value of the assets (MVA) supporting the liabilities less the market value of liabilities (MVL). While MVA is observable in the market, MVL is typically computed directly, without regard to the underlying supporting assets. Subtracting MVL from any value of assets that changes with market movements results in an unstable surplus. Consequently, a surplus that is not fully reflective of market sentiment has been rejected by many. This same approach is further used in the calculation of market consistent embedded value (MCEV) when a balance sheet approach is used .

Description: This report details a study of the 2000-2015 group life waiver of premium experience

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.