Actuarial Standards Board News

The ASB recently adopted ASOP No. 55, Capital Adequacy Assessment. The ASOP provides guidance to actuaries when performing professional services with respect to an evaluation of the resiliency of an insurer through a capital adequacy assessment. The ASOP applies to actuaries designing, performing, or reviewing capital adequacy assessment work for life or health insurers (including fraternal benefit societies and health benefit plans), property and casualty insurers, mortgage and title insurers, financial guaranty insurance companies, risk retention groups, public entity pools, captive insurers, and similar entities or a combination of such entities, when affiliated (collectively, referred to as “insurer”). The ASOP, which underwent three exposure periods and received a total of 22 comment letters, is effective for work commenced on or after Nov. 1, 2019. ASOP No. 55 can be viewed here.

The ASB recently approved an exposure draft of a revision of ASOP No. 2, now titled Nonguaranteed Elements for Life Insurance and Annuity Products. The standard applies to actuaries when performing actuarial services with respect to the determination and, if applicable, illustration of nonguaranteed elements (NGEs), except where noted in the standard, for life insurance and annuity products written on individual policy forms where NGEs may vary at the discretion of the insurer. The standard also applies to group master contracts with individual certificates where NGEs are determined in a similar manner to products written on individual life and annuity policy forms. Examples of products within the scope of the standard include universal life, indeterminate premium life, and deferred annuity products. Such products may be fixed, variable, or indexed. Notable changes from the existing ASOP include clarification to the scope, expansion and clarification of definitions and guidance, and the introduction of the concept of an insurer’s NGE framework, which includes the determination policy, how policy classes are established, and the practices used to determine NGE scales. The comment deadline for the exposure draft, which can be viewed under the “Drafts” tab in “Current Exposure Drafts,” is June 1, 2019.  is July 15, 2019. Information on how to submit comments can be found in the draft.

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The ASB released its 2018 Annual Report. Last year the ASB adopted one new ASOP and two revised ASOPs, approved five exposure drafts for comment, and approved one proposal to revise one existing ASOP. In addition, the board presented a professionalism series webinar, “The Anatomy of ASOPs,” and provided content for several Actuarial Update Professionalism Counts articles.

The ASB recently approved an exposure draft of a revision of ASOP No. 22, Statements of Actuarial Opinion Based on Asset Adequacy Analysis for Life or Health Liabilities. The standard applies to actuaries when performing actuarial services with respect to providing a statement of actuarial opinion (SAO) related to asset adequacy analysis of life or health liabilities, when the SAO is prepared to comply with applicable law based on the model Standard Valuation Law and VM-30 of the NAIC Valuation Manual, or when the SAO is prepared to comply with other applicable law. Changes to the exposure draft include revising the purpose and scope in sections 1.1 and 1.2 from applying to actuaries when providing a SAO for life and health insurers to applying to actuaries when providing a SAO relating to asset adequacy analysis of life and health liabilities. The title of the ASOP was changed to reflect the changes in purpose and scope. In addition, references to Actuarial Compliance Guideline No. 4, Statutory Statements of Opinion Not Including an Asset Adequacy Analysis by Appointed Actuaries for Life and Health Insurers, were removed because the current Standard Valuation Law requires all reserve opinions to be based on asset adequacy analysis. The comment deadline for the exposure draft, which can be viewed under the “Drafts” tab in “Current Exposure Drafts”, is June 1, 2019. Information on how to submit comments can be found in the draft.