This Week, December 3 - December 7, 2012

Reminders

• Membership dues payment is due Jan. 1, 2013. 2013 membership dues remain at the same level as 2012. If you haven’t paid your 2013 dues, click here [2] to conveniently pay online before Jan. 1. Log in [3] now to pay your dues, print your invoice, or to update your profile.
• You still have time to watch and win! Watch [4] the ASB’s video on the importance of reading and understanding Actuarial Standards of Practice and you could win $100.

News Releases

• The Life Practice Council commends the decision by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) to adopt the Valuation Manual that will help lead to a principle-based reserves system intended to allow insurers to more accurately calculate risks and required reserves for insurance products. Read [5] the news release. Log in [3] to read the full alert.

Upcoming Events

• The American Academy of Actuaries and Society of Actuaries are jointly sponsoring a new webinar series [6] on recently released Affordable Care Act (ACA) proposed rules. Join John Bertko, the director of special initiatives and pricing at the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, and his colleagues, as they provide an overview of three significant proposed rules related to the ACA, and answer audience questions on the rules. Cori Uccello, senior health fellow at the Academy will be the moderator. The webinars will be held on Dec. 10, 13, and 14.
• The Council on Professionalism is offering a webinar [7] on Dec. 12 about peer review and the common practices actuaries can use in determining whether voluntary peer review of their actuarial services and actuarial communications may be beneficial. Subjects will include when to use peer review, how to identify suitable peer reviewers, considerations in establishing a peer review program, and more!
• The Academy’s Life Practice Council will present a webinar [8] on Dec. 13 to provide an overview of the NAIC Fall National Meeting and progress on the principle-based approach to life reserves. The newly adopted 2012 Individual Annuity Reserving Table, which becomes effective January 2014, also will be discussed.

Website: New Postings

• You can now pre-order the 2013 Life & Health Valuation Law Manual [9]! The manual is designed to help appointed actuaries comply with the requirements of the NAIC model Standard Valuation Law and the Model Actuarial Opinion and Memorandum Regulation.
• In case you missed the Social Security: Actuarial Status and Assumptions webinar, the audio recording [10] is now available for free.
• Long-Term Care Practice Note Work Group member Dawn Helwig presented [11] at the NAIC’s Senior Issues Task Force hearing on long-term care regarding actuarial implications for long-term care insurance.
• Several Life Practice Council committees gave presentations during the NAIC Fall Meeting:
  • The Life Reserves Work Group presented [12] an overview of VM-20 asset default methodology and development process.
  • The Nonforfeiture Modernization Work Group presented [13] its report [14] on guaranteed nonforfeiture basis factor assumptions.
  • The Deposit Fund Subgroup presented [15] its proposal [16] for reserving synthetic guaranteed investment contracts.
  • The Invested Asset Work Group presented its comment letter [17] on a new method to determine risk-based capital and asset valuation reserves for commercial mortgages.

Academy in the News

• Paul Greenberg, Pulitzer-winning columnist at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette [18] praises the Academy’s Contingencies magazine as “fascinating” and “well-written” in his Dec. 5 column.

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