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: The academy generator is now a staple for actuarial practice. Initially confined to regulatory reserving, increasingly companies are using the AAA/SoA generator for a wider and wider range of applications which in some cases may be at the limits of what it was designed for. How is the AAA/SoA generator being applied in reserving, risk management and variable annuity lines of business? What are some of the challenges actuaries face in using this framework and what are the options for addressing them.

Description: Data is an essential component of financial analysis. In this session, the presenters will discuss data governance/management framework and how it can be applied to US GAAP LDTI and VM-51 regulations. This session will also discuss the important relationship between actuaries and IT and how they can work together towards best practices for extracting, managing and using data needed for various actuarial models. Real life case studies relevant for valuation actuaries (e.g. data needs for LDTI and VM-51) will also be presented and examined, highlighting best practices as well as challenges and pitfalls for setting up and governing data processes along with areas for where good communication and strong relationships are important to success.

Description: As the Valuation Manual continues to evolve and PBR standards for additional products are drafted and incorporated, it will become increasingly important for companies to understand where the requirements are consistent across products, as well as how they differ. This session will scan the life (VM-20) and annuity (VM-21, VM-22) PBR standards across the Valuation Manual to compare and contrast key requirements. Attendees will understand where common methods and techniques can be used across products and platforms. Attendees will also be better positioned to consider assumption and margin setting, asset and derivative modeling, and model efficiency techniques for all types of principles-based valuations. Additionally, this session will profile specific challenges that can arise when actuaries use models to project PBR reserves at future dates for internal planning, pricing, and projections across life and annuity businesses.

Description: Simple mathematical equations often outperform very complex ones in predictive analytics (PA) situations. This session will cover "why" and "how" to guard against overfitting and other potential pitfalls that might not be intuitive.

Description: Tomorrow’s risk landscape is shaped by macro trends and their interconnections, and those new, changing but not-yet envisioned risks will shape tomorrow's insurance needs. Karen would like to share Swiss Re's insights on new emerging risk themes and trends, climate change and its effects on the L&H business. Hopefully the session can provoke new ideas and enable us to build resilience together.

Description: Neural Networks are no longer limited to classification and regression solutions to numeric problems. CNNs add the ability to classify images, and GANs can create new images. Learn how these capabilities can provide competitive advantages to early adopters, how they work, and how to implement them.

Description: With advancement of computing technology and innovative product design, creating dependent and nested stochastic scenarios to accurately predict insurance business has become more feasible and affordable than it used to be. However, can technology and research be accessible, applicable and beneficial to all the stakeholders? Sharing research findings and its validation tools has been our interest and focus, and even a resource-saving strategy. The presenters will share a case study on a segregated fund with hedging strategy. We investigate the reserve calculation for its GMMB in an extensive but simplified stochastic model so that our method is adoptable, applicable and extendable to real-word segregated fund/separate account model. The segregated fund model theory and implementation will be presented and its cash flows will be simulated and analyzed for reserve calculation. Varying parameter assumptions will be tested and to be modified for real-world segregated fund with hedging risk for guaranteed benefits. At the conclusion of the session, attendees will gain basic understanding of and access to: - The option pricing model and its application to the segregated fund (variable annuity's separate account) guarantee - Stochastic scenario generators for the interest rates and equity returns - R-code to program from the scenarios simulations to cash flows of hedging errors - Reserve calculations and its sensitivity to various parameter values and - Comparison of methods to increasing efficiency level and the accuracy

Description: This session is targeted for new ASAs/FSAs or actuaries who are new to reserving. The session will be delivered in two parts. The first part is intended to deliver a basic understanding of IBNR reserving and different reserving methods and assumptions. We will go through examples of constructing claims triangles and developing completion factors, while exploring concepts such as seasonality, trend and outlier claims. During the second part of the session, we will apply the material from the first part to look at various example from different products such as inpatient, outpatient, RX, Medicare Supplement, dental, critical illness, etc.