Description: This panel discussed studies of the risk of loss due to changes in the interest rate environment. It addressed why the C-3 risk is important and how inflation and stability in interest rates can affect the financial soundness of life insurance companies. There was also a discussion of the theoretical work being carried out to calibrate the C-3 risk of variation in interest rates and to what extent the valuation actuary can properly recognize the risk of loss from changes in the interest rate environment within the framework of valuations laws and regulations.

Description: In an age of accelerating transformation—technological, financial, and regulatory —reinsurance continues to be an important component of capital management strategy across the insurance industry. This is true in spite of, and sometimes because of, the evolving ecosystems of ceding companies and reinsurers. Direct writers and reinsurance carriers are coping with a number of critical challenges that are undermining growth potential and threatening profitability. Waning demand and increased capacity for traditional products have, in some instances, led companies to struggle to achieve traditional profit targets. An increase in commoditized pricing, internal expenses related to increased regulation, inefficiencies in internal infrastructure, and the sustained low interest rate environment are additional factors impacting the top and bottom lines of reinsurers and primary carriers alike. In this session we will explore these critical challenges and highlight prevailing practices that organizations are using to deal with the changing landscape.

Description: This presentation, session number 79PD, took place at the 1999 Spring Meeting of the Society of Actuaries, held June 16-18 in Seattle. The panelists examine the history, growth, and the purpose of mutual life insurance companies, and the current interest in demutualization and the formation of the mutual holding company. They look at the current changing conditions—legal, economic, and market, and the search for alternative ways to access the capital markets. Topics include company management, advisors, regulators and their concerns, and recent activities among supporters and opponents of mutual company structure. Discussion from participants is included. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 25, No. 2.

Description: The NAIC Life Risk-Based Capital Working Group has been working on modifications to the C-3 interest rate risk component of the statutory risk-based capital formula. Changes being considered may have a significant impact on the work of the valuation actuary. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 25, No. 3. San Francisco Annual Meeting CA, October 17–20, 1999, Session 33PD.

Description: A discussion of the possible effort required and impacts resulting from the implementation of C3 Phase II for establishing risk-based capital for variable annuities. This article will describe practical considerations gleaned from actual valuation calculations recently performed by a consulting firm.

Description: This dialogue discusses the history and purpose of section 811(a) and its historic role in the computation of life insurance company taxable income and, in particular, reserves.

Description: This article describes how there are many kinds of plans and arrangements under which qualified annuities are issued, and the rules governing them differ considerably.

Description: This article summarizes the recent changes to the C3 Phase III proposal, initial industry comment letters to the proposal and outstanding issues identified by the regulators.

Description: Investment Fallacies: The Fable of the Storyteller and the Market

Description: Businesses across the board have been drastically impacted by the effects of COVID-19 over the course of 2020, and insurance was not immune. Perhaps most relevant to this industry’s current capital and liquidity concern is the prevailing low interest rate environment. This has been a global trend in the last decade, and treasury rates in much of the developed world are at or near zero. Reduced investment returns limit an insurer’s ability to achieve their desired return on equity, eliminating previously profitable strategies that depended on the leverage of life and annuity balance sheets. Focus and activity have instead shifted to other methods to counteract the low interest rate markets and accompanying capital strain. Examples include increased mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity within the insurance industry and an increasing focus by private equity firms in the insurance market for asset-intensive products, both of which reflect the goal of increasing yield rates on capital.