Description: Discussion rebutting the Dec. 2004 issue of The Financial Reporter article titled, “On the Fair Value of Insurance Liabilities,” authored by Don Solow. That article expressed disagreement with the position of the International Accounting Standards Board and the Financial Accounting Standards Board to reflect the value of “own credit risk” in the fair valuation of insurance liabilities.

Description: ongoing discussion of the proper interest rate to use in discounting liability cash flows to reflect credit risk of the insurer in a fair value accounting system

Description: Chairperson’s column addressing the changes the new year will bring.

Description: The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) met on May 21,2015 to discuss it ongoing project to make targeted improvements to accounting for long-duration insurance contracts. This article discusses those improvements and their ramifications.

Description: This article gives insight into the economic atmosphere in the Netherlands after the financial collapse in the United States.

Description: The euro, the single European currency, can significantly change the way the world does business and will have some important implications on the ability of the United States and its currency to dominate the world's political and financial system.

Description: This article provides an overview of the different types of real world interest rate scenarios that practitioners use in the life insurance industry and explores different approaches to building those generators.

Description: Evidence is building from the physical sciences that we are starting to reach some of earth’s limits. Unless we can find some technological solutions, once these limits are reached, we can expect to see a very changed world. Instead of having constantly increasing resources available to us, we can expect ever-decreasing resources to be available. Instead of seeing year after year of growth, increasing longevity and improving morbidity, we can expect the opposite.

Description: Discussion of competing theories for valuing public pension liabilities. Emphasis on revised Actuarial Standards of Practice that focus on the purpose of the measurement.

Description: Models are useful in illustrating various facets of complex phenomena, but they are inherently limited.