The Life Valuation Committee submitted comments on APF 2020-12 regarding hedging in VM-20 and VM-21 to the NAIC’s Life Actuarial Task Force.

The Life Underwriting and Risk Classification Work Group submitted comments to the NAIC’s Accelerated Underwriting (A) Working Group Ad Hoc Drafting Subgroup’s Educational Report exposure draft of March 4, 2022.

The Asset Modeling and Reporting Task Force submitted comments on the draft Actuarial Guideline (AG) on Asset Adequacy Testing (AAT) which was exposed during the NAIC’s Life Actuarial Task Force’s February 10 meeting.

The Economic Scenario Generator Work Group presented an update on Model Office Economic Scenario Generator (ESG) Testing to the NAIC’s Life (A) Actuarial Task Force (LATF). The presentation provided actual model office results for the economic scenario sets that have been selected by NAIC’s ESG Drafting Group.

The Health Care Delivery Committee released an issue brief on the “Implications of Hospital Price Transparency on Hospital Prices and Price Variation.” The brief emphasizes that price transparency may be a necessary, but not sufficient mechanism, to lower hospital prices and health care spending.

The Life Reserves Work Group, Annuity Reserves and Capital Work Group, and Variable Annuity Reserves and Capital Work Group submit an amendment proposal and presentation to the NAIC’s Life Actuarial Task Force on Swap Spreads and the London Inter-bank Offered Rate Transition to the Secured Overnight Financing Rate.

The Annuity Reserves and Capital Work Group submitted recommendations of Aggregation Principles as outlined in the Academy’s Preliminary Framework Elements for Fixed Annuity Principle-Based Reserving to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ Life Actuarial Task Force’s VM-22 Subgroup.

The Retirement System Assessment and Policy Committee completed a series of issue briefs laying out guiding principles for a comprehensive national retirement policy, begun with July 2019’s National Retirement Policy & Principles. The series also discusses possible changes in plan design to broaden access and participation in retirement plans to better enable workers to retire with a secure lifetime income.

The Retirement System Assessment and Policy Committee released an issue brief, Retirement Policy: Aligning Plan Design with Effective Employee Engagement, which analyzes how retirement program design can impact decisions that participants make with the goal of improving retirement security.

The Long-Term Care Medicaid Subcommittee submitted a comment letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on the proposed rule, “Medicare Program; Contract Year 2023 Policy and Technical Changes to the Medicare Advantage and Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Programs.” The comments focused on dual-eligible special needs plans (D-SNP’s) and separate medical loss ratio (MLR) requirements.

The Economic Scenario Generator Work Group presented to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ Life Actuarial (A) Task Force on model office testing scenarios of the new economic scenario generator.

The Social Security Committee released an issue brief examining the potential effects of increasing the Social Security normal retirement age, which it has identified as likely to be a key component of any legislation considered to restore Social Security’s long-term financial health.

The American Academy of Actuaries’ Cyber Risk Toolkit, developed by the Academy’s Cyber Risk Task Force, is comprised of a series of papers addressing issues pertinent to cyber risk insurance and cyber exposure. Since the initial publication of the Cyber Risk Toolkit, this document has been updated to include the “War, Cyberterrorism, and Cyber Insurance” section and the “Cyber Risk Resource Guide” section. The toolkit will continue to be updated periodically to reflect new and emerging work from the task force.

The Academy’s Variable Annuity Reserves and Capital Work Group released its VM-21 Practice Note Supplement, Implementation of Requirements for Principle-Based Reserves for Variable Annuities – 2022 Edition of VM-21. The supplement was exposed for public comment in 2021, and the final product has been published to reflect comments.

Medicare Committee Chairperson Rina Vertes and Academy Senior Health Fellow Cori Uccello submitted a statement for the record to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance Subcommittee on Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Growth regarding the Feb. 2 hearing, “The Hospital Insurance Trust Fund and the Future of Medicare Financing.”

The Academy’s Life Underwriting and Risk Classification Work Group submitted comments to the NAIC’s Accelerated Underwriting (A) Working Group on its paper summarizing what the working group has learned on using external data and data analytics in accelerated underwriting and provides recommendations for regulators and insurers when evaluating accelerated underwriting.

The Academy’s Essential Elements: Clarifying Misunderstanding of Life Expectancy and COVID-19 is a useful guide for understanding this complex concept, especially with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Essential Elements is a series of condensed issue papers designed to make actuarial analyses of public policy issues clearer to general audiences.

The Academy’s Annuity Reserves and Capital Work Group submitted a letter and spreadsheet to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ Life Actuarial (A) Task Force’s VM-22 Subgroup regarding a reinvestment credit quality assumption consistent with the current VM-22 mix.

Academy President Maryellen Coggins submitted a letter to the Colorado Division of Insurance in advance of the upcoming stakeholder engagement process for the recently passed state law aimed to protect consumers from unfair discrimination in insurance practices. The comments addressed potential concerns of the law’s impact on casualty, health, and life insurance.

The Academy’s Life Illustrations Work Group submitted a comment letter to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ Life Actuarial (A) Task Force on its exposure draft regarding the indexed universal life illustrations post-AG 49-A, which have shown lower credited rates and related values than seen prior to AG 49-A.