Description: At the end of December 2020, Congress enacted the Consolidated Appropriates Act, 2021, which included revisions to Section 7702. Effective for policies issued after December 31, 2020, the fixed 4% and 6% minimum annual effective rates under these tests were changed to refer to a market-based rate called the “insurance interest rate”. For contracts issued in 2021, the insurance rate was set to 2% - defined as the lower of the Section 7702 applicable federal interest rate based on the 60-month period ending December 2019 (2%) and the Section 7702 valuation interest rate in effect for 2020 (3.5%). This reduction in the rates used for compliance testing required significant product, operational, and technology changes for companies to reach product compliance. After 2021, the insurance interest rate is redetermined annually with a minimum change floor.

Description: Discuss population mortality improvement trends in the U.S. This will include analysis of cause of death data and trends in mortality pre-pandemic and during the pandemic. We will also discuss ways to think about translating population mortality improvement to an insured population.Learning outcomes includea better understanding of the drivers of recent mortality improvement and insights on how to create a company view on mortality improvement.

Description: Learn more about recent updates to the Bermuda Market and how this may impact current and future market players. This session will cover the Bermuda reserving and capital requirements and how the recent Bermuda Consultation Paper may impact the industry. At the end of the session, you will have a better understanding of the status of the proposed changes, the implications and general observation of the industry reactions.

Description: Most insurers operate in a multi-GAAP world: Many U.S. insurers are regulated on a statutory/risk-basec capital (RBC) basis, report to markets under U.S. GAAP, pay taxes on a tax basis of accounting, and manage their business internally on an economic or other basis. In addition, many have overseas entities exposed to even more reporting bases. Reporting requirements are ever increasing and convergence of frameworks is not a reality in most parts of the world.Learn about a multi-GAAP framework to gain a bottom-up understanding of the differences in reserves and other balance sheet and income statement line items across reporting bases, both now and for future projections/plans. Using such an approach enhances insight into the valuation of the business, removes inconsistencies and results in operational efficiencies in the valuation process. At the conclusion of the session, you will learn technical concepts behind the Multi-GAAP framework and some practical ways to design and implement it.

Description: There is a clear consumer need for long-term care (LTC) coverage. Combo life/LTC products sought to meet that need when stand-alone LTC coverages became more difficult and more expensive to get. Combo life/LTC are built to be more sustainable, allowing for more alignment of interests between the policyholder and insurer. However, combo life/LTC are typically on a universa life (UL) chassis with extensive secondary guarantees, and several were withdrawn from the market in the recent past because of very low interest rates. A couple of carriers have used the variable UL chassis which are still in market. Interest rates have also risen dramatically. The opportunity may be present for innovation in this area that leads to sustainable products. Join the conversation as experts in this area discuss the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in developing and marketing these products.

Description: Dive into the recent updates to the Bermuda Market and how this may impact current and future market players. Learn more about the Bermuda reserving and capital requirements and how the recent Bermuda Consultation Paper may impact the industry.

Description: Gain a high-level understanding on how long-duration targeted improvement (LDTI) impacts insurance products and earnings. Explore highlights on secondary impacts to companies due to additional complexity of LDTI, such as a need for a source of earnings analysis. Then dive into the details and hear an explanation on how earnings emergence differs for each type of life and annuity product impacted by LDTI. Finally, discuss the impact -to-earnings volatility under LDTI for each product type. Close the session by connecting how the investor story changes with all the impacts discussed during the session.You should walk away with a good understanding of LDTI earnings emergence, which is a topic that has very limited thought leadership available today.

Description: Discuss issues related to illustrations, including illustration testing, ASOP 24, the illustration model regulation and AG 49 at the practice level. Come prepared with questions and comments on the world of illustrations and illustration testing. Explore ideas for what's working and not working in the illustration world and formulate plans to tackle pressing illustrations issues. At the end of this workshop, you will be able to Identify issues related to illustrations and illustration testing for life products, discuss possible ways to resolve issues issue identified, and explore the future state of illustrations and illustration testing for various products.

Description: Assumptions have been a critical component of actuarial work since the rise of the profession hundreds of years ago. Without well-developed, credible assumptions, reliable financial projections are an impossibility. Yet in 2023, there is still a wide range of assumption processes and governance practices in place throughout the life industry. Follow assumption and governance experts from Oliver Wyman to dig deep into results from our 2023 assumption process and governance survey. Examine what we're seeing currently practiced throughout the industry and offer insights into what we're doing well, as well as where we have opportunities to improve. Explore topics, such as assumption governance frameworks, governance costs, development and review, approval processes, implementation and usage, monitoring, and challenges.Gain a better understanding of how your own assumption processes compare against others in the industry, and learn best practices that can be implemented to improve assumption processes.

Description: Join us for an exciting session as Actuarial Innovation & Technology Strategic Research from the SOA's Research Institute unveils two recently published research reports: ""Unveiling the Life Insurers' Actuarial Transformation Journey and the Impact of Analytics"" and ""Exploring Revolutionary Advances in Underwriting: An Initial Assessment of Epigenetics, Medical Tests, and Wearables"". In the first report, we delve into the evolving landscape of life insurers' Actuarial Transformation efforts, shedding light on their future prospects and emphasizing emerging Advanced Analytics techniques. The second report serves as the inaugural installment of a series dedicated to identifying promising innovations for underwriters and actuaries, and it promises to alert the SOA to the latest developments. During this session, our presenters will provide an insightful overview of the key findings and key takeaways from both research reports. By the end of the session, attendees will gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for the invaluable research conducted in these areas.