The Academy’s office will be closed Monday, Oct. 9, for the Columbus Day holiday.
Actuaries Climate Index Value Reaches New High With Winter 2016–17 Data
Quarterly data for the Actuaries Climate Index (ACI) released Thursday show extreme weather events continue to increase across Canada and the United States, with the index value reaching a new high in winter 2016–17. Read the news release. The new ACI data showed a record high followed the previous record value measured in fall 2016, reflecting increasing deviation of weather extremes and sea levels from historically expected patterns for the two countries.
“This hurricane season has brought renewed attention to the question of whether extreme weather is increasing, and for a broad swath of North America, the ACI data were trending in that direction to February 2017,” said Caterina Lindman, chair of the ACI’s Climate Change Committee.
Academy Leaders Present at IAA Meeting
Many of the Academy’s leadership and active volunteers participated in the biannual meeting of the International Actuarial Association (IAA), held in Chicago this week. As it does at each IAA meeting, the Academy hosted a breakfast meeting for all representatives to IAA committees from each of the U.S.-based actuarial organizations to discuss issues of importance to U.S. actuaries, including education, Big Data, and changing international accounting and capital standards.
Working to bring the U.S. perspective to actuarial associations around the world, Academy President Bob Beuerlein helped lead a roundtable discussion among the IAA members interested in public policy, and will assist in generating discussion among the IAA members’ presidential leadership on how the IAA can better serve the needs of its full member associations. In addition, Al Beer, former chairperson of the Actuarial Standards Board and the Academy’s representative to the IAA Education Committee, gave a presentation to that group about how qualification to practice is viewed and specified through the U.S. Qualification Standards, and former Academy President Cecil Bykerk gave a presentation to the IAA Professionalism Committee on the counseling and discipline process in the United States.
Janet Barr, a member of the Academy’s Social Security Committee, presented to IAA’s Social Security Committee.
Annual Meeting News—Independent FSOC Member Roy Woodall to Keynote Plenary Session
S. Roy Woodall Jr., independent member of the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), will deliver remarks at the Nov. 14 lunchtime plenary session at the Academy’s Annual Meeting and Public Policy Forum. He will discuss his role in FSOC and share his perspectives on interactions with the insurance industry and insurance regulators.
Woodall serves as FSOC’s independent member having insurance expertise. This position, created by Congress, is the only one on the council that is presidentially appointed. Woodall has spent his career in a number of public and private roles, including as general counsel and insurance commissioner of Kentucky and with leading insurance trade associations.
Register today and plan to attend the Annual Meeting and Public Policy Forum, to be held Nov. 14–15 in Washington, D.C.
Next Week—Free Retirement Readiness Webinar: U.S., U.K., Australia
The Academy and the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA, U.K.) will host a free webinar next Thursday, “Retirement Readiness in Three Countries: Who Is Ready to Retire?” Presenters will look at retirement issues in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia in the context of a survey of residents of the three countries sponsored by the Academy, the IFoA, and the Australian Institute of Actuaries. There will be an opportunity to ask questions, and the webinar has been scheduled to allow U.S. and U.K. registrants to participate in the discussion. Continuing education credit, including JBEA credit, is available for those attending the live webinar, which will be held on Oct. 12 from 10 to 11:15 a.m. EDT. Register today.
CE Opportunities at Seminar on Effective P/C Loss Reserve Opinions
Earn up to 13 hours of continuing education credit at the 2017 Seminar on Effective P/C Loss Reserve Opinions, to be held Dec. 7–8 in Chicago. This seminar is designed for actuaries who are preparing for opinion season and seeking to deepen their expertise on the latest requirements and standards necessary for preparing or signing NAIC statements of actuarial opinion on P/C loss reserves. Register today.
Recently Released
The fall StateScan Quarterly highlights state legislation in the past quarter related to auto insurance, extreme events, Medicaid, long-term care, and public pension plans. For a more comprehensive review, log in to StateScan, the legislative and regulatory portal free for Academy members.
Public Policy Activities
The Committee on Property and Liability Financial Reporting submitted a comment letter to the NAIC’s Statutory Accounting Working Group, expressing concerns over a proposed new definition of reinsurance risk transfer in SSAP No. 62R: Property and Casualty Reinsurance.
Alerts
The House passed a $4.1 trillion FY 2018 budget resolution Thursday largely on a party-line vote. Included in the resolution are instructions for a deficit-neutral tax bill to be passed under the budget reconciliation process. Potential revisions to the tax code could impact retirement benefits or insurance protections, either through intentional changes to tax incentives, exclusions, deductions or deferrals; or unexpectedly and more generally through corporate or individual tax rate changes.
The IRS released updated static mortality tables and final regulations to be used for mortality tables for determining present value under defined benefit pension plans. The mortality tables apply for purposes of calculating the funding target and other items for valuation dates occurring during calendar year 2018 and later plan years.
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.
Kaiser Health News quoted Senior Health Fellow Cori Uccello on how proposals to expand the use of association health plans (AHPs) could tilt the market in their favor over non-AHP small group and individual market plans, while citing the Individual and Small Group Markets Committee’s health care issue brief on AHPs. The story was reprinted by several media outlets, including CNN Money, GantDaily.com (Pa.), Crossroads Today (Tex.), Erie News Now (Pa.), NBC-2.com (Fla.), and KITV 4 News (Hawaii). An Axios newsletter also cited the issue brief.
An editorial in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune (Fla.) reported on the Academy’s jointly sponsored Actuaries Climate Index, which provides a quarterly gauge of changes in extreme weather events and sea levels in the United States and Canada. The article was reprinted by Northwest Florida Daily News.
Pensions & Investments reported on the Academy’s announcement that the 2017 recipients of its two highest awards, the Jarvis Farley Service Award and the Robert J. Myers Public Service Award, will be Ken Kent and Larry Bruning, respectively.
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