Annual Meeting and Public Policy Forum, Nov. 13–14

• More speakers have been added to the roster of experts who will provide fresh perspectives on cross-practice and practice-specific issues to attendees of the Academy’s Annual Meeting and Public Policy Forum in Washington this fall. Stephen Cohen, associate director of the Division of Enforcement at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and several Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO) experts have joined the lineup. The meeting offers public policy and professionalism content relevant to all actuarial areas of practice, as well as practice-specific content in breakout sessions on topical casualty, health, life, and pension practice issues. View the agenda, updated with the latest speakers, and register here.

Opportunities to Learn

• The National Conference of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL), and how it develops public policy relating to insurance, will be the topic of the Academy’s Capitol Forum: Meet the Experts webinar Nov. 3 at noon. North Dakota state representative and former NCOIL President George Keiser will join us to discuss how the organization contributes to the development of insurance policy at the state level and how industry, consumers and the Academy are involved. Rep. Keiser will also take questions from members. Learn more and register here.
• Actuaries who prepare or sign NAIC annual statement actuarial opinions on P/C loss reserves, or those who assist in preparing them, will find valuable the Academy’s 2014 Seminar on P/C Effective Loss Reserve Opinions: Tools for the Appointed Actuary, Dec. 2–3 at the Westin Baltimore Washington Airport. Attendees will earn valuable CE credit. Learn more and register here.

Public Policy Activities

• The Life Financial Reporting Committee has released its practice note, Treatment of VOBA, Goodwill, and Other Intangible Assets under PGAAP. The practice note describes common practices utilized by actuaries to calculate value of business acquired (VOBA), goodwill, and other intangible assets under the purchase method of accounting of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Learn more by logging in to the members-only page and visiting “Life Alerts.”
• The Financial Reporting Committee sent comments to the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) on the IASB’s Accounting for Dynamic Risk Management: a Portfolio Revaluation Approach to Macro Hedging discussion paper.

Recent Events

• Representatives of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) shared their projections on future national health spending with Academy members during a webinar Thursday. Christian J. Wolfe and Andrew J. Madison, both actuaries with the CMS Office of the Actuary, discussed health care spending projections through the year 2023, and answered member questions about the agency’s expectations. Slides from the webinar can be found on the Academy website.

News from the Actuarial Standards Board (ASB)

• The ASB has approved an exposure draft of a proposed new actuarial standard of practice (ASOP), Property/Casualty Ratemaking. Concurrent with the release of the ASB’s exposure draft, the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS) is releasing a discussion draft of its Principles of Ratemaking. The ASB is seeking member feedback on such issues as whether the scope of the ASOP is sufficiently clear and whether the items currently included in the Considerations Section of the CAS Principles (and slated for possible removal) are sufficiently addressed. Comments are due Jan. 31, 2015.

Academy In the News

• Announcements of the election of Tom Wildsmith, senior public policy manager for Aetna in Washington, to the position of Academy president-elect were published in Insurance News Net, Washington Business Journal, PropertyCasualty360 and other media outlets. Wildsmith has previously held several leadership positions within the Health Practice Council, and will succeed Mary D. Miller as president for the 2015-16 term.
• A story in the (subscriber-only) Bloomberg BNA Daily Report for Executives cites the Academy as one of several organizations that have raised data quality concerns with the RP-2014 Mortality Tables and Mortality Improvement Scale MP-2014. The article reported that several organizations representing defined benefit plan sponsors have recently requested that “the Society of Actuaries should take more time to review its exposure draft mortality tables that may be released in final form by October's end, citing data quality concerns.”

Still Time to Comment on the Proposed Attestation Form

• The Academy invites members and other stakeholders to review and provide input on its draft voluntary attestation template that was presented to regulators at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) 2014 Summer National Meeting. In addition to providing regulators with a concise way to demonstrate qualifications under the U.S. Qualification Standards, the template can be used by all actuaries to demonstrate relevant credentials and qualifications in a standardized, straightforward, and documentable manner. The deadline for comments is today (Oct. 17). Please submit your comments through the Academy website.

Note: Some links in this email go to external websites and may require registration. The Academy is not responsible for the content of these websites. Links may expire.