Description: In PLR 202109001, the IRS ruled that a proposed assumption reinsurance transaction between related foreign parties changing the counter party obligated to a domestic corporation (“Taxpayer”) under an existing agreement did not give rise to Taxpayer being treated as making a base erosion payment (“BEP”), as Taxpayer did not receive a deduction under §832(b)(4)(A) from the amount of gross premiums written on insurance contracts during the taxable year for premiums paid for reinsurance.

Description: Wright State University is a public research university in Dayton, Ohio, with approximately 11,000 students. With the lowest tuition fees in Ohio, the university has an access mission and plays a critical role in the region by offering high-quality, affordable education. I joined Wright State University in fall 2019 as the director of the Actuarial Science program. In spring 2020 we attained the Universities and Colleges with Actuarial Programs (UCAP)-AC designation from the Society of Actuaries (SOA), becoming one of only three universities in southwest Ohio at this recognition tier. In this article, I would like to tell you about the journey our program has taken—its successes and its challenges. The goal is to offer a resource to other universities seeking to upgrade their Actuarial Science programs.

Description: This paper applies the research in Prospect Theory of Kahneman and Tversky to explain why sales of annuities lag sales of life insurance products. The author theorizes that life insurance is easier to sell because customers perceive themselves to be in the domain of losses, while potential annuity customers perceive themselves to be in the domain of gains. Kahneman and Tversky showed us that people are mostly risk averse in the domain of gains and risk seeking in the domain of losses. Purchase of an annuity or life product is a risky investment. Customers will find it easier to take the risk in the life insurance domain of losses than the annuity domain of gains. The author then proposes a hybrid life annuity product that might address both mortality and longevity risk in one product that would allow both products to be more competitive than stand-alone products.

Description: Discover the key components of value-based care (VBC) contracts and their impact on provider credibility. Learn about benchmarks, measurement period results, and the unique challenges providers face in managing insurance risk. Gain insights into reducing costs and aligning financial incentives in the US healthcare market.

Description: An overview of guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefits (GLWB) on registered index-linkedannuity (RILA) products and a stochastic analysis of market risks.

Description: An overview of the basic tooling and packages available for the Julia programming language, with a focus on why this is of interest to the actuarial profession. It covers some of the built-in language features as well parts of the Julia package ecosystem that make Julia ideal for modeling and data analysis. This is the second installment in a series of article aimed at actuaries. The first installment, Julia for Actuaries, was published in the October 2020 edition of Actuarial Technology Today, and covered the base language itself, its high-level, math-friendly syntax, and why the actuary of the future should consider its adoption.

Description: Announcement of the best article published in the Reinsurance News in 2021.

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: As IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts casts its net wide, reinsurers find themselves sailing toward new horizons of financial reporting. The transition to IFRS 17 is not just a regulatory compliance exercise but a transformational journey that reshapes the financial reporting landscape for reinsurers. The enhanced disclosure requirements, the granular contract-level accounting, and the measurement consistency across different reinsurance contracts promise to unveil a clearer financial picture. Yet, these new reporting waters could be choppy, demanding a sturdy understanding and application of IFRS 17's principles. This article describes benchmarking of IFRS 17 information provided at HY 2023 for four reinsurers.

Description: Article describing content and key takeaways from experience completing the SOA PA Certificate