Description: The article discusses the developments thus far with the adoption of the NAIC Valuation Manual and what steps still lie ahead. It also discusses the NAIC Life Actuarial Task Force’s response to the NAIC’s VM-20 Impact Study. In general, outcomes of the Phase III testing support the suggestion that the modifications made to VM-20 as a result of the NAIC Impact Study made progress in addressing the excessive conservatism demonstrated in the Phase I and Phase II testing.

Description: In this article, the author discusses Universal Life and product mix strategy for Latin America.

Description: Discussion of American Academy of Actuaries Illustrations Work Group. This article deals specifically with the issue of using mortality improvement assumptions in the illustrations prohibited by the Model Illustration Regulation, suspected in some cases because some UL products incorporate low cost of insurance charges in late durations as part of their product design.

Description: Discussion of UL products with secondary guarantees and how they are similar to and different from traditional life insurance products. Discussion of possibility they are lapse supported in their pricing.

Description: This article is based on an excerpt from a Milliman Research Report on universal life insurance with secondary guarantees, ULSG. It discusses stochastic profit analysis and the impact of investment volatility of two common variants of ULSGs - level specified premium and single-fund shadow account designs.

Description: This article provides a summary of the key findings from Milliman's 8th annual survey of lading UL carriers. The survey covers issues and challenges of UL/IUL products and allows companies to benchmark their practices against the competition.

Description: This article discusses how the proposed actuarial guideline XYZ attempts to address secondary guarantees on minimum nonforfeiture values.

Description: This article addresses the expected impact that the 2001 CSO table will have on pricing and product structure for UL plans.

Description: Written in reaction to the AG49-A "quick-fix" passed, this article covers the history of IULillustration regulation. It begins by covering major product development and regulationmilestones to date, with numerical examples to show their impacts on illustrations. It thenexplains how the "quick-fix" works and what its impact on illustrations is. Lastly, the articlelooks forward to what could be in store in the future for IUL illustrations.

Description: The article discusses the continued popularity of indexed UL insurance and possible reasons why a company's actual indexed UL earnings may be below their original pricing expectations for the product. The article discusses several key items that may be the source of that underperformance (e.g., hedge ineffectiveness, policyholder behavior) and the need to monitor earnings and perform analyses to better understand those potential sources.