Actuarial Standards Board News

The ASB has released the report of its Pension Task Force (PTF), which began work more than a year and a half ago to consider the standards implications of many proposals for change related to public pension plans.

In December 2014, the PTF was formed to review input from interested stakeholders on actuarial standards of practice (ASOPs) regarding public pension plans, for the purpose of developing suggestions for the ASB’s consideration. This input included the responses to the ASB’s request for comments on ASOPs and Public Pension Plan Funding and Accounting, and testimony provided at the ASB’s July 2015 hearing on public pension plans.

After extensive discussion of the PTF’s suggestions, the ASB has directed its Pension Committee to draft appropriate proposed modifications, in accordance with ASB procedures. The proposed modifications would be applicable to both public and private-sector plans, and are part of a greater, ongoing effort by the ASB in recent years to strengthen pension-related ASOPs.

The ASB expresses its appreciation of the PTF’s dedicated work on this project.

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the ASB will be held June 8-10, 2016, at the Academy offices in Washington, D.C.

The ASB recently approved an exposure draft of a revision to ASOP No. 5, Incurred Health and Disability Claims, and a second exposure draft of proposed ASOP Property/Casualty Ratemaking.

The proposed revision to ASOP No. 5 reflects a number of changes to other standards that have been made since the 2000 revision, and includes key changes such as explicitly addressing certain considerations in estimating and analyzing incurred claims, including behavior of claimants, claim seasonality, credibility, payments and recoveries under government programs, and the purpose and intended use of the unpaid claim estimate.

The proposed new ASOP Property/Casualty Ratemaking addresses items in the Considerations section of the Statement of Principles Regarding Property/Casualty Ratemaking, as well as ratemaking items not currently addressed in existing ASOPs. Changes made in response to comments received on the September 2014 first exposure draft include revisions to the scope of the ASOP to clarify the practice areas for which it is applicable and the actuarial activities to which it is applicable; and provides guidance regarding the estimating of future costs in total as well as by underlying levels that comprise the estimate of future cost.

The comment deadline for both exposure drafts is April 30, 2016 and can be viewed under the “Drafts” tab in “Current Exposure Drafts.”

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the ASB will be held March 9-10, 2016, at the Academy offices in Washington, D.C.

The ASB recently approved an exposure draft of a revision of ASOP No. 23, Data Quality. The ASOP was revised in 2004 and 2011 to reflect current, generally accepted practice with respect to data quality and to reflect new deviation language, respectively. In 2014, the ASB decided further review was needed to reflect changes in practice, which resulted in the drafting of the proposed revision. Proposed key changes in the revision include clarifying that the standard also applies to actuaries preparing data for other actuaries to use in an actuarial work product, requiring the actuary to disclose in summary form any unresolved questionable data uncovered on review and any steps taken to improve the data, and requiring the actuary to disclose why a review was not performed, if the actuary did not review the data. The comment deadline for the exposure draft is February 29, 2016 and can be viewed under the “Drafts” tab in “Current Exposure Drafts.”