Description: A discussion of some of the challenges the insurance industry will face as we move towards fair value and a comparison of the pros and cons of rules based vs. principles based reserves.

Description: This session at the SOA 2001 Toronto Spring Meeting focuses on FAS 133, which defines accounting for derivatives, embedded options and hedging activities. Details of FAS 133 and implementation issues are discussed.

Description: A discussion of alternative meanings to “Best” in best estimate. When one is trying to estimate a result that is normally distributed, the mean, median and mode will all equal one another. However if the results are not normally distributed, different variance metrics will result in different “best” estimates. When different parts of a financial statement use different criteria for measuring best estimates and different processes for handling variances, the results can be volatile, unpredictable and perhaps unreasonable.

Description: From a session at the Spring meeting of the Society of Actuaries held in San Antonio, Texas, June 14-15, 2004 This session addressed aspects of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, including a discussion of the history and purpose of the act, processes of compliance and their documentation, identification of key controls and testing for key control effectiveness.

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.

Description: This open forum at the SOA 2004 Annual Meeting focuses on emerging U.S. GAAP issues and the new Statement of Position [SOP] with emphasis placed upon implementation issues, purchase GAAP accounting, and replacements or policy changes.

Description: This presentation is an open forum, session 48OF, from the 2004 Spring Meeting of the Society of Actuaries, held June 14-15 in San Antonio, TX. The panelists focus on emerging U.S. GAAP accounting issues, and the implementation issues encountered by affected companies. The panelists discuss Statement of Position [SOP] 03-1 on nontraditional long-duration life insurance contracts, the SOP on internal replacements, and the impact of the Derivatives Implementation Group issue B36 on embedded derivatives for modified coinsurance and funds withheld reinsurance. Discussion from participants is included. From the Record of Society of Actuaries, Volume 30, No. 2.

Description: In session 118 TS of the Washington Annual Meeting panelists discuss the growth in variable annuities and the increased insurance industry exposure to mortality risk associated with GMDB. The focus of this session is on current practices in the areas of reserving for GMDB and modeling the GMDB risk. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 23, No. 3.

Description: The NAIC is working with state insurance departments to replace the existing rules-based valuation laws with principle-based valuation laws. On the GAAP front, both the International Accounting Standards Board, which sets GAAP accounting guidance for many countries outside the United States, and the Financial Accounting Standards Board, which promulgates GAAP guidance in the United States, are moving toward a “current estimate” standard of valuation, which often results in a fair value or similar measurement basis. This article reviews the IASB’s discussion paper on insurance valuation and the American Academy of Actuaries’ response to it.