Description: View the Fall 2021 Individual Life and Annuities Life Financial Management, U.S Exam.

Description: View the Fall 2021 General Insurance - Financial And Regulatory Environment – U.S. Exam Case Study.

Description: In this session, the presenters will discuss implementation challenges with US GAAP Long Duration Targeted Improvements (LDTI) for life and annuity products, and methods and changes to actuarial models their organizations use to overcome the challenges. Presenters will specifically discuss the following topics: The current GAAP reporting framework can create challenges with transparency for annuity insurers. Many annuity insurers report on adjusted earning measures in addition to US GAAP, believing the adjusted measures more accurately reflect earnings. Using a variable annuity framework, presenters will discuss key differences between GAAP and adjusted earnings measures, key challenges and their solutions for LDTI implementation, and the potential for LDTI to reduce the need for adjusted earnings measures and increase transparency. For FAS 60 based life products, insurers need to update and modernize the assumption setting process. Presenters will cover methods and the decision process whether to use existing data or new experience studies to review product experience and set assumptions. There is a lack of clarity and guidance for development and implementation of LDTI in a reinsurance framework. For reinsured life products, LDTI guidance is clear on the direct side of the financial statements, but the guidance is less clear on reinsurance ceded values. Presenters will discuss methods and changes to actuarial financial models that are needed in order to ensure the direct and ceded values are consistent.

Description: Businesses across the board have been drastically impacted by the effects of COVID-19 over the course of 2020, and insurance was not immune. Perhaps most relevant to this industry’s current capital and liquidity concern is the prevailing low interest rate environment. This has been a global trend in the last decade, and treasury rates in much of the developed world are at or near zero. Reduced investment returns limit an insurer’s ability to achieve their desired return on equity, eliminating previously profitable strategies that depended on the leverage of life and annuity balance sheets. Focus and activity have instead shifted to other methods to counteract the low interest rate markets and accompanying capital strain. Examples include increased mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity within the insurance industry and an increasing focus by private equity firms in the insurance market for asset-intensive products, both of which reflect the goal of increasing yield rates on capital.

Description: Spring 2022 Individual Life and Annuities Life Financial Management, U.S Introductory Study Note

Description: Spring 2022 Individual Life and Annuities Life Financial Management, Canada Introductory Study Note

Description: Spring 2022 Individual Life and Annuities Life Financial Management, Canada

Description: Spring 2021 Individual Life and Annuities Life Financial Management, U.S

Description: Recently the interest rates have been slowly trending up from the lowest point in August 2020. The focus of this article is on current market trends for long-duration products —including life insurance, annuities, and long-term care insurance —following an extended period of low interest rates, and lessons carriers can learn from similar historical periods of rising interest rates. Innovative and flexible product features will continue to be essential, as the current interest trend may not substantially increase insurers’ portfolio rates. When designing or modifying product features, insurers should consider profitability in a wide breadth of interest rate scenarios and be particularly mindful of the impact that crediting rates and asset durations will have on earnings.

Description: The earth’s ecosystem appears to be leaving the 10,000-year Holocene epoch that featured a stable environment. For homo sapiens, this stability encouraged a move from hunter/gatherer to farming and urban lifestyles. The new period showcases climate risk, resulting in higher temperatures and more extreme weather. These conditions lead to greater exposures to properties and economies when events like hurricanes and wildfires occur.

Description: For over a decade, life insurers have been challenged by a low interest rate environment, making it difficult to find investments with adequate yield, manage corporate spreads, and offer competitive products to consumers. While interest rates are still low compared to the early 2000’s, volatility in rates over the past year, during which the 10-year U.S. Treasury rate has increased by nearly 100 basis points, could indicate a longer-term trend of rising rates. What would a rising rate environment imply for life insurance writers? Insurers able to react to interest rate changes with agility can remain relevant in an evolving economy, protecting themselves and their policyholders. This article addresses risks and considerations faced by insurers with respect to in-force retention, pricing and product mix, and reinsurance and mergers & acquisitions.

Description: Interview (Q&A) with Charlie Shamieh, Chairman of Gen Re, against the backdrop of the COVID-19 Pandemic and its impact on Re/Insurance

Description: Actuarial Process Optimization is a framework for using technology to support the actuary of the future. In this article, we discuss the capabilities of new technologies and explore examples where they can be used to aid with providing strategic business direction, optimizing skillsets and use of technology, and maintaining governance, control, and risk frameworks.

