Description: This article by the editor discusses responses from readers to The Actuary’s September 1981 Supplement on Universal Life, much of it critical in nature. One responder noted that Universal Life is ‘a symptom of an economy in convulsion,’ and had serious doubts that this product will successfully provided consumers with long term life insurance protection.

Description: Article Pacific Insurance Conference BANFF 1979 by McCracken in The Actuary, December 1979, Volume 13, Number 10

Description: Article Editorial by Moorhead in The Actuary, February 1979, Volume 13, Number 2

Description: This article consists of excerpts from the author’s presidential address to the Southeastern Actuaries’ Club on November 21, 1980. The author notes ‘the only thing we could all possibly agree on today about the economic situation is that the degree of uncertainty is high,’ and ‘it is this uncertainty that presents us actuaries with professional problems which cannot be addressed by traditional methods.’ In explaining how we can deal with inflation and uncertainty the author argues for repeal of both the Standard Valuation Law and the Standard Nonforfeiture Law.

Description: This article discusses the June 23, 1977 Supreme Court ruling that a life insurance company must include the net valuation portion but not the associated loading of deferred and uncollected premiums in its assets and gross premium income as well as in its reserves in computing its tax liability. Some companies have been using this procedure or a modification of it for the past few years. Other companies have been filing returns conforming to IRS regulations which required including gross deferred and uncollected premiums. These companies may need to file amended returns for open tax years if they paid taxes not due or understated usable operations/loss carry forwards. The author then goes on to review the implications of the court’s decision for companies filing amended returns.

Description: The author discusses a perceived loophole in the Social Security system whereby an employer could reduce employees’ wages by all or a portion of their Social Security payroll tax and then pay this tax for the employees. This procedure, which had been little used through the years except by householders employing domestic workers, was dubbed “FICA-II,” and the article notes that 1980 legislation prohibited the practice other than for domestic workers and a few other limited exemptions.

Description: The author notes that “many considerations enter into the determination of investment strategy. Important among these considerations is the maximization of investment income on an after-tax basis rather than on a before-tax basis.” The article then discusses how starting in the early 1960’s insurers, using a marginal tax rate approach, invested heavily in tax exempt bonds. The author, expressing his belief that a major depression is likely to occur in the next 10 years, recommends insurance companies divest of their holding in tax exempt instruments, based on the macroeconomic analysis he presents.

Description: Discussion of the Veterans Insurance Act of 1974

Description: Article Book Review The Future Of Risk by Calvert in The Actuary, December 1979, Volume 13, Number 10

Description: Feature article describing what makes a company a systemically important financial institution and the new rules those companies will have to follow.