Description: Performance measurement is not the primary purpose of either GAAP or statutory accounting. This article discusses alternative methods of reporting used by life insurance companies to better measure financial performance.

Description: This is a summary of the NAIC meeting held in September of 2008.

Description: This article summarizes VM-31 updates to the 2018 and 2019 Valuation Manuals, and considerations for PBR Reports based on findings from the 2017 submissions.

Description: In this paper, Chapter VII of the 1987 Valuation Actuary Handbook, the author, an attorney with the American Academy of Actuaries, discusses the valuation actuary concept, starting with the current regulatory system. The potential legal implications, including personal liability, are explored. The author notes that “perhaps most significant is the fact that by increasing the scope of the valuation actuary’s duties, the nature and scope of potential professional liability also increase.”

Description: The latest draft ORSA Guidance Manual was released on Oct. 14, 2011. An overview of the requirements from a qualitative, quantitative and governance perspective was provided in the December edition of the Financial Reporter. Several trade associations and com- panies commented on the draft.

Description: The Joint Actuarial Committee of the American Life Convention and the Life Insurance Association of America has been considering changes needed in the Standard Nonforfeiture and Standard Valuation laws in light of the high level of interest rates currently available and expected for future years.

Description: A change in the way in which statutory life insurance and annuity reserves are determined in the United States is heading toward adoption. Currently, the Actuarial Opinion and Memorandum Regulation AOMR combines formulaic factor-based minimum reserves with reserve adequacy testing. The American Academy of Actuaries Academy is working with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners NAIC to finalize the basic framework of a principles-based reserve PBR methodology, based on a gross premium valuation, for life insurance products. The NAIC Life and Health Actuarial Task Force LHATF has also been considering Actuarial Guideline VACARVM that would introduce a PBR method for the valuation of variable annuity contracts.

Description: This dialogue discusses the history and purpose of section 811(a) and its historic role in the computation of life insurance company taxable income and, in particular, reserves.

Description: The use of Other Comprehensive Income OCI is receiving its moment in the sun. It is being considered for housing some of the earnings volatility in the International Accounting Standards Board IASB current approach to measuring insurance contracts’ performance.

Description: Discussion that reinsurance regulation is driving the amount and hence the cost of capital and hence the ability of reinsurers to price products competitively