Description: The Smaller Insurance Company/Chief Actuary Forum presents a unique format for focusing on issues faced by actuaries in leadership positions or actuaries supporting the Chief Actuary. By discussing critical issues with your peers, you will leave with ideas to incorporate in your business environment. The Forum will feature presentations to introduce several of the discussion topics, followed by an opportunity to break into smaller discussion groups and rotate among topics.

Description: Actuarial projects have become more intricate, involving external resources and requests beyond the actuarial team's purview. Whether a task appears minor or exceptionally complex, adept project and change management play a pivotal role in successful execution. In this session, we explore practical strategies for tailoring implementation management approaches.

Description: Adjusted earnings has long been a fundamental KPI for investors to assess the core financial performance of a company. As a non-GAAP measure, there is a divergence in practice of how individual companies define adjusted earnings and what activities management views as “core” to their business. The arrival of US GAAP LDTI has led insurers to revisit their existing adjusted earnings framework as the new standard introduces additional “accounting noise” that if left unadjusted obscures the true underlying drivers of performance. This article provides key insights on the influence US GAAP LDTI has had to the adjusted earnings calculation, highlights changes from the pre-LDTI framework, and showcases key themes observed from public insurers 2023Q1 10-Q filings.

Description: The introduction and effective application of US GAAP LDTI have increased the scrutiny of those reviewing the updated financial results. That is because LDTI has resulted in significant changes in actuarial reserving and deferred acquisition cost (DAC) models for long-duration contracts, including significant changes to data, assumptions and required disclosures. In light of the changes, greater reliance has been put on companies’ model risk management (MRM) teams and model validations to assess the conceptual soundness and accuracy of their companies’ actuarial models and to assess that the underlying data and process utilized are suitable and appropriate. This article covers a brief background on model validation, walk through a sample LDTI-focused model validation framework/test plan, then provide insights on common LDTI-related validation observations based on the authors' prior validation experience.

Description: The article investigates the reasons behind non-zero financial implications for fully reinsured businesses within the regulatory frameworks of US GAAP Long Duration Targeted Improvements (LDTI) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) 17. It helps companies grasp the nuances of these standards, thereby enhancing their risk management strategies, improving regulatory compliance and optimizing their decision-making processes.

Description: Actuaries and their IT counterparts are required to collaborate more frequently and on more complex projects than ever before. The recent accounting changes (LDTI, IFRS 17, PBR), investor demands for increased transparency, and competitive pressures have led to many insurers undertaking large actuarial and financial transformations. As a result, senior management is challenging their actuarial and IT leaders to develop new processes that use data in new and improved ways. The actuarial and IT functions are being tasked with not only delivering on changes to systems, processes, and data, but also with rethinking how their teams collaborate and interact

Description: This session is intended to provide an update on past, current, and future studies done by the SOA GLTD Experience Committee. This includes an update on the ongoing Group LTD Incidence Survey including the nature of the study, goals, timelines, data submissions, and current status.

Description: Indexed universal life (IUL) continues to be the most popular universal life (UL) product with sales reaching $1B in Q4 2023, according to LIMRA. There is little long term experience for IUL and many companies value and model IUL just like UL, but there are material potential differences that need to be considered for valuation and projection purposes. Presenters will discuss key risks and differences between IUL and UL relating to policyholder behavior and how to value, project, monitor and manage those risks to avoid repeating misestimates of the past. Presenters will also discuss broader life assumption risks such as mortality and yearly renewable term (YRT) reinsurance risk. Attendees will learn about options on how to potentially address underperforming blocks of IUL and will obtain an improved perspective on the risks of IUL products and the differences versus UL and how to incorporate these differences into their valuation and projection exercises.

Description: The rising interest rate environment has presented more attractive alternatives for VA risk management, but the benefits of different strategies can vary significantly by block of business. This session will highlight key drivers for risk management decisions for variable, fixed index, and registered index-linked annuities. With the viewpoints from different direct writers, reinsurers and preliminary findings of the 2024 Milliman Derivatives Study, the session will then show how product mix, tenure, and regulatory regime influence strategic decision-making. At the end of the session, the audience will help make strategic decisions on sample blocks of business and see how their choices play out in different hypothetical scenarios.

Description: Sales of index-linked annuities such as FIAs and RILAs have been setting new records while sales of traditional VAs have been declining. This webcast will survey the latest generation of FIA and RILA products, examining the impact of the current market environment and how the landscape is expected to change when the FED starts cutting interest rates.