Edition

Chairperson’s Corner

By Joy Zhang

The Financial Reporter, May 2024

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Dear Financial Reporting Section members (all 4,428 of us!), welcome to the May edition of our newsletter. On behalf of the council, I would like to extend a heartfelt “thank you” to everyone for your unwavering interest and contributions to our section. It has been another interesting year in the financial reporting world. Many of us have taken our first steps under FASB’s LDTI or IASB’s IFRS 17 and are now learning to walk better and smarter in the new regulatory landscape. For some of us, NAIC’s VM-22 updates are just around the corner. These all set the stage for a potentially even more engaging year ahead.  

The Financial Reporting Section Council is committed to delivering quality service to section members, and we are thrilled to extend it to an even broader audience with the removal of section dues. I’d like to share some highlights of this year’s activities.

Conferences and Networking Events

  • Valuation Actuary Meeting: Get excited for the return of the Valuation Actuary Meeting (ValAct) this August! Members of the council are working diligently with the meeting planning committee to ensure that the ValAct provides captivating content covering the spectrum of council member interests, ranging from accounting basis changes to assumption setting and governance. We hope to see you in New York!
  • ImpACT Conference: ImpACT will be held in National Harbor, MD., this October, followed by the virtual conference in November. The call for proposals ends on May 13, 2024. If you would like to see a particular topic covered but can’t submit a proposal yourself, you can still contact our council. We can consider submitting from the Financial Reporting section (upon approval of the council).
  • In-person networking events: Many of you expressed interest in in-person networking opportunities, and we heard you. We’re currently collaborating with the SOA to organize several in-person networking activities throughout the year. Keep an eye out for further details.

Research and Thought Leadership

  • Research contest: Brace yourselves for an enticing research contest coming up this year, complete with an attractive prize. We encourage all of you to participate and look forward to seeing the ideas you bring to the table. More details will be shared around this.
  • Podcasts: We hope you not only enjoyed our “Drink in the details” podcast series last year but also learned something insightful from it about the new financial reporting regulatory changes. This year, we are introducing a series focusing on the regulatory bodies and rating agencies that oversee the insurance industry. Our first episode features AM Best and is now available on the Financial Reporting SOA webpage. Tune in and send us your feedback!
  • Webcasts and The Financial Reporter articles: Our commitment to knowledge sharing continues with a lineup of webcasts covering various financial reporting topics throughout the year. Additionally, we have three more issues of The Financial Reporter newsletter in 2024, scheduled for July, September and November. Reach out to us if you’d like to present at a webcast or submit an article.

Engage with Us

Our council members are eager to hear from you! Whether you are interested in volunteering, have thoughts or questions about how we can better serve you, or simply want to discuss anything related to financial reporting, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. You can email me directly at joy.zhang@ey.com, or contact our SOA Engagement Specialist, Katelyn Kramer, at kkramer@soa.org.

  • Section elections: Section elections are open! If you are interested in running for a seat on the council, please be sure to submit the Expression of Interest Form by May 31, 2024. More information is available on the section elections webpage.
  • Become a friend of the council: If you are not yet ready to join the council but would like to get involved in some capacity, we invite you to become a friend of the council. As a friend, you will receive invites to our monthly council meetings and can participate in any capacity you choose, even if it's just listening in.

Joy Zhang, FSA, CERA, MAAA, is a senior manager in Consulting at Ernst & Young LLP. She can be reached at joy.zhang@ey.com.

The views reflected in this article are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Ernst & Young LLP or other members of the global EY organization.

Statements of fact and opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and are not necessarily those of the Society of Actuaries, the newsletter editors.