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: As an addendum to a July 2022 article, this article restates the formulas then presented for a framework to measure the reinsured portion of a direct loss from capping a net premium ratio or flooring a liability. The article corrects a flaw in one of the original formulas and shows, by example, how the framework can be applied to a specific application of reinsurance accounting.

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: Description of FASB decisions in late 2015 and early 2016

Description: An update on the SOA's financial reporting research projects.

Description: Illustrates the effects that proposed GAAP changes will have on earnings emergence of universal life contracts.

Description: Description of FASB redeliberations on targeted improvements for long duration contracts as of the end of 2017, including a summary of the anticipated impacts

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

Description: This article from The Actuary, April 1971, volume 5, Issue 4 talks about an exposure draft. The Exposure Draft of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants on Audits of Life Insurance Companies has not apparently had among actuaries the wide circulation it deserves, judging by the relatively few responses to Robert Winters letter in the February issue of The Actuary. This is a most important document because it affects not only the accounting practices of life insurance companies but also the status of the actuarial profession.

Description: Book review for “Unaccountable Account,” by Abraham J. Briloff recommending it as a good description of some of the problems with GAAP accounting.