Description: The Society of Actuaries Research Institute commissioned this study to highlight the leading emerging technologies that may significantly affect the actuarial profession over a three-year horizon. This study will act as a guide and a resource for actuaries or potential employers to identify the prospective tools to enhance or expand actuarial work, for people collaborating with actuaries who may be affected by these technologies, and for leaders looking to enable teams employing actuaries through the introduction of these tools. It’s noted that actuaries should embrace technologies that enhance the remote working experience within their internal teams and across departments by investigating functionalities beyond messaging and video calls. Actuarial organizations and employers should examine technologies where there is a wide range or gap in maturity and familiarity and evaluate whether a knowledge gap exists and whether any gap is due to lack of education and training.

Description: Hear about modernized reporting capabilities and technical analysis, which is enabled through access to deep actuarial and financial planning data. The webcast will focus on a real post-Long Duration Targeted Improvements (LDTI) source of earnings analysis and on a high-level LDTI forecasting capability.

Description: This report provides results from a recently conducted study using the AIR Wildfire Model for the United States and available climate and climate change information to estimate how climate change may influence wildfire losses to U.S. property by mid-century. The climate change conditioned catalogs were used to evaluate climate change impacts (relative change in losses) to the AIR Worldwide US Industry Exposure Database, with all factors other than area burned held constant.

Description: Importance of non-GAAP operating earnings

Description: In this article, we summarize inflationary factors that may result in a sharp increase in interest rates and implications for life insurer convexity risk exposure, most notably to dynamic policyholder lapsation. We further provide insights into potential ALM strategies to mitigate this convexity risk. Due to the prolonged low-interest rate environment and low minimum interest rate guarantees offered to policyholders, liability convexity is higher than prior historical periods, which results in life insurers’ ALM positions being extremely vulnerable to short-term interest rate spikes. Convexity mismatches cause issues for life insurers under both rising and declining interest rate scenarios. This means that life insurers are not compensated for taking convexity risk and, therefore, convexity matching should always be considered in the asset optimization process. There are mixed signals from policymakers and financial markets regarding potential inflationary and sharply rising interest rate scenarios. The key takeaway is that life insurers are not compensated for taking convexity risk and it is the right time for insurers to review convexity exposure. There are different approaches available to mitigate convexity exposure through rebalancing of asset positions and hedges within each life insurer’s risk limits.

Description: As of September 2021, there are 8 recorded webinars available for free to Modeling Section members. Each of the 8 are described, as well as how to access them. There are other Modeling Section-related materials also pointed out (podcasts & newsletter)

Description: Variable annuity (VA) writers are facing many challenges in today's economic environment. Equity market volatility and low interest rates make guaranteed benefits increasingly expensive to hedge. Both GAAP Long Duration Targeted Improvements and the recent VM-21 changes will drive the need to manage the VA business under a new set of lenses. During this session, the presenters will explore the various in-force management tools VA writers have available and comment on their effectiveness.

Description: In 2018, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) adopted significant revisions to the U.S. GAAP insurance accounting literature, via Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2018-12. The title of ASU 2018-12 is “Targeted Improvements to the Accounting for Long-Duration Contracts,” and as a result a common acronym for ASU 2018-12 is LDTI (long-duration targeted improvements).

Description: Accounting Standards; Valuation Actuary

Description: In 2018, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) adopted significant revisions to the U.S. GAAP insurance accounting literature, via Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2018-12. The title of ASU 2018-12 is “Targeted Improvements to the Accounting for Long-Duration Contracts,” and as a result, a common acronym for ASU 2018-12 is LDTI (long-duration targeted improvements).

Description: A review of model inputs, suggested methods to getting comfortable with the data that your model is using, and data validation lessons

Description: ILA LFMC Model Solutions Spring 2021

Description: ILA LFMU Model Solutions Spring 2021

Description: QFI PM Model Solutions - Spring 2021

Description: Case study for General Insurance, Financial and Regulatory Environment – U.S.

Description: This article is the final installment of our three-part series on economic scenario generators (“ESGs”). Part I and II were published in the November 2019 and August 2020 issues of The Modeling Platform. Part III contextualizes the framework for selecting, building, and validating ESGs and focuses on the Academy Interest Rate Generator (“AIRG”), the most commonly used real-world ESG for US actuaries

Description: Discussion on modeling Medicare Supplement insurance and the considerations when choosing an Actuarial Modeling Software (AMS). Focuses on model risk management, key modeling assumptions and inputs, and the complex interactions between modeling assumptions and why its critical to have a model that can handle that complexity. This article also touches on the incorporation the of accounting and regulatory regimes into the model, including Statutory, GAAP (Legacy and LDTI), and Tax regimes, and the modeling considerations for sensitivity testing and capital planning. Lastly, the article highlights the capabilities to look for when choosing an AMS for Medicare Supplement

Description: This is the final article in a five-part series about accounting for reinsurance under GAAP Targeted Improvements to the Accounting for Long-Duration Contracts (LDTI). It looks at some concerns that arise when new reinsurance is purchased to cover previously-issued contracts. The article describes what formal guidance is available. Where that guidance leaves off, the article presents practical solutions to achieving performance objectives.

