A key panel of regulators has endorsed a multipart measure that could affect both issuers of universal life policies and insurers that use preferred mortality tables.
Members of the Life and Health Actuarial Task Force, an arm of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Kansas City, Mo., voted 12-4 with 2 abstentions for the proposal today during a conference call.
All members of the LHATF were present, and more than 75 people were listening in on the call.
One section of the proposal would create interim preferred mortality tables, and another section would tighten the rules for insurers that incorporate assumptions about policyholder lapse rates in valuation and reserve calculations for UL policies with secondary guarantees.
The proposal must go through several more rounds of review and receive approval from the NAIC plenary, the body that represents all NAIC members, before it can take effect.
LHATF Chair Mike Batte apologized to task force members after the vote and said the LHATF should practice sound “actuarial science,” not undertake work that is “politically expedient.”
Completion of new preferred mortality tables is just 3 to 6 months away, and it would have been better to wait until those tables were available to act on the issue, Batte said.