Description: This article summarizes the results of the first part of a U.S. Appointed Actuaries survey asking about the usefulness of the various documents that have been created to guide valuation actuaries.

Description: The Society’s Committee to Recommend a New Mortality Basis for Individual Annuity Valuation was formed in 1980 at NAIC request because the margins in the 1971 IAM Table had eroded. This article describes the development of the 1983 Table a and shows how well the 1973 Experience Table fits the underlying data.

Description: This paper discusses approaches for reporting pre-need plans in the Phillipines under the generally accepted accounting principles of the United States “U.S. GAAP. In particular, a focus is on contracts accounted for under SFAS 97 investment-oriented contracts.

Description: In this increasingly global economy, actuaries frequently find themselves in situations involving cross-border practice. This is particularly true for U.S. and Canadian actuaries. This article is about recent agreements and discussions among the U.S. actuarial organizations and the Canadian Institute of Actuaries [CIA] that clarify how the various actuarial standards apply to cross-border activities.

Description: Two valuation proposals have occupied the regulatory agenda this year—the ACLI Interim Proposal and SVL II or the Principles Based Approach PBA to reserving. This article summarizes the ACLI Interim Proposal to the current Standard Valuation Law which allows a new preferred mortality table to be used and changes Actuarial Guideline 38 to allow lapse.

Description: This article discusses the charge of a joint committee of the SOA and American Academy of Actuaries to define the role of the valuation actuary in the U.S.A.

Description: An update on the Capital Market Assumptions used for asset allocation maybe useful to actuaries given the parallels with the assumptions an actuary uses to measure plan obligations.

Description: U.S. actuaries working in Canada are subject to Canadian code of conduct rules. This article explains the operation of the CIA with respect to this issue and compares discipline procedures in the U.S versus Canada.

Description: In this article the author responds the current defined benefit pension plan concepts that are being challenged and presents his proposal for revised plan design, funding and investment concepts. From Pension Section News, March 2004, Issue No. 54.

Description: A review of the development of the 2005 Version of the Generally Recognized Expense Table GRET, to be used to show compliance with the NAIC Life Insurance Illustration Model Regulation and the associated Actuarial Standard of Practice