Editor’s Note: The Academy’s office will be closed Tuesday and Wednesday, Dec. 24–25, for Christmas. Because of the year-end holidays, the next issue of This Week will be published on Friday, Jan. 3.
Academy 2020 Dues Reminder
Academy annual dues for membership are due Jan. 1 of each year. If you have not yet done so, please log in here to pay your dues, print your invoice, or update your user profile. Highlights of our mission-critical work this year are noted in the annual “The Meaning of Your Membership” report by President D. Joeff Williams outlining the Academy’s member resources and professionalism and public policy activities.
Pension Webinar Looks at Working With Auditors
The Academy’s Pension Committee hosted a webinar Monday, “Working With Auditors: Stories From Inside the Audit Engagement,” that drew upon the committee’s Working With Auditors of Pension and OPEB Planspractice note, released this month. Presenters were John Stokesbury, vice chairperson for the Actuarial Board for Counseling and Discipline; Stephen Eisenstein; and Stephen Breeding, a member of the Pension Accounting Resource Group. Ellen Kleinstuber, a member of the Pension Risk Transfer Work Group, moderated. The webinar featured a discussion centering on panelists’ experiences, giving them the opportunity to detail scenarios that often come up and might be unforeseen by less-seasoned specialists. See the forthcoming December Actuarial Update for more coverage. Slides and audio are available for logged-in Academy members.
P/C, Life and Health Law Manuals Available for Order
Two new Academy law manuals are now available for order.
The Life and Health Valuation Law Manual is now available for order. Updated for 2020, the manual contains information to help appointed actuaries know the requirements of the NAIC model Standard Valuation Law and the Model Actuarial Opinion and Memorandum Regulation. The manual will be available for delivery by late January. Place your order today and be one of the first to have it.
Also updated annually, the P/C Loss Reserve Law Manual is designed to help appointed actuaries know the NAIC annual statement requirements for statements of actuarial opinion. The manual contains a compilation of insurance laws relating to P/C loss and loss expense reserves for all 50 states; Washington, D.C.; and Puerto Rico. It is designed to allow users to directly access each jurisdiction’s laws, making it a useful reference tool for actuaries. The manual will be available for delivery this winter. Order today.
Applicability Guidelines Updated for ASOP No. 55
The Applicability Guidelines for Actuarial Standards of Practice have been updated for Actuarial Standard of Practice (ASOP) No. 55, Capital Adequacy Assessment. The ASOP’s changes affect the casualty, life, and health practice areas. Click here to go to the Applicability Guidelines webpage, then scroll down the page for to download the Excel file.
Professionalism Outreach
Actuarial Board for Counseling and Discipline (ABCD) Staff Attorney Ed Lee presented an introduction to the ABCD to the Casualty Actuarial Society’s course on professionalism on Tuesday in Atlanta.
Alerts
Academy volunteers and staff presented on public policy and professionalism matters at NAIC’s Fall National Meeting in Austin, Texas, in early December. Public policy issues addressed at the meeting included, among others: predictive analytics, life principle-based reserving, wildfire catastrophe risk, climate risk, and long-term care insurance. Read the Academy alert.
In a 2-1 decision, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision Wednesday ruling the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) unconstitutional. The court also remanded the longstanding ACA case, Texas v. Azar, back to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas to determine which parts of the law would stand. Read the Academy alert.
The U.S. Senate passed an omnibus bill Thursday that provides for continuing spending and operation of the federal government in fiscal year 2020. The legislation includes H.R. 1994, the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act (SECURE Act), which provides changes to employer-sponsored retirement plans and individual retirement accounts. Read the Academy alert.
The omnibus bill also includes repeal of an excise tax on high-cost employer-sponsored health coverage (also known as the “Cadillac tax”), the medical-device excise tax, and the health insurance providers fee (also known as the health insurance tax). The medical device excise tax was scheduled to expire on Dec. 31. Although the Cadillac tax has been twice delayed, it was scheduled to take effect in 2022. The health insurance providers fee had a moratorium placed on it this year, will go back into effect in 2020, and will be eliminated permanently beginning in 2021. Read the Academy alert.
Also included in the omnibus funding legislation was a provision for a short-term extension of statutory authority for the National Flood Insurance Program, as well as a seven-year extension for the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program. Read the Academy alert.
Academy Annual Meeting and Public Policy Forum, Nov. 5–6, 2020, Washington, D.C.
In the News
A ThinkAdvisor story on the SECURE Act passed by Congress and expected to signed today by President Trump included comments from Academy Senior Pension Fellow Linda K. Stone on the lifetime income and other aspects of the legislation.
In a subscriber-only Life Annuity Specialist story, Al Schmitz, chairperson of the Long-Term Care/Disability Committee, discussed the use of predictive analytics to potentially reduce LTC costs.
A law firm article highlighting activity from the NAIC’s recent Fall National Meeting, also published by Lexology (subscriber-only), noted the Academy’s work with the NAIC’s Longevity Risk (A/E) Subgroup.
An article published by the Center for American Progress cited the Health Practice Council’s December 2016 letter to Congress on potential adverse consequences of repealing provisions of the ACA without having a replacement approach in place.
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