Description: December 2015 issue of The Financial Reporter

Description: Discussion of FASB's recent activity on relevant projects other than insurance contracts, particularly financial instruments, fair value disclosures and goodwill impairment.

Description: Healthcare costs have been rising faster than general inflation for many years. Early models that predicted this past pattern projected healthcare expenditure growth that continued to outpace total expenditure growth leading to the fallacious position that the whole of the US economy would ultimately be consumed by healthcare. This paper presents a long term healthcare trends resource model, prepared for the Society of Actuaries by Professor Thomas Getzen, that includes capacity constraints to ensure the long-term projection is rational. The motivation for creation of the model was driven by its potential usage as a resource for the estimation of reportable liabilities for retiree healthcare benefits as specified under FAS 106 and GASB 45 accounting statements.

Description: 2011 SOA IFRS Seminar, Hong Kong. This is an Excel spreadsheet associated with Session 15 - 'Cash Flows Workshop' at the 2011 SOA IFRS Seminar held in Hong Kong. This spreadsheet facilitated the sessions objective of calculating the beginning liability values for the Statement of Financial Position.

Description: The Society of Actuaries' Pension Section and Health Section Research teams commissioned Professor Thomas E. Getzen of Temple University to construct a resource model for the projection of long term healthcare cost trends. The motivation for creation of the model was driven by its potential usage as a resource for the estimation of reportable liabilities for retiree healthcare benefits as specified under FAS 106 and GASB 45 accounting statements. This model, programmed in Microsoft Excel [xlsx format], projects per-person expenditures and growth rates through 2099 using a set of equations and assumptions developed by Professor Getzen with assistance from the Society of Actuaries Project Oversight Group appointed to oversee the effort. The model includes baseline assumptions as well as flexibility for user–inputted alternative assumptions.

Description: This article discusses the FASB Exposure Draft, “Accounting and Reporting by Insurance Enterprises for Certain Long-Duration Insurance Contracts and for Realized Gains and Losses from the Sale of Investments.”

Description: A current member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board [FASB] discusses the structure and function of the Board, how it sets its agenda and makes decisions, its present philosophical position, and whether the philosophy of the FASB has taken a new direction recently. From the 1987 Record of Society of Actuaries, Vol. 13, No. 3.

Description: Practical Considerations for Implementing the New Statement of Position for Long Duration Contracts and for Separate Accounts –

Description: This article discusses the joint project between the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board. Their goal is to change the accounting standards for financial instruments. This project will affect the accounting for many of the assets that back insurance contracts.

Description: Chairman’s column discussing 2012 accomplishments and 2013 and plans for the Financial Reporting section.