Description: The article summarizes implications of rising interest rates on U.S. GAAP and statutory financial reporting for life insurers, highlighting potential tailwinds from steady increases and headwinds from sharp increases. We further provide insights into how insurers can leverage ALM programs and interest rate risk hedging practices to favorably position themselves in a rising rate environment

Description: French version of article

Description: Living benefits (GLWBs) in fixed index annuity products are typically accounted for under SOP03-1 under current GAAP guidance. LDTI requires companies to classify these riders as Market Risk Benefit (MRB). This webcast focuses on challenges and considerations of the MRB implementation. Industry practices of the reserving approach will be shared during this webcast, as well as hedging and pricing implications.

Description: This article focuses on the market risk benefit (MRB) measurement model and will examine a generic guaranteed minimum death benefit (GMDB) in the context of LDTI and its impact from both the ceding entity and the reinsurer standpoints.

Description: View the Spring 2021 General Insurance - Financial And Regulatory Environment – U.S. Exam Case Study.

Description: View the Spring 2021 QFI – Portfolio Management Exam.

Description: View the Spring 2021 Individual Life and Annuities Life Financial Management, U.S Exam .

Description: View the Spring 2021 Individual Life and Annuities Life Financial Management, Canada Exam .

Description: View the Spring 2021 Life ALM and Modeling Exam .

Description: Tracy Choka is managing director and regional head business management at Swiss Re. Tracy has spent her career in L&H reinsurance, working across multiple areas that include pricing, valuation, operations, client solutions, deal development, and mortality and underwriting research. In her tenure, Tracy has headed Applied Research and Development, Products, and since 2014, Business Management for U.S., Canada and Latin America.Tracy shares her thoughts on how the pandemic has accelerated trends in underwriting and the challenges - and the silver lining- in managing professional relationships during COVID-19

Description: The Retirement Section and Retirement Section Research Committee are pleased to make available a research report examining academic and practitioner research on low interest rates in the United States.

Description: RFP on Cross impact between Predictive Analytics and Actuarial Transformation initiatives

Description: Fall 2021 Individual Life and Annuities Life Financial Management, Canada Syllabi

Description: Fall 2021 Individual Life and Annuities Life Financial Management, Canada Introductory Study Note

Description: Fall 2021 Individual Life and Annuities Life Financial Management, U.S Introductory Study Note

Description: Fall 2021 Individual Life and Annuities Life Financial Management, U.S Syllabi

Description: This article provides an EV overview, current industry usage, key considerations illustrated by MetLife’s strategic spin-off of Brighthouse Financial, as well as implementation notes.

Description: This article explores some key challenges facing the modeling actuary related to LDTI implementation and shares associated compliance and modernization considerations.

Description: A high-level review of the newly effective U.S. Actuarial Standard of Practice 56, Modeling

Description: This is the fourth in a series of articles about accounting for reinsurance under GAAP Targeted Improvements to the Accounting for Long-Duration Contracts (LDTI). It looks at some concerns that arise from the relationship between ceded reinsurance and the underlying contracts. Recognizing a lack of formal guidance addressing these concerns, the article aims mostly to achieve performance and simplicity objectives

Description: This paper highlights the impact on shareholder equity and AOCI due to the introduction of LDTI during a period of falling interest rates. The paper is intended to provide an example of an analysis that will help actuaries explain the interaction of LDTI and falling interest rates.

Description: In this article, industry experts who have gone through the journey of establishing and executing a mature actuarial model risk management function share their tips and tricks through three case studies that convey commonly faced issues

Description: View the Fall 2020 ILA LFMC Exam Solution.

Description: View the Fall 2020 ILA LFMU Exam Solution.

Description: This is the third in a series of articles about accounting for reinsurance under GAAP Targeted Improvements to the Accounting for Long-Duration Contracts (LDTI). It looks at some techniques that have been used to account for long-duration reinsurance under existing GAAP (before LDTI). It looks at whether and how those techniques can be updated to comply with the updated standards and evaluates their effectiveness against compliance, performance, and simplicity objectives.

Description: This article highlights the key implications and insights as a result of the change to the determination of reserves under GAAP accounting guidance for insurers with long-duration liabilities due to Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2018-12 (“LDTI”) for IDI and LTC products.

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: View the Fall 2020 QFIPM Exam Solution.

Description: An overview of key considerations for benefit triggers in critical illness products

Description: View the Fall 2020 QFI – Portfolio Management Exam.

Description: View the Fall 2020 General Insurance - Financial And Regulatory Environment – U.S. Exam Case Study.

Description: View the Fall 2020 Individual Life and Annuities Life Financial Management, U.S. Exam .