Description: The unfunded obligations of U.S. employers for postretirement health benefits are enormous. While estimates of the obligation vary widely from under $100 billion to over $1 trillion, the Government Accounting Office estimate is about $400 billion. FASB has a new proposed method for accounting for post-retirement benefits other than pensions.

Description: The Internal Revenue Service “the Service” or “IRS” recently released Technical Advice Memorandum 200939019 “the TAM”. The TAM initially caused a stir among some in the insurance tax industry because it disallows a tax deduction that was permitted on the NAIC Annual Statement hereinafter “NAIC statement”. Specifically, the TAM states that unpaid loss adjustment expenses “LAE” for retiree medical benefits may only be deducted in the tax year in which the benefits are included in income by the employee who earned the benefits, despite the fact the amounts were properly included on the NAIC statement and regardless of deductibility of the unpaid LAE under the Internal Revenue Code “the Code”. This article discusses the memorandum.