Description: The IRS believes that any segregated asset account comprised of a pool of individual securities will run afoul of the investor control doctrine. This article articulates that such a conclusion would be deeply flawed based on the administrative, congressional, and judicial precedents involving the investor control doctrine.

Description: The article summarizes PLRs 201515001 and 201519001, in which the IRS addressed the treatment of a non-qualified deferred annuity contract under the investor control doctrine and other applicable rules. The contract provides a guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefit and investment options that correspond to “public” mutual funds. The IRS concluded that the investor control doctrine will apply to treat the contract purchaser as the owner of the mutual fund shares for federal income tax purposes. The IRS also addressed certain other tax aspects of the arrangement. The effect of the rulings is that the contract will be taxed similarly to a contingent deferred annuity (where the policyholder holds the mutual fund shares in his or her own brokerage account), while being structured like a traditional deferred variable annuity (where the insurance company holds the shares in its separate account).

Description: Discusses the interactions between dynamic lapses and interest rates in stochastic modeling for variable annuities.

Description: This article summarizes information on the regulatory aspects of variable annuities, both federal and state, and offers thoughts on corporate structure, product, marketing and sales commissions.

Description: Discusses the problem with the computation of tax reserves for VA contracts with Guaranteed Living Benefit riders that were issued prior to December 31, 2009.

Description: This is a book review of The Variable Annuity, which the author recommends for a history and current status of this market. The book comments on the effect of variable annuities on stock prices.

Description: Variable Annuity DAC: A Survey of Current Practice by Laura J. Hay and Elizabeth Rogalin from The Financial Reporter, December 2002, Issue No. 51. Examines the DAC calculation for Variable Annuities and the possible write down of DAC under revised assumptions.

Description: The article summarizes several recent private letter rulings from the IRS addressing the "investor control" doctrine in the context of funds of funds.

Description: Discusses a one day seminar in Shanghai, China held on August 25, 2011 by the SOA and the China Regional Committee on variable annuities.

Description: Important tools used in property & casualty P&C insurance—predictive modeling and data mining—can be applied to more effectively model policyholder behavior risks in variable annuity VA contracts. In this article, a case study is used to demonstrate how a predictive modeling approach can improve upon traditional methods used to model VA lapse behavior.