Description: Column from section chairperson describing upcoming events pertinent to the Financial Reporting Section.

Description: Under the leadership of recent and current Section chairs, your Council has committed to creating a new textbook on U.S. GAAP for life insurance company actuaries.

Description: A discussion of a possible replacement of FASB Statement No. 141 SFAS 141. The exposure draft was referred to in this article as “141R.” “141R” provides guidance for application of the acquisition method, which was previously called the purchase method in the case of business combinations. The draft requires that all business combinations including the merger of mutual insurance companies be accounted for by the acquisition method.

Description: Presents a practical solution to some of the distortion caused by a typical application of the retrospective assumption update (unlocking) method.

Description: Update on research projects sponsored by the Financial Reporting Section.

Description: This is the first in a series of articles about accounting for reinsurance under GAAP Targeted Improvements to the Accounting for Long-Duration Contracts (LDTI). It provides an introduction to the topic, giving an overview of what has and hasn't changed. Changes include a few that directly address reinsurance and others that indirectly result from changes to direct accounting and the existing ties between reinsurance and direct accounting.

Description: On the Fair Value of Business Acquired part I of II by Joe Koltisko from The Financial Reporter, September 2001, Issue No. 47.

Description: This article compares and contrasts existing and near future differences in fair value requirements between US GAAP and IFRS. The focus of this article is on fair value requirements as they relate to actuarial valuations of insurance contracts - including certain contracts classified as investment contracts, and therefore ignores implications on investments held by insurance companies.

Description: Feature article discussing deferred policy acquisition costs and recent proposed changes to the expenses allowed to be deferred.

Description: The use of Other Comprehensive Income OCI is receiving its moment in the sun. It is being considered for housing some of the earnings volatility in the International Accounting Standards Board IASB current approach to measuring insurance contracts’ performance.