Description: Illustrates key differences, in earnings for a segment of term insurance, between current GAAP standards and GAAP targeted improvements (based on tentative board decisions preceding the release of an exposure draft).

Description: The article highlights key considerations as companies begin to reserve for their IUL products under PBR.

Description: Formulas for changes in GAAP liabilities and liability accrual rates are shown for three assumption update methods—retrospective, prospective and immediate.

Description: This article describes methods for addressing technical challenges related to modeling asset cash flows for PBR reserve projections.

Description: Illustrates the effects that proposed GAAP changes will have on earnings emergence of universal life contracts.

Description: Discussion of the relationship of IRR to ROI on a Level Term Life insurance policy

Description: VM-20 requires prudent estimate assumptions that are based upon a combination of company experience, industry basic tables and prescribed margins. VM-20 has requirements on how company experience is defined, and also requires that additional margins be established if the actuary does not consider the prescribed margins to be adequate.

Description: Presents a practical solution to some of the distortion caused by a typical application of the retrospective assumption update (unlocking) method.

Description: Illustrates the effects of different approaches to updating GAAP valuation assumptions for traditional life contracts.

Description: Under non-Aristotelian logic, there are multiple values, or shades of gray. Indeed, there may even be unexpected results from logical combinations, like “both” and “neither.” This article discusses how this insight should be applied to the current debate between formula-driven reserves with limited assumption flexibility and the reserve principles approach. For reserve standards, we do need both actuarial judgment grounded in reserving principles and restrictive formula methods or safe harbors.