Description: Full version of The Financial Reporter, Issue No. 61, June 2005.

Description: The article described two methods for calculating the benefit ratio described in AICPA Standard of Practice SOP 03-1. Method 1 calculates the benefit ratio as the quotient of the expectation of A and the expectation of B where A is benefits and B is assessments. Method 2 calculates the benefit ratio as the expectation of the quotient of A and B.

Description: A discussion of some of the challenges the insurance industry will face as we move towards fair value and a comparison of the pros and cons of rules based vs. principles based reserves.

Description: Full version of The Financial Reporter, Issue No. 67, December 2006.

Description: The nature of life is one large balancing act. The act of leading any institution requires one to find the right balance of things to leave alone and things to change. My survey of the section’s current situation shows that things are humming along pretty smoothly. This is my way of saying, “Don’t expect dramatic changes.” I anticipate that we will continue the section’s mission of delivering a host of educational opportunities and funding research.

Description: Full version of The Financial Reporter, Issue No. 64, March 2006.

Description: As my penultimate column, this is my opportunity to strike the existential pose and wax poetic about the fact that human nature has no history. Each generation born harbors the same hopes, dreams, and desires as the generation that preceded it. Following, in no particular order, are some observations related to this insight.

Description: A discussion of alternative meanings to “Best” in best estimate. When one is trying to estimate a result that is normally distributed, the mean, median and mode will all equal one another. However if the results are not normally distributed, different variance metrics will result in different “best” estimates. When different parts of a financial statement use different criteria for measuring best estimates and different processes for handling variances, the results can be volatile, unpredictable and perhaps unreasonable.

Description: As council members, we have a fiduciary duty to use the section’s funds to benefit our section’s members. By creating an inviting “target” out of our funds, we create a situation that isn’t prudent from a risk management standpoint.

Description: Full version of The Financial Reporter, Issue 62, September 2005.