Description: Asset cash flow modeling and asset assumptions are growing in importance with PBR especially considering the low interest rate environment. The Academy’s Life Practice Council and Life Valuation Committee have formed a Low Interest Rate Asset Adequacy Testing Task Force which has conducted an industry survey to raise awareness and summarize the actuarial best practices for financial reporting actuaries practicing in today’s very low interest rate environment. As the scrutiny on the asset side ratchets up, actuaries must consider how best to develop the asset assumptions as well as model the reinvestment and disinvestment strategies. Coherent assumptions and modeling practices across modeling exercises are expected while respecting the purpose of each calculation.

Description: This article discusses the attributes of a unified Operational Risk Management framework and how those attributes can underpin a seven-factor economic capital model.

Description: June 2024, AG54 will begin for new RILA sales. This guidance requires companies to determine an interim value that is more aligned with the market value of the position on a daily basis. This discussion will talk through companies adoption of AG54, lessons learned, approaches and integration with the administration system. Additionally this session will discuss how AG54 impacts new product design, reserving and capital implications.

Description: Hot Topics in Setting Pension Return Assumptions is the third in a series, following Mathematics of Pension Return Assumption and Inflation, focusing on Effects, Forecasts, and Role in Pension Valuations. What time horizon is more appropriate for Capital Market Assumption (CMA) forecasts: mid-term or long-term time horizon, or a blend of both? How do we map the asset classes of a plan's own investment policy to the asset classes of investment forecasters' CMAs? If we use asset-smoothing for valuation assets, should we use market-driven expected returns or smoothed/average versions of them?

Description: The speakers will work through hands-on Excel examples of bootstrapping interest rate curves—including forward, spot, and par rates. The presenters will also cover models such as Hull-White and the Forward Market Model with an emphasis on derivative valuation and exposure calculations.

Description: The Stochastic Volatility, SV, model is used for capturing the empirical properties of financial time series. This paper overviews those properties and compares the SV model with the heavy-tailed error distribution Student t-distribution and the SV model with the normal error distribution. The Simulated Maximum Likelihood, SML, method is applied to estimate the parameters and the latent volatility.

Description: Why Write Variable Products When You Can Put the Money Directly into the Stock Market?

Description: We explore the considerations regarding discount rates in the new US GAAP Targeted Improvements, including selection of observable rates and methods for extrapolations rates where there is no observable data.

Description: Shareholders provide capital and receive the insurance profit. This paper demonstrates than an optimal capital level exists that generates the highest return for the shareholders of an insurance company. This result is derived using a risk capital model by Perold. The no-arbitrage argument, developed by Modigliani and Miller, is used throughout the paper and puts the discussion on a solid economic footing. From 2006 Enterprise Risk Management Symposium, M-AS06-1.