Description: This article explains the issue causing from asset dependency discounting as required by IFRS 17, and proposed some possible methods to solve the issue.

Description: An update on SOA research relevant to the Financial Reporting Section.

Description: This article is to outline the new requirements for valuation rates in VM-22, highlighting key differences and example calculations to enhance understanding.

Description: Read the September 2018 issue of The Financial Reporter published by the Financial Reporting Section.

Description: This article examines potential approaches to the calculation of the risk adjustment component, with a focus on a case study related to a UL product.

Description: This article was first published in 2010 when accounting standards codification (ASC) was new. An explanation of the codification system is given.

Description: In recent years, vast amount of data from emerging experiences has helped insurers gain a deeper understanding of their policyholders and the factors driving their behaviors. However, due to limitations in traditional experience study methods, this understanding typically remains at the cohort level. This series of articles proposes a novel machine learning-based model that analyzes and predicts policyholder behaviors at the individual policy level. Policyholder embedding representations are learned using a Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) that takes into account the sequence of historical transactions associated with a policy. Additionally, a Neural Network with a multi-head architecture is trained to predict the policyholder's next action based on the policyholder embedding and other policy attributes. The resulting model offers several advantages over traditional experience studies and assumption-setting methods, including the ability to set policy-level assumptions that improve reserve accuracy, predict multiple behaviors simultaneously while capturing the interrelationships between them, and generate policyholder embedding representations that are useful for segmentation.

Description: Accounting Standards Update No. 2018-12, Financial Services – Insurance (Topic 944): Targeted Improvements to the Accounting for Long-Duration Contracts (LDTI) has been effective for most large, public business entities since 2023 and will be effective for other insurers in 2025. While the guidance clarifies the need for incorporating claim liabilities and premium accrual balances in the liability for future policy benefits (LFPB) under LDTI, companies may still have questions given there are limited details available around the techniques used in practice. In this article, we demonstrate the need for incorporating claim liabilities and premium accrual balances in the LFPB under LDTI. We also look at two potential approaches of incorporating these accrual balances.

Description: This article lays conceptual foundations associated with projecting investment-related discretionary elements of various life insurance and annuity products. It outlines potential implementation approaches that may be appropriate when calculations are performed in a risk-neutral setting. The article concludes that crediting rates in risk-neutral models can be projected as in real-world models, except that the modeled provision for expected credit losses should be modified to equal real-world expected losses initially, but over the projection reflect management’s evolving expectation, moving ultimately to risk neutral expected losses.

Description: Feature article discussing variable annuity reform.