Academy Senior Casualty Fellow Jim MacGinnitie presented the Actuaries Climate Index and Actuaries Climate Risk Index to the Inter-Agency Forum on Climate Change Impacts and Adaptations meeting at NASA headquarters in Washington.

The SVL Interest Rate Modernization Work Group submitted comments to the NAIC's VM-22 (A) Subgroup on the VM-22 Maximum Valuation Interest Rates for Income Annuities draft report.

The Pension Committee submitted a comment letter to the U.S. Treasury Department requesting guidance from the IRS and Treasury to resolve uncertainties that exist as to how variable annuity plans should be valued for minimum funding and Internal Revenue Code (IRC) §417(e) purposes.

The Individual and Small Group Markets Committee sent comments to the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce on H.R. 1101, the Small Business Health Fairness Act, related to association health plans.

The Individual and Small Group Markets Committee submitted a letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) regarding the proposed rule on market stabilization.

The Financial Reporting Committee (FRC) submitted comments to the International Actuarial Association (IAA) on the exposure draft of its “Risk Adjustments for Financial Reporting of Insurance Contracts under International Financial Reporting Standards No. X” monograph.

The Pension Committee submitted a comment letter to the IRS on proposed regulations to the minimum present value requirements for defined benefit (DB) plan distributions.

The Multiemployer Pension Plans Subcommittee submitted a comment letter to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) on alternative two-pool withdrawal liability methods.

The SVL Interest Rate Modernization Work Group submitted comments on a revised weighting methodology proposal to the NAIC's VM-22 (A) Subgroup.

Academy Senior Health Fellow Cori Uccello and Karen Bender, chairperson of the Academy's Individual and Small Group Markets Committee, submitted testimony on the effectiveness of the individual mandate under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to a U.S. House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee hearing. 

Senior Pension Fellow Ted Goldman presented on “Longevity and Retirement Security” at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s “The Shifting Paradigm of Retirement” forum in Washington on Feb. 3, reviewing the jointly sponsored Actuaries Longevity Illustrator and the challenges of and potential approaches to addressing longevity risk. View the slides.

The AG 43/C-3 Phase II Work Group submitted comments to the NAIC’s Variable Annuities Issues (E) Working Group on version 1 of the draft specifications for the second quantitative impact study.

The Health Financial Reporting and Solvency Committee sent comments to the Long-Term Care Valuation (B) Subgroup on asset treatment for stand-alone LTC asset adequacy analysis.

The Standard Valuation Law Interest Rate Modernization Work Group submitted comments to the NAIC’s Life Actuarial Task Force (LATF) on its “VM-22: Maximum Valuation Interest Rates for Income Annuities” exposure draft.

The Individual and Small Group Markets Committee released a public policy paper that outlines what’s needed for a sustainable health insurance individual market, assesses how well the Affordable Care Act has achieved those conditions, and explores how ideas for addressing challenges would affect the market. Read An Evaluation of the Individual Health Insurance Market and Implications of Potential Changes and accompanying news release.

The Non-Guaranteed Elements Work Group submitted comments to the New York state Department of Financial Services on Proposed 11 NYCRR 48 (Insurance Regulation 210) on life insurance and annuity non-guaranteed elements.

The Academy has been the technical architect behind principle-based reserving (PBR), helping to shape PBR into the valuation standard for life insurance issued after Jan. 1, 2017, in the 46 states that have passed standard valuation PBR-enabling legislation. PBR uses risk management techniques to capture an individual insurer’s unique risks underlying its life insurance business more accurately than the pre-existing requirements based on prescribed, static methods and assumptions. The Academy has assembled materials to assist actuaries and regulators as the United States moves into the implementation phase of PBR for life insurance. Read more here.

The LTC Reform Subcommittee submitted a comment letter to the Maryland Insurance Administration Public Hearing on Long-Term Care Insurance.

The Academy released its 2016 P/C Loss Reserve Law Manual, which is updated from 2015 and designed to help appointed actuaries comply with NAIC annual statement requirements. The manual includes SAO requirements and state laws and regulations establishing requirements; annual statement instructions for the SAOs for P/C, title loss, and loss expense reserves; and other pertinent annual statement instructions. The manual is available online or as a CD-ROM, and members can order online here.