Description: A critical step in valuing a company for the purpose of financial reporting is the computation of the market value of economic surplus (MVES). This article provides a novel approach to the valuation of MVES that is stable and reasonably immune to “market noise.” Current approaches to the calculation of economic surplus of an insurance company generally define such surplus as the market value of the assets (MVA) supporting the liabilities less the market value of liabilities (MVL). While MVA is observable in the market, MVL is typically computed directly, without regard to the underlying supporting assets. Subtracting MVL from any value of assets that changes with market movements results in an unstable surplus. Consequently, a surplus that is not fully reflective of market sentiment has been rejected by many. This same approach is further used in the calculation of market consistent embedded value (MCEV) when a balance sheet approach is used .

Description: Read the September 2019 issue of Risk Management, published by the Joint Risk Management Section. Newsletters provide practical information for the working actuary, articles on trends that impact sections and news about section activities.

Description: Regular Corner where the Editor introduces the new issue and summarizes its content.

Description: This article demonstrates and explains the differences between the current Canadian and U.S. capital regimes on life insurance companies. The concept and framework of regulatory capital is first introduced and Canadian regulation capital requirements—minimum continuing capital and surplus requirements (MCCSR) and U.S. regulation capital-risk based capital (RBC)—is explained and compared.

Description: In this article, we provide practical guidance for understanding how to develop and apply an effective risk appetite statement.

Description: This article explores how simple climate targets are driving paper decarbonization, which has serious unintended consequences. Risk managers must keep this in mind and choose metrics carefully to do their part in the climate transition.

Description: This article gives you a different way to think about economics from a system science perspective and introduces concepts such as complexity, emergence, and interdependence. The concepts allow better conformity to the behavior of the markets and policyholder behavior.

Description: Regular update provided by the Chair of the Joint Risk Management Section on initiatives put forth by the section council for the current year.

Description: This article presents the observations of some random investigation into the nature of CTE.

Description: This article discusses the causes of the 1918 influenza pandemic, the reasons it occurred and the likelihood that it could happen again. In addition, the author discussed ways, in general, to model and manage risks that occur infrequently, yet have a significant impact.