Description: This article is an update, as of March 2019, on Financial Reporting Section sponsored projects in process and those recently completed.

Description: Feature article describing the status of research reports relevant to Financial Reporting Section members.

Description: This article describes a simple but powerful tool for use by valuation actuaries and auditors when evaluating current assumptions for use in GAAP net premium reserve methods that require retrospective updating for actual experience and assumption changes. As a supplement, this tool can fill some holes left by existing tools. It produces results that can be compared to materiality thresholds at any level of aggregation, from a single reserve cohort up to the combination of all cohorts for all products subject to retrospective net premium reserve requirements. It can also serve as a benchmarking tool for estimated the possible effects of an assumption change or to help in explaining the effects of an actual assumption change.

Description: Risk adjustment is needed under IFRS 17 to reflect the compensation that a company requires for bearing the uncertainty about the amount and timing of the cash flows that arises from non-financial risk. Companies are also required to disclose the method and confidence level used for the calculation of the RA. However, IFRS 17 doesn’t specify a method and a confidence level, nor does it provide a list of specific risks that are considered to be non-financial risk. Companies need to define them based on their own preferences or existing practices. This article will introduce available approaches and discuss the confidence level approach with potential consideration stemming from industry preferences and illustrative examples.

Description: This is an update, as of July 2020, on projects in process and those recently completed sponsored by the Financial Reporting Section.

Description: Valuation Approaches for FAS 133 DIG Issue B36: Embedded Derivatives: Modified Coinsurance Arrangements and Debt Instruments That Incorporate Credit Risk Exposure That Are Unrelated or Only Partially Related to the Creditworthiness of the Obligor Under Those Instruments”

Description: An ongoing discussion of the theoretically correct discount rate for valuing insurance liabilities: whether or not the credit rating of the insurer should affect the discount rate used. See related articles including the article “On the Fair Value of Insurance Liabilities: The Regulator’s Option” in the December, 2005 issue of The Financial Reporter.

Description: ongoing discussion of the proper interest rate to use in discounting liability cash flows to reflect credit risk of the insurer in a fair value accounting system

Description: This is a continuation of a discussion about the the theoretically correct treatment of the credit put the policyholder writes when purchasing an insurance contract.

Description: Reviews Section activities over the past year in education and research.