Description: Update on SOA research projects of interest to members of the Financial Reporting Section.

Description: This article summarizes recent proposed changes to the Valuation Manual that might take effect for 2019 valuations for PBR business.

Description: An overall analysis and attribution analysis of the impacts of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act for certain life insurance contracts.

Description: This article calls to attention the more modest needs of smaller companies contained in the PBA Implementation Guide.

Description: Written from a regulatory perspective, the article covers the purpose of regulation and some regulatory expectations. The topics include the appointed actuary's involvement in corporate governance, reasonability of results when compared to prior results, data quality, familiarity with the company's annual statement and applicable statutes, and areas where appointed actuaries can add value though services provided to smaller life insurance companies.

Description: Introducing the Respresentative Scenarios Method, the Motivation and Goals, how the methodology works, and what key information can be derived.

Description: This paper reports on the findings of a working group established in 1999 by the SOA's Finance Practice Area to look at how the insurance industry measures and monitors risk through risk position reporting. Also the working group established industry standard practices in risk position reporting and reported on a number of areas for possible improvement in such reporting.

Description: This is a compilation or risk management terms garnered from a survey of risk professionals supplemented with analysis of firm-level information on significant risks as reported in 10-K financial statements. Results indicate the existence of significance differences in terminology. The dominating pattern observed is a dichotomy between internal and external perceptions. Also observed is a difference between terms used by actuarial professionals and traditional risk managers.

Description: The Society of Actuaries' Pension Section and Health Section Research teams commissioned Professor Thomas E. Getzen of Temple University to construct a resource model for the projection of long term healthcare cost trends. The motivation for creation of the model was driven by its potential usage as a resource for the estimation of reportable liabilities for retiree healthcare benefits as specified under FAS 106 and GASB 45 accounting statements. This model, programmed in Microsoft Excel [xlsx format], projects per-person expenditures and growth rates through 2099 using a set of equations and assumptions developed by Professor Getzen with assistance from the Society of Actuaries Project Oversight Group appointed to oversee the effort. The model includes baseline assumptions as well as flexibility for user–inputted alternative assumptions.