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Recent Academy Activity, June 9–13, 2014

Opportunities to Learn

  • Get answers and build your understanding of the professional requirements for actuarial communications under actuarial standard of practice (ASOP) No. 41 in the next professionalism webinar! Join an interactive dialogue about actuarial communications with the experts. The Council on Professionalism’s June 26 webinar, “Disclosure in the Real World: ASOP No. 41 Case Studies,” will take place from noon to 1:30 p.m. ET. Participants will learn how current actuarial communications requirements apply in practical situations under ASOP No. 41, Actuarial Communications. Featured panelists Patricia Matson, chairperson of the Actuarial Standards Board (ASB), and Al Beer, former ASB chairperson, will present and discuss application of the ASOP and case studies addressing the broad application of ASOP No. 41 in various practice areas. Learn more and register now.
  • Learn how actuaries at the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) help secure pensions for American workers and get an overview of the PBGC in this month’s “Academy Capitol Forum: Meet the Experts” webinar, scheduled for June 30 from noon to 1 p.m. ET. Christopher Bone, director of PBGC’s Policy, Research and Analysis Department, and Neela K. Ranade, Chief Negotiating Actuary of its Corporate Finance and Restructuring Department, will present “PBGC: Protecting Pensions & the Role of the Actuary.” Other topics that will be covered in the webinar include:
    • The actuarial data PBGC requires plan sponsors to provide in its review of corporate and plan transactions;
    • Tips for practicing actuaries to help their clients achieve more efficient interactions with PBGC; and
    • An update on late-breaking news and regulations related to the PBGC.

Academy Senior Pension Fellow Donald Fuerst will moderate the webinar. All members are invited to attend. Learn more and register now.

  • Save the date: Aug. 27. The seminar, “Implementing VM-20: A Practical Approach,” jointly sponsored by the Academy and the Society of Actuaries, will walk through a practical example of how to implement the new life principle-based reserve requirement. The full-day seminar, which will take place in New York, will include both “basic” and “advanced” sessions.

Public Policy Activities

  • A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report recommending that the U.S. Treasury Department take steps to clarify the insurance definition and coverage of cyber-terrorism risk under the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act mentioned comments that the Academy made to a presidential working group (PWG). “[I]n their 2013 statement to PWG, the American Academy of Actuaries stated that cyber terrorism is a significant risk, and that clarification is important because of the nation’s ever-increasing dependence on technology, including for commerce and business administration,” the GAO report stated. The Academy’s comments were made to the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets: Terrorism Risk Insurance Analysis.
  • The Auto Insurance Committee submitted comments to the Federal Insurance Office on issues surrounding the monitoring of auto insurance availability and affordability. The comments addressed the definition of affordability, and the metrics and data sources to use when monitoring the extent to which low- and moderate-income consumers have access to affordable auto insurance.
  • The Medicare Part D Risk-Based Capital Subgroup sent a report to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ (NAIC) Health Risk-Based Capital Working Group on June 11 recommending that no change be made at this time to the risk factors for Medicare Part D coverage.
  • The C-3 Work Group submitted a report on a recommended approach for updating regulatory risk-based capital requirements for interest rate risk for fixed annuities and single premium life insurance.

Alert

  • Long-Term Care Insurance Regulation: The NAIC Health Insurance and Managed Care (B) Committee approved rate stability revisions to the Long-Term Care Insurance Model Regulation on June 10. These revisions apply only to newly issued long-term care policies. To read the full alert, log in to the membership page and click on “Health Alerts.”

Academy in the News

  • An editorial in Barron’s magazine noted the Academy’s concerns over congressional proposals to use pension provisions as revenue offsets. In an April 17 letter addressed to the bipartisan, bicameral congressional leadership, the Pension Practice Council urged that proposed changes to pension funding rules and insurance premiums be evaluated “based primarily on their effect on the private sector pension system and its stakeholders (participants, sponsors, and the PBGC), rather than primarily as a means to offset  spending for other purposes.”
  • The Academy’s analysis of state decisions regarding renewals of non-Affordable Care Act (ACA) compliant health plans was featured in a Commonwealth Fund blog posting reviewing the transitional policy. The analysis is in the Academy’s new issue brief, Drivers of 2015 Health Insurance Premium Changes.
  • Senior Health Fellow Cori Uccello’s blog posting, “How Will 2015 Health Insurance Premiums Compare To 2014?” made the Health Affairs Blog’s “Most Read List for May.” As of press time, the posting had been tweeted 50 times and recommended on Facebook 41 times.
  • The Academy’s warning that an 80 percent funded ratio does not provide a sufficient measure of the financial health of a pension plan was highlighted in an Economic Policy Institute blog posting on “Understanding Cuts to Public Pensions.”
  • The Academy’s Social Security Game was mentioned in a Bloomberg View column as a tool demonstrating that it’s “surprisingly easy to numerically make Social Security very solvent.” “It’s the politics that are so challenging,” wrote the columnist, who was examining options for ensuring Social Security’s long-term solvency.
  • The Social Security Committee’s updated issue brief, Quantitative Measures for Evaluating Social Security Reform Proposals, was highlighted in a blog posting. The measurement tools described in the brief provide policymakers and the public with important information needed to fairly evaluate reform proposals.

Newly Released

  • June HealthCheck: Read about the Academy’s Essential Elements paper on the drivers of health care cost growth and the newly published final rule addressing ACA components, and see what national and state media have been reporting about the Academy’s issue brief on drivers of 2015 health insurance premium changes. 

Reminder

  • Academy members are invited to nominate themselves or others for consideration as a candidate to be a regular director on the Academy’s board of directors. Visit the Academy’s online Election Center to submit your nomination.


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