Description: 2016 marks the 60th anniversary of the Canadian Reinsurance Conference. This one day industry meeting hosting delegates from North America and beyond will be held in Toronto on April 13, 2016 under the theme "ReDefining Leadership".

Description: Feature article about: one of the significant contributions of modern academic finance has been to introduce the concept of stochastic investment forecasting

Description: Discussing how examinations of asset adequacy analysis, AAA, and risk-based capital, RBC, by state insurance department examiners can go much more smoothly with good preparation and documentation of both assumptions and derivation of assumptions.

Description: A discussion of the concept of a best practice

Description: Describes using the new multi-risk scenario generator to create sensitivity tests at moderately adverse probability levels, resulting in margins to use for PBR.

Description: Third installment in a series of articles applying Buddhist principles to the challenges that actuaries face in applying their craft. The themes are adapted from the book "Awake at Work", by Michael Carroll. This particular installment covers the concept of "li" to the compliance aspects of an actuary's work, moving beyond minimum or literal compliance to a work product that provides multiple uses and meets a much higher standard

Description: I.R.C. § 4371 imposes an excise tax on policies issued by foreign insurers or reinsurers covering U.S. risks. The application of the tax to funds withheld reinsurance can raise difficult questions. The IRS’s position is that an accrual concept applies, although that position is questionable. Taxpayers that instead determine the excise tax by looking only to actual payments made by the ceding company to the reinsurer or to the net amount of the ceded premiums after adjusting for the allowance paid by the reinsurer have a variety of arguments to support their position. The language of the premium excise tax, the regulations thereunder, the legislative history of the provision, and the very nature of an excise tax all support the position that the tax applies only when there is an actual payment. Other Code provisions that use similar language as well as the Supreme Court also support this view.

Description: A discussion of topics in a series of roundtable education sessions on life insurance products and companies at the collaborative meeting of the ACLI and member companies.

Description: This article discusses key tax issues that exist under current law with respect to asset rebalancing and hedging transactions that an insurance company might undertake.

Description: This article is written in response to the article that appeared in the February/March issue of The Actuary entitled Better Standards for Setting Standards written by Dave Kass. It discusses the process itself, the time it takes to develop or change standards and how quickly new ideas should be incorporated in the standards.