US GAAP for Insurers, Third Edition
US GAAP for Insurers, Third Edition
US GAAP for Insurers, Third Edition (2024), offers a comprehensive analysis of United States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP) fundamentals to assist actuaries, accountants, and other professionals who help prepare and review insurance company financial statements. The third edition significantly revises the second edition (2006) and now covers property and casualty insurance. All chapters contain new content.
Title information
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles are the conventions, rules, and procedures that define accepted accounting practices in effect in the United States. Commonly referred to as “US GAAP,” these practices form a comprehensive basis of accounting and provide a consistent standard under which business enterprises present financial information. This third edition, now titled US GAAP for Insurers, significantly revises the second edition, US GAAP for Life Insurers (2006), offering a comprehensive analysis of US GAAP fundamentals to keep current with emerging products, practices, and guidance. The third edition’s scope has expanded to cover property and casualty insurance. It is designed to assist actuaries, accountants, and other professionals who help prepare and review insurance company financial statements submitted in accordance with US GAAP and has been adapted to reference the most current authoritative guidance source for US GAAP, the Financial Accounting Standards Board Accounting Standards Codification. The book presents numerical examples to bring practice to life. All chapters contain new material. To enhance the reader’s understanding of the numerical examples, the spreadsheets that underlie them are available as a companion to the book and may be downloaded here.
About the Authors
EDITORS
Robert G. Frasca, FSA, MAAA. Rob is an actuary and consultant with Ernst & Young LLP in Boston. He specializes in assisting clients with the interpretation and implementation of emerging financial reporting requirements for insurers. Rob was a contributing author to International Financial Reporting for Insurers and has contributed to numerous actuarial publications related to financial reporting over his career. Prior to EY, Rob worked in various actuarial roles at Sun Life Financial and New England Mutual Life Insurance Company. He earned SB degrees in mathematics and economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Mark J. Freedman, FSA, MAAA. Mark is a board member of Munich Re Life US. Previously, he was a principal at Ernst & Young LLP, based in Philadelphia. At EY, Mark assisted major US and global insurers with financial management and reporting issues, mergers and acquisitions, and financial modeling. He started his career at Philadelphia Life Insurance Company. Mark was a contributing author to US GAAP for Life Insurers, 2nd edition, and is a past president of the Society of Actuaries. He earned a BA in mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania.
AUTHORS
Steven P. Belcher, CPA. Steve is a senior vice president and the US controller at MetLife in New York. Since 2019, he has been responsible for the accounting and related financial reporting for all of MetLife’s US operations. Prior to his current role, Steve held various finance leadership roles, including global head of accounting policy at MetLife and AIG. Steve’s 32-year career in the insurance industry began in the audit practice of EY in Chicago, including a two-year fellowship at the Financial Accounting Standards Board. He was the chair of the Accounting Committee of the American Council of Life Insurers from 2017 to 2021 and chair of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ (AICPA) Insurance Experts Panel from 2017 to 2019. Since June 2022, he has served as a member of the AICPA’s Financial Reporting Executive Committee. Steve earned an MA in accounting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Matthew P. Clark, FSA, MAAA, CERA, CFA. Matt is a principal at Deloitte LLP, where he leads the US actuarial practice and provides audit and consulting services to companies across the life and annuity industry. His areas of focus include financial reporting, actuarial modeling, and process optimization. Matt is a frequent author and speaker on current and emerging actuarial and insurance topics. He earned a BS in actuarial mathematics at the University of Michigan.
Laura S. Gray, FSA, MAAA. Laura is a principal and actuarial practice leader for KPMG LLP in the United States. She is also global head of actuarial at KPMG, where she provides services to insurers in both an audit and advisory capacity, with an emphasis on IFRS and US GAAP, as well as actuarial modernization and risk management. Previous employment includes actuarial roles at Canada Life, Confederation Life, and EY and as principal owner of Marietta Actuarial Services. Laura was a contributing author to International Financial Reporting for Insurers and previously served on the American Academy of Actuaries’ Financial Reporting Committee. She earned a BA in mathematics at Agnes Scott College in Atlanta.
William C. Hines, FSA, MAAA. William is a principal with Milliman LLP. He assists companies globally with regulatory and public company financial reporting issues, mergers and acquisitions, and reinsurance transactions. William started his career at John Hancock Life Insurance Company. He was a contributing author to International Financial Reporting for Insurers and has served as an adviser to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, the International Accounting Standards Board, and the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board. He earned a BBA in finance at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
June Howard, CPA, CFA, CGMA. June is a senior adviser for Aflac Incorporated. Previously, she was Aflac’s senior vice president and chief accounting officer. She joined Aflac in 2009 and was named chief accounting officer in 2010. Before joining Aflac, she held financial reporting positions of continuing responsibility at Voya and The Hartford. June started her career at EY, based in West Palm Beach, Florida, where she worked for nearly 10 years. June earned a BA in business administration from the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
Laurel Kastrup, FSA, MAAA. Laurel is a principal at KPMG LLP, based in Dallas, where she provides consulting and audit services to life and health insurance companies and reinsurers. Her areas of expertise include health insurance, long-term care, financial reporting, risk management, modeling and financial projections, actuarial transformation, mergers and acquisitions, strategic analysis, and process improvements. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Nebraska, earning a BA in actuarial science and mathematics and a BFA in music.
