Description: This newsletter article provides an update, as of December 2024, on Financial Reporting Section sponsored research projects in process and those recently completed.

Description: Value of new business (VNB) is being used by many companies for various purposes including: internal and external financial reporting, incentive compensation, pricing, capital management, and comparing products, distribution channels or regions on a consistent basis. Presenters will discuss how and why value of new business is used within their companies including: the various methodologies considered, some of the benefits and challenges related to implementing VNB, integrating VNB within their business as usual processes, and managing to VNB.

Description: Generally accepted accounting practices (GAAP) reporting frameworks are more involved than ever before. From disclosures to assumption changes, to interest rate movements, uncovering the drivers of income emergence can prove hard to do, and even trickier to communicate. This session will revisit how the updated standards create layers of complexity and offer ways to sidestep these obstacles to generate useful earnings analysis by various drivers.

Description: Even though the 2018 Tax Cut and Job Act significantly simplified the tax valuation methodology, taxation can impact the valuation outcomes and financial decisions. This presentation will start with an overview of the key taxation topics relating to valuation work, and then dive into more complex topics, such as the deferred tax asset/liability handling and reinsurance implications.

Description: Indexed universal life (IUL) continues to be the most popular universal life (UL) product with sales reaching $1B in Q4 2023, according to LIMRA. There is little long-term experience for IUL and many companies value and model IUL just like UL, but there are material potential differences that need to be considered for valuation and projection purposes.

Description: In this article, a numerical comparison of two commonly used FIA valuation methodologies is conducted to help insurers decide on the best methodology to use under GAAP LDTI and VM-22. We compared two modeling approaches to project the future index credits with the annual point-to-point crediting formula: Tthe stochastic equity crediting model and the deterministic option budget crediting model. The analysis is then extended to different levels of option budgets and the monthly average crediting formula. The advantages and disadvantages of the two equity return projecting approaches are also highlighted and will be discussed later in the report.

Description: TAXING TIMES recently sat down with a group of retired tax actuaries to hear about how they got involved in actuarial tax matters and how their tax experience impacted their careers. Their insights will be useful for actuaries who are just starting out in the profession, as well as more seasoned actuaries.

Description: This article highlights the key implications and insights as a result of the change to the determination of reserves under GAAP accounting guidance for insurers with long-duration liabilities due to Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2018-12 (“LDTI”) for IDI and LTC products.

Description: The Society of Actuaries Smaller Insurance Company Section, the Financial Reporting Section, and the Committee on Life Insurance Research are pleased to make available new research investigating simplified methods for determining reserves under VM-20.

Description: The purpose of this session is to discuss hot topics pertaining to post-LDTI GAAP valuation for FIA and RILA products including FAS 133, market risk benefits, intangibles, and ceded GAAP. At the conclusion of this session, attendees will have a clear understanding of how the industry views GAAP approaches to indexed annuity products in a post-LDTI framework. In addition, attendees will learn about ongoing pain points in GAAP valuation for indexed annuities and areas of post-LDTI GAAP where the industry still has broad variation in methodology and application.