Description: Health insurance company assets and liabilities have evolved since the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law in March 2010. The ACA fundamentally rearranged how commercial health insurance is funded by integrating federal premium subsidies and pass-throughs together with a marketplace interwoven with transfer payments among stakeholders. The impacts of these programs can be seen in specific accounting items on the balance sheets of health insurance companies over the past 10 years. Their emergence follows three primary trends: (1) balance sheet items tend to be larger and take longer to settle, (2) there are more interactions among items, and (3) the final settlement amounts are more uncertain.

Description: This is the first in a series of articles about accounting for reinsurance under GAAP Targeted Improvements to the Accounting for Long-Duration Contracts (LDTI). It provides an introduction to the topic, giving an overview of what has and hasn't changed. Changes include a few that directly address reinsurance and others that indirectly result from changes to direct accounting and the existing ties between reinsurance and direct accounting.

Description: Pension accounting standards continue to evolve across the globe with objectives, methods and assumptions varying, sometimes substantially, from one jurisdiction to the next. The presenters will compare the primary global pension accounting standards (US GAAP and IFRS), review recent developments and address whether or not the current standards adequately serve stakeholders such as plan participants, investors, management and regulators.

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: This paper is the first in the Transactions to address itself to the problem of general-purpose financial reporting for life insurance companies. The primary purpose of the paper is to demonstrate how a natural reserve approach may be utilized effectively to adjust life insurance earnings in a manner consistent with GAAP. A second purpose of the paper is to demonstrate earnings patterns obtained by several possible alternative approaches to earnings adjustments. From Society of Actuaries Financial Reporting Monograph, M-AS99-1.

Description: While most actuaries work for companies and have as a primary objective the financial success of their employers, regulatory actuaries primarily serve the public interest. In part one of this presentation, we will explore the role of actuaries whose priority is to serve the public interest. Regulation is developed by a deliberative process that includes regulators, the American Academy of Actuaries, trade associations and the companies that will be affected by the regulation. In part two of this session, we will present a series of vignettes each focusing on recent updates to the Valuation Manual. At the conclusion of the session, attendees will have a deeper appreciation of what goes on behind the scenes in the development of regulation.

Description: This section contains book reviews and summaries of recently published works on subjects including demography, savings in the U.S., life company state examinations, private pensions, Industrial insurance, medical care, and union welfare plans.

Description: This session at the 2003 Valuation Actuary Symposium covers regulatory activity with respect to health insurance that is of interest to valuation actuaries. Topics discussed include financial reporting, health risk-based capital, health reserves, and long term care issues.

Description: Session 9 of the 1990 Valuation Actuary Symposium is an open forum on reinsurance.

Description: Financial Reporting for Healthcare Plans objectives, defining market segments, preparing & recasting segment monitoring reports, quantification of liabilities, reconciliation of claim payments, medical management reports, expense control, company plans & projections & budgets, financial indicators & measurements. Issue No. 41.