This Week, August 27-31, 2012

Member Alerts

• Life Insurance Issues: The Joint Working Group of the Life Insurance and Annuities (A) Committee and the Financial Condition (E) Committee voted to adopt revisions [2] to Actuarial Guideline 38. Log in [3] to read the full alert.

Website: New Postings

• The Reinsurance Committee responded [4] to the Federal Insurance Office’s request for comment on topics relating to reinsurance, including: the purpose of reinsurance, the effect of domestic and international regulation on reinsurance in the United States, and the coordination of reinsurance supervision nationally and internationally.

Recent Events

• Approximately 150 registrants participated in the Aug. 30 Post-NAIC/PBA Webinar—the 24th in the series. Presenters gave updates on the NAIC’s life and annuity activities—including those of the Life Actuarial Task Force—and on the Valuation Manual that was adopted by the NAIC’s life insurance committee on Aug. 17. Download the presentation slides [5] for free or purchase the audio recording [6].

Upcoming Events

• Precept 13—How Do I Comply in a Self-Regulating Profession? [7]: Attend this Sept. 13 webinar and learn how you should consider applying Precept 13 when you become aware that another actuary may have violated the Code of Professional Conduct. Your understanding of Precept 13 is vital to ensuring that you are fulfilling the profession’s responsibilities to the public and your own responsibilities to your clients, your employer—and to the profession.
• Academy Annual Meeting and Awards Luncheon [8]: Political analyst Stu Rothenberg will deliver the keynote address at this year’s luncheon on Oct. 15 (held in conjunction with the Society of Actuaries annual meeting). The luncheon is included in your registration if you are attending the SOA meeting. Academy members who are not attending the SOA meeting may purchase a ticket for $70.
• Life PBR—Test Drive the New VM-20 [9]: Work hands on with the new reserving requirements in VM-20 and apply them to real-life examples at this Sept. 11–12 seminar.
• P/C Effective Loss Reserve Opinion Seminar: Tools for the Appointed Actuary [10]: Actuaries who write P/C loss reserve opinions and who want to stay up to date on regulations and standards applicable in drafting loss reserve opinions should plan to attend this Nov. 7–8 seminar. New workshops and breakout sessions have been added to this year’s seminar.
• Life and Health Qualifications Seminar [11]: This Nov. 12–15 seminar is the primary source of instruction for actuaries who wish to be qualified to issue actuarial opinions for either the NAIC Life and A&H Annual Statement or the NAIC Health Annual Statement but may not have met the specific qualification requirements set forth in the U.S. Qualification Standards.

Recently Released Publications

• August Actuarial Update: Find out [12] what happened at the NAIC summer meeting, the results of the Academy elections, and more.
• August HealthCheck: Read about [13] two reports on the Affordable Care Act issued by the GAO.

• September/October Contingencies: Read about [14] reinsurance business strategy, the analytical uses of social media, revising Civil War death counts using actuarial models, and much more.

Academy in the News

• Senior Health Fellow Cori Uccello is quoted by The Medicare News Group in “Raising the Medicare Eligibility Age Harms Minorities; Is a Benefits Reduction, Experts Say [15],” explaining why estimating the effect of an increase in Medicare’s eligibility age can be more complex than estimating the same adjustment in Social Security eligibility.
• The Academy’s 2010 MLR critical issues paper [16] is referenced in a Smart Business online article, “How Health Insurance Companies and Employers are Dealing with the New Medical Loss Ratio Mandate [17].”

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