Description: This article is an update, as of March 2019, on Financial Reporting Section sponsored projects in process and those recently completed.

Description: This article discusses international proposals for accounting reform that would establish a global common measurement approach for the large majority of life insurance and annuity products.

Description: This article is aimed to cover the following: 1) Provides an assessment of income volatility under Long Duration Targeted Improvements (LDTI) for several key types of long duration contracts along with select illustrations, and compares against those under current GAAP, 2) Discuss areas where accounting policies or methodologies can influence income volatility, and 3) Show how a company's management reporting can be adapted to help explain income variances under LDTI.

Description: The introduction and effective application of US GAAP LDTI have increased the scrutiny of those reviewing the updated financial results. That is because LDTI has resulted in significant changes in actuarial reserving and deferred acquisition cost (DAC) models for long-duration contracts, including significant changes to data, assumptions and required disclosures. In light of the changes, greater reliance has been put on companies’ model risk management (MRM) teams and model validations to assess the conceptual soundness and accuracy of their companies’ actuarial models and to assess that the underlying data and process utilized are suitable and appropriate. This article covers a brief background on model validation, walk through a sample LDTI-focused model validation framework/test plan, then provide insights on common LDTI-related validation observations based on the authors' prior validation experience.

Description: Improve your financial reporting knowledge with this SOA e-course. It will help you understand financial statements and regulatory capital requirements.

Description: On August 15, 2018, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update 2018-12, Targeted Improvements to the Accounting for Long-Duration Contracts ("LDTI"). With its effective date, January 1, 2021, approaching fast, companies have begun the implementation process to prepare for this significant change. The three webcasts below will outline operational implications resulting from data and technology challenges.

Description: Learn how modernization of data, models, and technology are influencing workflows. This webcast will address how workflows are changing in response to new regulatory requirements and the impacts the changes have on modeling and end-to-end future state operating models. Industry leading actuaries will discuss: How team collaboration can increase quality and speed of reporting to internal and external stakeholders How to strengthen controls and compliance frameworks across finance and actuarial departments How to modernize actuarial input/output for strategic analysis and insights How to attract and retain top talent by improving opportunities for actuaries There will also be dedicated time to ask questions of those who have made the transition.

Description: Reinsurance can be used as a tool to improve profitability and competitiveness on in force and new business for companies. Emerging reinsurance solutions will help organizations better manage their capital in different ways. During this webcast, the following solutions will be covered: Use of reinsurance to manage and improve capital and profitability Turning spread-based business into fee-based business Strategic use of affiliate and sidecar reinsurance

Description: After nearly a decade of work by ACLI and representatives of its member companies, the Society of Actuaries SOA, the American Academy of Actuaries Academy, and the NAIC’s Life and Health Actuarial Task Force LHATF, on Sept. 24, 2008, the NAIC adopted a new actuarial guideline for applying the method of computing statutory reserves for variable annuity contracts AG VACARVM.

Description: This article discusses important implications of the upcoming Long-Duration Targeted Improvements (LDTI) accounting change for the modeling actuary. We discuss the modeling implications of new GAAP standards for Market Risk Benefit (MRB), including identification of MRBs, implementation of fair valuation in actuarial systems and retroactive determination of at-issue valuation inputs for transition. We also examine the modeling implications of the other aspects of the accounting change, including Liability for Future Policy Benefit (LFPB), Deferred Acquisition Cost (DAC), and other transition and disclosure requirements