Description: A short article looking at the results from an annual assumption survey of VA writers with a focus on changes companies observed and planned to make due to COVID-19. In the article we discuss what companies should be considering as they approach the 2020 year end assumption setting and audit season.

Description: A description of KPMG's survey findings of 20 companies about principle-based reserving implementation.

Description: Provides an update, as of September 2022, on Financial Reporting Section sponsored research projects in process and those recently completed.

Description: A summary of the progress and recommendations of the Mortality Study Working Group and a request support in implementing the recommendations.

Description: This article provides an update, as of October 2023, on Financial Reporting Section research projects in process and those recently completed.

Description: Businesses across the board have been drastically impacted by the effects of COVID-19 over the course of 2020, and insurance was not immune. Perhaps most relevant to this industry’s current capital and liquidity concern is the prevailing low interest rate environment. This has been a global trend in the last decade, and treasury rates in much of the developed world are at or near zero. Reduced investment returns limit an insurer’s ability to achieve their desired return on equity, eliminating previously profitable strategies that depended on the leverage of life and annuity balance sheets. Focus and activity have instead shifted to other methods to counteract the low interest rate markets and accompanying capital strain. Examples include increased mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity within the insurance industry and an increasing focus by private equity firms in the insurance market for asset-intensive products, both of which reflect the goal of increasing yield rates on capital.

Description: Summary of the NAIC and SOA's PBR Survey.

Description: Performance measurement is not the primary purpose of either GAAP or statutory accounting. This article discusses alternative methods of reporting used by life insurance companies to better measure financial performance.

Description: Article outlining the recent activity of the NAIC Life Actuarial Task Force LATF VM-20 Subgroup activities and the Academy’s Life Reserve Working Group dealing with feedback from the VM-20 impact study.

Description: The following Executive Summary is an excerpt from a report by Chris O’Brien entitled, “Market-Consistent Valuations of Life Insurance Business: The U.K. Experience.” The purpose of this article is to explain the new valuation approach, set out the issues with implementation and explain how insurers have addressed these issues.