Description: Author traces the tax treatment of deficiency reserves, beginning with the 1959 Act, illustrating how the decisions made in the development of the 1959 Act continue to affect the tax treatment of those reserves today.

Description: Section 807d of the IRC provides that the deductible reserve for a life insurance contract is the greater of net surrender value or the Federally Prescribed Reserve FPR calculated under prescribed interest rate and mortality assumptions, but in no event can the tax reserve exceed “aggregate statutory reserves” i.e., the statutory cap. This article logically concludes that deficiency reserves are included in the calculation of the statutory cap.

Description: In physics and engineering education, Fermi problems require solutions based on good approximate calculations with little or no actual data, involving making justified guesses and deducing bounds without using sophisticated tools. The idea of Fermi problems are of particular relevance to today's actuaries, as pricing, reserving, and financial reporting involve more and more complex stochastic components. The paper discusses some approximate solutions developed in academia in the spirit of Fermi problems.

Description: This article summarizes the key changes to VM-31 requirements in the 2020 version of the Valuation Manual for both life and variable annuities, and compares and contrasts the requirements for each. In addition, the article offers insights into common issues and recommendations for VM-31 reports from the viewpoints of a regulator, consultant, and company actuary.

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: This article summarizes the findings of the 2020/2021 Milliman UL/IUL/VUL survey. The survey covers a range of specific product and actuarial issues and the results provide a good tool for benchmarking

Description: The author notes “the last major change in the Valuation and Non-forfeiture Laws occurred during the 1940's when the work of the Guertin Committee resulted in the adoption by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners NAIC of the Standard Valuation and Non-forfeiture Laws. While there have been a number of amendments to these laws since their adoption, both insurance department and company actuaries have concluded that there is need for a general overhaul of these standard laws to make them more responsive to today's business and regulatory needs.” The article goes on to discuss recent developments, recommendations, and legislative action, including the work of the Society of Actuaries Special Committee on Valuation and Non-forfeiture Laws, and the NAIC Technical Task Force.

Description: The Occidental Life Insurance Company position paper: Mortality Fluctuation Reserve for Stock Life Insurance Companies is reproduced. The methods chosen are considered to conform to the Audit Guide for Stock Life Insurance Companies issued by the AICPA in December, 1972.

Description: This article discusses XXX reserve financing, one of the most common life insurance industry capital markets funding transactions.

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