Gareth L. Kennedy, ACAS, MAAA. Gareth is a principal at Ernst & Young LLP in Chicago. He provides assurance, advisory, and transaction services to general insurance clients throughout the globe. Gareth was a contributing author to International Financial Reporting for Insurers. He serves as a delegate to the International Actuarial Association’s Insurance Accounting Committee. He previously served on the American Academy of Actuaries Board as vice president of risk management and financial reporting. He earned a master’s degree in theoretical physics from Lancaster University in the United Kingdom.
Jeffrey A. Klanderman, FSA, MAAA. Jeff has more than 30 years of consulting experience covering many aspects of financial reporting, actuarial modeling, and risk management. While at PwC and KPMG, Jeff has provided audit and accounting advisory support (US GAAP, IFRS, statutory) to several domestic and international companies. He has produced numerous articles and thought leadership pieces and is a frequent speaker at Society of Actuaries meetings and other professional actuarial events. Jeff earned a BS in mathematics from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Matthew J. Klaus, FSA, MAAA. Matthew is a senior manager at Deloitte LLP, based in Chicago. He focuses on financial reporting and modeling for group and individual accident and health products, including long-term care, disability, critical illness, Medicare supplement, and credit insurance products. Prior to joining Deloitte, he worked for over nine years as an actuary in an insurance company setting, primarily in long-term care product development at Bankers Life and Casualty Company. He earned a BS in actuarial science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Mike Lockerman, FSA, MAAA, CFA. Mike is a principal at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in New York City. He focuses on financial reporting and financial modeling for life and annuity insurers and has helped insurers apply US GAAP in more than two dozen countries. Mike served as editor for the updated version of International Financial Reporting for Insurers (2023). He is a former member of the Federal Reserve’s Insurance Policy Advisory Committee and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries’ Financial Reporting Council. He earned a BS with honors in mathematical sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Marc Oberholtzer, FCAS, MAAA. Marc is a principal at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. He has extensive experience in general insurance financial reporting under US GAAP. He leads PwC’s US general insurance actuarial practice in collaborating with its accounting advisory experts, national office professionals, and audit policy leaders with regard to how many aspects of general insurance are accounted for under US GAAP. Marc has experience advising or auditing nearly every major general insurance company operating in the United States. Marc served on the board of the American Academy of Actuaries, led the American Academy of Actuaries’ Committee on Property/Liability Financial Reporting for three years, and currently is vice chair of the Academy’s Financial Reporting Committee. Marc earned a BA in economics at Rutgers University.
Leonard J. Reback, FSA, MAAA. Leonard is an actuary at MetLife, based in the New York area. He works primarily on emerging financial reporting issues, including implementations of SOP 03-1, SOP 05-1, FAS 157, LDTI, embedded value, and IFRS 17. He has also worked on several mergers and divestitures. Leonard was a contributing author to International Financial Reporting for Insurers and has chaired the American Academy of Actuaries’ Financial Reporting Committee and Life GAAP Reporting Committee. He earned a BS in accounting at Binghamton University and an MS in statistics and operations research at New York University.
Craig W. Reynolds, FSA, MAAA. Craig is a principal and consulting actuary with Milliman LLP, based in Seattle. Craig focuses primarily on financial reporting and forecasting for life insurers around the world. In recent years, his consulting has focused primarily on expert witness testimony and mergers and acquisitions. Prior to Milliman LLP, he worked for two different life insurance companies. Craig is a past president of the Society of Actuaries and serves on the city council of Mercer Island, Washington. He earned an SB in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Rick Sojkowski, CPA. Rick is a retired partner of Deloitte LLP, where he served the firm’s Insurance Practice his entire career. During that time, he was involved with all aspects of the insurance marketplace. He was the firm’s representative on the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ Insurance Experts Panel, including serving as past chairperson of the panel. He earned a BS in accountancy from Bentley College.
Randy Tillis, FSA, MAAA, CERA. Randy is recently retired, having worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in Chicago for the last 17 years, assisting US and global insurers with financial management and reporting issues. He started his career at TPF&C in Cleveland and worked at several insurers prior to PwC. Randy was a contributing author to International Financial Reporting for Insurers. He earned a BS in mathematics at The Ohio State University.
Darryl G. Wagner, FSA, MAAA. Darryl is a principal at Deloitte LLP, based in New York. Previously, he was with CIGNA and Andersen. Darryl helps insurers implement, evaluate, and transform financial reporting and performance/value measurement and management. He was a contributing author to International Financial Reporting for Insurers and is a past board member of the Society of Actuaries. Darryl earned a BS in mathematics at the University of Nebraska.
Jennifer M. Weiner, CPA. Jennifer is a partner in Ernst & Young LLP’s Financial Services Professional Practice Group. She is one of the principal technical resources on accounting and financial reporting matters to EY insurance professionals and accountants. Jennifer was a contributing author to International Financial Reporting for Insurers and has contributed to numerous publications related to financial reporting matters over the years. From 2010 to 2013, Jennifer was a senior fellow at the Financial Accounting Standards Board, where she was the lead project manager on the insurance contracts project. Jennifer earned a BS in accounting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.