Description: Discussion of the latest FASB and IASB updates with respect to life insurance company financial reporting issues.

Description: Actuaries are accustomed to considering how much conservatism is appropriate in their estimates, whether made for pricing or for mea- surement of liabilities. In the proposals for a new standard on accounting for insurance contracts, this conservatism is referred to by the International Accounting Standards Board IASB and the Financial Accounting Standard Board FASB of the United States as the risk adjustment.

Description: Feature article discussing U.S. and international regulatory developments of interest to actuaries in the financial reporting field.

Description: Current status and initiatives related to PBR regulation

Description: On October 30, 2015, the SOA Assumption Development and Governance Group, an informal discussion group consisting of nearly 200 interested actuaries with topics pertaining to actuarial assumption development and governance, organized an industry discussion call on end-to-end assumption documentation practices. The purpose of this call was to generate a large list of ideas for best-practice assumption documentation. More than thirty companies were represented in the call, including direct insurers, reinsurers and consulting firms. This article is the work product of the discussion written by Laurie Li and Alex Zaidlin.

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: Embedded Risk in Settlement Options on Older Life and Annuity Contracts

Description: This article discusses a number of product variations seen in the market with respect to Universal Life products with secondary death benefit guarantees, factors leading to those designs and considerations regarding the adequacy of reserves that emerge under AXXX formulas. This article also identifies a series of factors that authors believe will make it difficult to quickly and equitably resolve these issues through formula-based changes.

Description: This article summarizes key aspects of the Economic Balance Sheet (EBS) framework with respect to valuation of long-term liabilities. It highlights key implications of the EBS framework for life insurers and actuaries.

Description: The OCI-Solution of IASB’s IFRS 4 Phase II requires that interest expense for the Profit and Loss (P&L) calculation be based on a yield curve instead of a flat rate locked-in at policy issue. The article has a discussion of analysis of the impact from locking in the yield curve on the IFRS 4 profit pattern as well as general conclusions reached.