Description: This article describes a simple but powerful tool for use by valuation actuaries and auditors when evaluating current assumptions for use in GAAP net premium reserve methods that require retrospective updating for actual experience and assumption changes. As a supplement, this tool can fill some holes left by existing tools. It produces results that can be compared to materiality thresholds at any level of aggregation, from a single reserve cohort up to the combination of all cohorts for all products subject to retrospective net premium reserve requirements. It can also serve as a benchmarking tool for estimated the possible effects of an assumption change or to help in explaining the effects of an actual assumption change.

Description: Illustrates key differences, in earnings for a segment of term insurance, between current GAAP standards and GAAP targeted improvements (based on tentative board decisions preceding the release of an exposure draft).

Description: This article demonstrates that the alternative method of adjusting DAC amortization for actual experience fails to serve its purpose if amortization is based on amounts in force at the end of a reporting period. In that situation, the method would increase the amortization rate for excess terminations. Applying that increased rate to a lower basis, however, does not reliably reduce the unamortized DAC balance as required.

Description: This is the third in a series of articles about accounting for reinsurance under GAAP Targeted Improvements to the Accounting for Long-Duration Contracts (LDTI). It looks at some techniques that have been used to account for long-duration reinsurance under existing GAAP (before LDTI). It looks at whether and how those techniques can be updated to comply with the updated standards and evaluates their effectiveness against compliance, performance, and simplicity objectives.

Description: This is the final article in a five-part series about accounting for reinsurance under GAAP Targeted Improvements to the Accounting for Long-Duration Contracts (LDTI). It looks at some concerns that arise when new reinsurance is purchased to cover previously-issued contracts. The article describes what formal guidance is available. Where that guidance leaves off, the article presents practical solutions to achieving performance objectives.

Description: This is the fourth in a series of articles about accounting for reinsurance under GAAP Targeted Improvements to the Accounting for Long-Duration Contracts (LDTI). It looks at some concerns that arise from the relationship between ceded reinsurance and the underlying contracts. Recognizing a lack of formal guidance addressing these concerns, the article aims mostly to achieve performance and simplicity objectives

Description: GAAP's elimination of gross profit as a basis for amortization of deferred acquisition costs enables the accounting for reinsurance of universal life contracts to better reflect the economic protection provided by reinsurance. This article takes a fresh look at the standards of accounting for universal life contracts and for reinsurance, then puts them together to find the techniques that best account for that protection.

Description: Could it be that the depth of our current crisis is related to our failure to find an economic goal other than continuous “growth” as it’s been measured for decades? As painful as it may be, we can view the current crisis as a wake-up call. Rather than trying desperately to restore a “healthy” economy, perhaps it’s time to try building a truly healthy economy – one where we don’t keep promoting consumption of any and all kinds at the expense of saving and investing for the future.

Description: As a follow-up to a previous five-part series on accounting for ceded reinsurance under LDTI, this article focuses on one issue that has, until now, been left without a general solution—how to measure the reinsured portion of a direct loss from capping a net premium ratio or flooring a liability. After acknowledging limited guidance on the issue, the article describes the various events that can lead to a loss, how reinsurance protects against loss, and how that is translated into formulas for measuring the reinsured portion of a loss.

Description: Adjusting GAAP reinsurance reserves to account for reinsurance protection against the events that trigger direct reserve constraints (such as NPR capping or LFPB flooring) can be a challenge any time. Ceding a block of business that is already in force increases the challenge—especially if one of those constraints was already present at inception of the reinsurance. This article builds on previous work (published in the July 2022 and June 2023 issues) to show how to measure initial reinsurance reserves in a way that complies with AICPA guidance and prepares for effective measurement of subsequent changes in the effects of the constraints.