Description: FASB's Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 97 contains wide-sweeping changes to the preparation of GAAP financials for insurance companies. The focus of this article will be on the ramifications of the interest rate FASB has decided to use to amortize deferred acquisition costs.

Description: The Actuary Vol. 22, No. 2. This article discusses how the the choice of basis for measuring Interest Rate Spread impacts pricing and accounting for interest sensitive products.

Description: This article describes the Investment Year Method for allocation of general portfolio investment income and demonstrates the equivalence of a fixed index or declining index system.

Description: Life insurance companies find themselves in a significantly more complicated environment than that of just a few years ago. Managements face an uncertain investment environment, the real possibility of deteriorating future mortality due to the spread of AIDS, and alternative and competing distribution systems.

Description: This article discusses the FASB Exposure Draft, “Accounting and Reporting by Insurance Enterprises for Certain Long-Duration Insurance Contracts and for Realized Gains and Losses from the Sale of Investments.”

Description: The article discusses the implications of life insurance company taxation as a result of the passage of the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 TEFRA. In the analysis, a new classification system was developed based on the amount of Special Deductions allowed under Section 809f of the Tax Code.

Description: This article discusses international proposals for accounting reform that would establish a global common measurement approach for the large majority of life insurance and annuity products.

Description: The purpose of the article is to summarize the results and conclusions of the C-1 Risk Task Force Report prepared for the Committee on Valuation and Related Areas. A key question: Is the risk to insurance companies of defaults on junk bonds sufficient to justify increasing required surplus levels?

Description: This article examines the impact of FAS 97 on the emergence of earnings for the most recent versions of UL products, those with interest rate and return of load kickers.

Description: This article summarizes statutory reporting and the Pinciple-Based Initiative that the Academy, the industry and the regulators have been working on in the U.S. It addresses whether a principles-based approach will simplify reporting regulations and make them more flexible.