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Work could be delayed for at least six months on mortality tables that are used to determine necessary reserves for life insurance products and that determine how such products are priced.
The last Commissioners Standard Ordinary Tables were developed in 1980. Since that time, agreement among regulators and insurers suggests that mortality rates have improved and that new tables would reflect that improvement.
Consequently, regulators directed the Society of Actuaries in Schaumburg, Ill. and the American Academy of Actuaries in Washington to work on Valuation Basic Tables (VBT) and subsequent new CSO Tables. VBTs are the building blocks from which CSO Tables are developed.
Life actuaries have been working for over a year to complete a VBT and earlier this month told regulators they believed their work was complete. They asked regulators to sign off on the VBT so they would have direction and an assurance that they should be proceeding with completion of the CSO Tables.
Initially, a tight timetable of approving the VBT, completing work on the CSO Tables, exposing them and putting them on a fast track through the adoption process of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners was planned. But regulators still have questions about how the VBT was put together.
