Description: Feature article asking seven questions raised by the IASB’s and FASB’s recent changes to the insurance contracts accounting standard.

Description: This 2004 article discusses current issues and developments relating to the valuation of and accounting for employee stock options.

Description: After a summary of FASB decisions in their GAAP Targeted Improvements project, this article describes several issues that will need to be resolved either by the board or in actuarial practice and argues for seeking solutions that provide meaningful results without overly complicating valuation processes.

Description: Healthcare costs have been rising faster than general inflation for many years. Early models that predicted this past pattern projected healthcare expenditure growth that continued to outpace total expenditure growth leading to the fallacious position that the whole of the US economy would ultimately be consumed by healthcare. 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 that includes capacity constraints to ensure the long-term projection is rational. 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 is a zip file containing the following: 1. A background paper on the creation of the health trend model, 2. The model, programmed in Microsoft Excel [xls format], that projects per-person expenditures and growth rates through 2099 using baseline assumptions, but also permits the flexibility for user–inputted alternative assumptions, and 3. Technical documentation providing transparency and support for the ultimate results.

Description: Implementation of GAAP Targeted Improvements will impact data, reporting, resourcing and governance. This provides an ideal opportunity to rethink some of the data and reporting processes currently in place and how they can be improved to create effective and scalable solutions for the future. With the transition date already behind us for public companies and preparation in motion, we will share insights into how organizations have started to tackle implementing the GAAP Targeted Improvements. The presenters will share insights on data and process challenges and possible solutions, as well as a 'smart compliance' approach to comply with the most valuable aspects of compliance. Resourcing strategies for successful implementation will also be discussed.

Description: We will determine the role of risk function in evaluating operational risks associated with the implementation of LDTI and any system conversions. Are all models validated by the risk function before they are productionalized and results used by management to make business decisions? Does the risk function play a part in to assist finance, actuarial and investor relations in communicating changes and volatility resulting from LDTI? If not, should it? We will articulate the role that risk functions play in being part of large transformation from the start as a stakeholder/input provider to subsequently being an independent reviewer (i.e., second Line of defense).

Description: Financial Reporting Section March, 2012, newsletter.

Description: Lessons learned in the financial crisis - global ramifications and need for better financial reporting standards and market oversight.

Description: Deferred bonus policyholder dividend reserves arise because “the policyholders’ share of net income … that cannot be distributed to stockholders shall be excluded from stockholders’ equity” by establishing a reserve. This article provides background on local minimum policyholder participation practices in the US and Europe, presents relevant accounting issues and discuss the two different accounting interpretations and make a recommendation as to which the authors feel is most appropriate at this point in time.

Description: The paper explores developments through 2006 in the application of market-consistent concepts to the measurement of fair values of liabilities for financial reporting purposes.