The Academy’s office will be closed Monday, Jan. 16, in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Academy Toolkit Offers Actuarial Perspective to Public Policymakers
The Academy sent a public policy toolkit to all members of the incoming 115th Congress highlighting major public policy issues on which actuaries have particular expertise. The Academy considers these issues to be particularly important in the coming months, and developed the toolkit in the hope that it will better inform policymakers and their staff. Key issues identified include health care, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, lifetime income retirement, long-term care financing, flood insurance, financial services reform, cyber security, and climate risk.
“All signs indicate that Congress is eager to consider and act on far-reaching measures affecting the financial security of many Americans, including complex public policy matters that the U.S. actuarial profession has studied extensively through the Academy,” said Academy President Bob Beuerlein. “The Academy consolidated its analysis of major issues into this toolkit to provide legislators with an objective, nonpartisan resource detailing policy considerations and relevant alternatives, informed by actuarial expertise.”
2016 Legislative/Regulatory Review Alert Released
The Academy released its 2016 year-in-review alert with a comprehensive summary of significant regulatory and legislative events last year at the state, federal, and international levels that are of interest to the U.S. actuarial profession. It also recaps the Academy’s efforts in the past year in addressing these key areas. Topics covered include climate change, price optimization, implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Medicare, principle-based reserving, Social Security, international insurance capital standards, and many more.
P/C Webinars This Month Will Cover Opinion Writing, Recap December NAIC Meeting
The Academy will host webinars on each of the next two Thursdays on property/casualty issues:
P/C Loss Reserve Opinion Writing Webinar: P/C Loss Reserve Opinion Writing, to be held Thursday, Jan. 19, from noon to 1:30 p.m. EST, will review relevant actuarial standards of practice (ASOPs) and the guidance they provide, as well as what has changed in the past year. The panel will include Committee on Property and Liability Financial Reporting Chairperson Lisa Slotznick and Vice Chairperson Kathy Odomirok. Included will be a summary of two presentations from the Academy’s December P/C loss opinion seminar. Register today.
Post-NAIC P/C Webinar: The Casualty Practice Council (CPC) will host a post-NAIC webinar on Thursday, Jan. 26, from noon to 1 p.m. EST. Panelists will review discussions of top P/C issues, including an account of the Casualty Actuarial and Statistical (C) Task Force and other key meetings from the NAIC Fall 2016 National Meeting. CPC Vice President Rade Musulin will moderate. Register today.
P/C Loss Reserve Law Manual Available
The Academy’s 2016 Property/Casualty Loss Reserve Law Manual is now available. Updated annually and designed to help appointed property/casualty (P/C) actuaries comply with NAIC annual statement requirements, the manual includes statements of actuarial opinion (SAO) requirements and state laws and regulations establishing those requirements; annual statement instructions for the SAOs for P/C, title loss, and loss expense reserves; and other pertinent annual statement instructions. It is available in two formats—web/online or CD-ROM. Members can order online by logging in to the Academy’s website or via mail/fax.
Life & Health Valuation Law Manual Available for Preorder
The 2017 Life & Health Valuation Law Manual—designed to help appointed life and health actuaries comply with the requirements of the NAIC model Standard Valuation Law and the Model Actuarial Opinion and Memorandum Regulation—is available for preorder. The manual includes a current-topics section outlining key valuation developments and state guidance, NAIC model laws and regulations that have an effect on reserve calculations, a discussion of generally distributed interpretations, and copies of the current actuarial guidelines from the NAIC Examiners Handbook. Reserve your copy today.
Academy Launches PBR Webpage
The Academy launched a new webpage to serve as a resource for actuaries and regulators as the United States moves into the implementation phase of principle-based reserving (PBR) for life insurance. The Academy—which released an alert Friday announcing the new webpage—has been the technical architect behind PBR, helping to shape it into the valuation standard for life insurance issued after Jan. 1, 2017.
Recently Released
The winter StateScan Quarterly highlights fourth-quarter state legislative and regulatory activities, including actions taken on automobile insurance, ACA reforms, principle-based reserving, and state adoptions of own risk and solvency assessments. StateScan, the legislative/regulatory portal for Academy members, provides state legislative and regulatory reports on key topics in all actuarial practice areas.
The January HealthCheck recaps Academy health presentations at the NAIC Fall 2016 National Meeting; long-term care (LTC) issues, including a comment letter sent to the Maryland Insurance Administration on LTC insurance; and a call for volunteers on pooled health plan data.
Public Policy Activities
The LTC Reform Subcommittee submitted a comment letter to the Maryland Insurance Administration’s public hearing on long-term care insurance.
Alerts
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a budget resolution Friday, by a 227-198 vote, to begin the process of repealing provisions of the Affordable Care Act through a process called budget reconciliation, following approval by the U.S. Senate on Thursday, by a 51-48 vote, of the same budget resolution.
A joint statement by the United States and the European Union announced that a covered agreement has been reached on insurance and reinsurance measures.
Subscribe to Member Alerts: Subscribers to the Academy’s alerts are notified by email when a new alert is posted in their area(s) of interest. The alerts are available in five areas of focus: casualty, health, life, pension, and cross-practice issues. Academy members may subscribe to any or all of them free of charge as a member service after signing in to the member section of the website.
In the News
An Associated Press fact-checking story quoted Senior Health Fellow Cori Uccello’s explanation that 2017 premium increases in a number of states are not necessarily indicative of an ACA premium spiral. More than 100 media outlets published the story, including the New York Times, CBS News, and NBC News.
A CNN Money story on the best jobs in America featured a comment from Joeff Williams, the Academy’s vice president of professionalism, on why being an actuary is a great job.
Insurance Journal ran a story about the increased incidence of extreme weather events based on results from the Academy’s jointly sponsored Actuaries Climate Index, which provides a quarterly gauge of changes in extreme weather events and sea levels.
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