Description: discussion of a LIMRA survey on the quantity and types of recent product development efforts of life insurance companies and the considerations driving these efforts

Description: Recently, the IRS eliminated one of the more amorphous tax rules that at times was a stumbling block in Triple-X securitization transactions. Unfortunately, however, the IRS left an equally amorphous consolidated return rule untouched.

Description: This brief article details my observations as a senior consultant for a leading actuarial consultancy across the Middle East and South Asia regarding ORSA. It highlights key challenges, potential solutions and describes the dichotomy of management and consultant paradigm.

Description: Interview with Ryan Krisac, director of model controls at Penn Mutual Life.

Description: The second part of a roundtable discussion on principals-based approach [PBA] and the life insurance industry, in this part discussing mortality experience studies. The first part appeared in the August/September 2008 issue of The Actuary.

Description: Feature article discussing how insurers have reflected volatility in asset return assumptions when determining capital requirements, but have largely disregarded the impact of mortality volatility on their liability assumptions when performing stochastic analysis.

Description: Summary of Medicaid encounter data, including how it is collected by health plans, transferred to state databases, used by states, and ultimately sent to CMS. The status of the CMS T-MSIS project is discussed, as well as the future of Medicaid encounter data as a source of information for many stakeholders.

Description: This article discusses the global capital standards for Global Systemically Important Insurers (G-SIIs) and Internationally Active Insurance Groups (IAIGs) currently being developed by the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS).

Description: Discussion of FAS 133 Implementation Issue B36 relating to the implications for the financial reporting of modco and similar reinsurance treaties where the assuming company assumes some investment risk from assets still owned by the ceding company.