Casualty Actuarial and Statistical (C) Task Force
Tuesday, July 14, 2026
1:00 PM CDT
Open call with agenda to follow.
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Actuarial Guidelines
Background
Last Updated: 02/11/2026
Actuarial guidelines are NAIC-adopted regulatory guidance documents that provide interpretive direction on the application of statutory actuarial requirements. They are developed to support consistent and effective regulation in areas where evolving insurance products, risk profiles, or market practices raise questions related to solvency, capital adequacy, and consumer protection. These guidelines assist state insurance departments in applying existing statutes and NAIC model laws to circumstances that may not have been fully anticipated at the time of enactment.
Viewed collectively, actuarial guidelines form an evolving body of regulatory actuarial literature that has developed alongside changes in insurance products, valuation methods, and solvency oversight. Early actuarial guidelines focused primarily on clarifying reserve calculations and valuation provisions under existing statutes. As products and risk profiles became more complex, subsequent guidelines expanded to address asset adequacy testing, embedded guarantees, interest rate and market risk, and the interaction between valuation and capital frameworks. More recent guidelines reflect targeted supervisory responses to evolving product design, financial engineering practices, and policyholder disclosure concerns.
Across life, health, and annuity products, actuarial guidelines address a broad range of actuarial and financial risks, including reserve adequacy, asset-liability management, interest rate and market risk, longevity and morbidity risk, reinsurance and reserve financing arrangements, and illustration practices. In doing so, they help translate statutory requirements into practical regulatory guidance that reflects the economic substance of insurance risks.
The development and use of actuarial guidelines reflect the NAIC’s role in coordinating solvency oversight across jurisdictions. Because similar insurance products and risk structures are offered nationwide, state insurance departments frequently encounter common interpretive challenges. Published actuarial guidelines promote greater uniformity in regulatory application, support consistent solvency monitoring, and facilitate supervisory dialogue among regulators, insurers, and appointed actuaries, while preserving state authority and professional actuarial judgment.
Actuarial guidelines operate within a broader regulatory framework that includes statutory law and NAIC model laws, statutory accounting guidance published in the Accounting Practices and Procedures Manual, professional Actuarial Standards of Practice (ASOPs), and solvency assessment frameworks such as Risk-Based Capital (RBC) and Capital Adequacy Testing (CAT), including the C-3 Phase I and Phase II frameworks. While statutes establish legal requirements and ASOPs govern professional actuarial conduct, actuarial guidelines provide regulatory interpretation that bridges these frameworks by translating statutory intent into practical guidance for specific products, risks, and market conditions.
Actuarial guidelines are not intended to amend or replace statutes, NAIC model regulations, accounting standards, or professional actuarial standards. Rather, they serve as publicly available regulatory guidance that supports consistent, transparent, and risk-sensitive application of existing requirements as insurance products, markets, and associated risks continue to evolve.
Actions
The NAIC develops actuarial guidelines on an as-needed basis in response to emerging valuation, solvency, capital adequacy, reinsurance, and consumer protection concerns identified through supervisory experience and market developments. Over time, these guidelines have evolved from narrow statutory interpretations into a structured body of regulatory actuarial guidance that supports modern, risk-sensitive solvency oversight.
Earlier actuarial guidelines primarily addressed technical valuation and reserving questions under existing statutory frameworks. As insurance products and financial structures grew more complex, later guidelines expanded to address asset adequacy testing, the treatment of embedded options and guarantees, market and interest rate risk, and the relationship between valuation and capital frameworks. More recent guidelines reflect targeted supervisory responses to specific practices, including reserve financing arrangements and illustration methodologies, where consistent regulatory interpretation is necessary to support solvency oversight and consumer protection.
Through this evolution, actuarial guidelines have become an important regulatory tool for promoting uniform interpretation of statutory requirements across jurisdictions, supporting the application of capital adequacy and solvency assessment frameworks, and facilitating coordination among state insurance departments, appointed actuaries, and insurers.
A comprehensive list of actuarial guidelines, reflecting their development over time, is maintained by the NAIC and summarized in Appendix C of the Accounting Practices and Procedures Manual.
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