Description: Presented at October 1996 Annual Meeting. This discussion examines a few prototype annuity designs and mainly focuses on a typical single premium deferred annuity 'SPDA', a flexible premium deferred annuity, and a variable annuity.

Description: The article described two methods for calculating the benefit ratio described in AICPA Standard of Practice SOP 03-1. Method 1 calculates the benefit ratio as the quotient of the expectation of A and the expectation of B where A is benefits and B is assessments. Method 2 calculates the benefit ratio as the expectation of the quotient of A and B.