The Committee on Property and Liability Financial Reporting (COPLFR) submitted a comment letter to the Actuarial Standards Board (ASB) on the second exposure draft of ASOP No. 36, Statements of Actuarial Opinion Regarding Property/Casualty Loss and Loss Adjustment Expense Reserves.

The Health Solvency Subcommittee’s Health Underwriting Risk Factors Analysis Work Group sent a letter updating the NAIC’s Health Risk-Based Capital (E) Working Group (HRBC) on progress on the NAIC’s request to comprehensively review the H2—Underwriting Risk Component and the Managed Care Credit Calculation included in the HRBC formula.

The Committee on Cyber Risk released a new chapter in the Cyber Risk Toolkit, "Personal Cyber: An Intro to Risk Reduction and Mitigation Strategies." The chapter identifies some of the penetration points of cyberattacks from an individual’s perspective and examines how an individual can work to minimize their risk of being hacked.

The Social Security Committee released an issue brief, Reforming Social Security Sooner Rather Than Later, which notes that earlier reform action would allow for tax increases and benefit reductions to be phased in gradually and provide individuals more time to plan and adjust to the changes. Read the Academy news release.

The Life Practice Council and Casualty Practice Council submitted comments to the Colorado Division of Insurance on its draft regulation, Concerning Quantitative Testing of External Consumer Data and Information Sources, Algorithms, and Predictive Models Used for Life Insurance Underwriting for Unfairly Discriminatory Outcomes. The comments reiterated support for Colorado’s initiative to prevent unfairly discriminatory practices in insurance and shared actuarial perspectives related to the design of the data testing requirement.   

The Annuity Reserve and Capital Subcommittee submitted comments to the NAIC's Valuation Manual (VM)-22 Subgroup on the July 2023 exposure draft of the VM-22 Standard Projection Amount (SPA), reiterating its recommendation that the regulation not include a binding SPA.

The Health Practice Council’s Long-Term Care (LTC) Reform Committee submitted comments to the Office of the State Actuary for the state of Washington on key issues related to LTC financing and risk management. The letter provides information on considerations necessary to achieve and maintain long-term services and supports (LTSS) trust solvency for the WA Cares Fund Program.

The Pension Committee and Multiemployer Plans Committee responded to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s (PBGC) request for comments regarding the proposed rule on Valuation Assumptions and Methods.

Academy Senior Health Fellow Cori Uccello received the prestigious Wynn Kent Public Communication Award from the Conference of Consulting Actuaries (CCA) at CCA’s Annual Meeting. In remarks accepting the award, she said actuaries’ work touches the lives of every American, including affecting who has access to insurance coverage for their life, health, home, or auto, and how much they have to pay for that coverage; safeguarding financial and health security during retirement through pensions, Social Security, and Medicare; and helping ensure that the benefits promised to them can be fulfilled.

The Pension Committee submitted comments in response to the Department of Labor (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration’s (EBSA) Request for Information on a number of SECURE 2.0 provisions that impact the reporting and disclosure framework of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA).

Senior Health Fellow Cori Uccello and Health Equity Committee members Ugo Okpewho and Sara Teppema gave an overview of the committee’s work on equity considerations related to provider contracting and network development to AHIP’s Health Equity Workgroup.

A new issue brief released by the Health Equity Committee provides an overview of how potential benefit changes are evaluated and how those evaluations could facilitate the incorporation of equity-enhancing benefit design features. These issues were discussed in the second of a series of workshops with stakeholders and decision-makers focusing on changing cost-sharing features, such as through value-based insurance design (VBID), as well as adding benefits to address health-related social needs.

C1 Subcommittee Chairperson Steve Smith and Senior Life Fellow Nancy Bennett presented to the Valuation of Securities Task Force at the Securities Valuation Office training on principles for structured securities modeling and implications for risk-based capital.

The ERM/ORSA Committee released an issue brief, Dividend Limitations—Affiliated Transactions. The issue brief focuses on two issues: 1) review of the existing dividend limitation—which is the maximum dividend that an owner may collect from the insurance company unilaterally without requiring approval by an insurance regulator—and 2) review of the effects of affiliated transactions as they relate to the dividend limitation. The purpose of this issue brief is to discuss the two issues and describe potential actions that could be taken by regulators, whose objective is capital preservation and policyholder protection, to address the issues.

The Social Security Committee released an issue brief, Assumptions Used to Evaluate Social Security’s Financial Condition. The issue brief describes the assumptions that must be made in any actuarial projection of the Social Security program’s finances and explains how variations in the assumption values affect the projections.

Senior Health Fellow Cori Uccello gave an overview of the Health Equity Committee’s work on equity considerations related to benefit design to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ (CBPP) Marketplace Affordability Project.

The Health Practice Council’s Medicare Committee submitted a comment letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on the draft part one guidance for the Maximum Monthly Cap on Cost-Sharing Payments Program.

The ERM/ORSA Committee's comments submitted to the Actuarial Standards Board (ASB) in response to the request of the ASB’s Enterprise Risk Management Committee to provide written comments on the Proposed Actuarial Standard of Practice: Enterprise Risk Management exposure draft.

Director of Research Steve Jackson presented on cyber risk at an International Workshop on Cyber Risk and Security during the Center of Research in Econo-finance and Actuarial sciences on Risk (CREAR) Cyber Conference in Paris, France. This is a continuation of the Academy’s ongoing Cyber Risk initiative, overseen by the Risk Management and Financial Reporting Council and the Casualty Practice Council.

The Pension Committee released an issue brief, Enhancing Retirement Security Through Changes in Plan Design and Related Requirements, that examines modifications to defined benefit (DB) plans that would make them more attractive for modern employers, and looks at ways to incorporate some of the more desirable attributes of DB plans into the more common defined contribution (DC) options that many employers are currently offering.