Description: Discusses Product Development Section activities at the upcoming SOA Annual Meeting in the fall.

Description: Encourages readers to visit specified URL to read selected essays from “Life Insurance 2020 Foresight—A Call For Essays.

Description: A paper demonstrating how to obviate the need for market timing strategies in variable annuity products by judicious use of product design. The paper presents the premise behind the product design, provides numerical examples, then explores possible extensions of the concept to produce more sophisticated variable annuity plans based on guarantees of investment outcomes.

Description: Provide high level summary of predictive modelling.

Description: This article presents a discussion of Actuarial Guideline 54 (AG LIV), both the regulatory impetus in its creation as well as the requirements it outlines for a RILA contract to qualify as a variable annuity under the NAIC Variable Annuity Model law and thus be exempt from Fixed Annuity Non-Forfeiture Requirements. Includes an example calculation.

Description: SECURE 2.0 included provisions that improve the ability of insurers to serve those who own qualified annuities. Several previously disallowed distribution methods are now allowed. These changes should increase the availability and desirability by contract owners to choose a payout annuity compared to required minimum distributions. An insurer considering enhancing qualified annuitization offerings might follow the approach outlined to potentially increase qualified annuitization sales and assist contract owners in protecting their principal more directly than previously.

Description: This article helps illustrate that a guaranteed income stream in retirement has much more value than merely longevity protection. Used properly, a payout annuity is also a hedge against one's retirement nest egg evaporating, leaving the retiree living check to check on a fixed income only. The article will be of interest to those involved in product development and design, sales and marketing, and payout annuities or guaranteed withdrawal benefits in general.

Description: New chairperson’s column discussing his goals for the Product Development Section.

Description: Product Development Section’s election results, and bio's of new members.

Description: Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2018-12, commonly referred to as long duration targeted improvements (LDTI), is the most significant GAAP accounting change impacting the life insurance industry in the past 40 years. This article discusses the impact of LDTI on variable annuities (VA) and fixed indexed annuities (FIA) from a product development and in-force management angle. Detailed discussion topics include hedging and ALM, product strategy and development, and pricing. LDTI will cause many VA and FIA writers to re-evaluate their hedging and asset liability management (ALM) strategy following the move to fair value accounting under the new MRB requirement. Stakeholder appetite for accounting volatility and resulting changes to hedging and ALM may trigger changes in product mix and designs. In addition to updating pricing infrastructure to handle the new requirements, pricing actuaries will need to produce analyses to educate stakeholders on the risks and pricing implications of any changes to designs, hedging and ALM.