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Assuming reinsurers use the same recognition and measurement accounting guidance as direct insurers for their assumed reinsurance contracts. GAAP is generally silent on the accounting for an assumed reinsurance contract because assuming insurance risk from another insurer or from non-insurers is economically the same. Refer to IG 5 for additional guidance that should be followed for assumed reinsurance contracts.

9.7.1 Traditional long-duration and limited payment assumed reinsurance

Assumed long-duration and limited payment reinsurance contracts are subject to the guidance applicable to direct writers of such contracts. This includes all of the relevant guidance for the liability for future policy benefits including the ongoing updating of assumptions (unlocking), use of an upper-medium fixed income yield to discount the net premium ratio, and being subject to the annual cohort restrictions. These concepts are further discussed in IG 5.2 and IG 5.3.
Reinsurance of existing blocks of traditional life insurance contracts and limited-pay contracts will typically lead to differences between the ceding insurer’s accounting and the assuming reinsurer’s accounting. The ceding insurer will have separate reserve cohorts at the issue year and product level. Each reserve cohort will have a different locked-in interest rate assumption and different periods for measuring the retroactive adjustment for changes in cash flow assumptions. The assuming entity will have a single-issue year as of the date of the inception of the reinsurance contract and thus the retrospective adjustment period due to updating of assumptions and the discount rate will be different. As a result, the assuming entity needs to ensure they are receiving the appropriate data to determine the liability for future policy benefits.
Often, there will be upfront consideration received for assuming the risks of an existing block of life insurance contracts. The guidance for direct insurers is applicable to assuming entities writing reinsurance cover without a level premium. We believe that this upfront consideration with ongoing payments can be analogized to a limited-payment contract model, where the collection of premium does not represent the completion of an earnings process. Any gross premium received in excess of the net premium would be deferred.
If the net consideration is less than the policy benefit reserves, the difference could be accounted for as deferred acquisition costs. This is sometimes done in practice despite the fact that unlike DAC on direct contracts, this allocated “payment” is part of the net consideration exchanged between the two parties to the contract rather than a separate acquisition cost paid to third parties to acquire the contract. See IG 3.8.2 for further information on the assuming reinsurer accounting for DAC.
Differences may also exist between the ceding insurer’s accounting for its direct liabilities and the assuming reinsurer’s accounting, even if the reinsurance is executed concurrent with the direct contracts. For example, the ceding and assuming entities may incorporate different cash flows into each of their measurements if they have differing views on actuarial and economic assumptions.

9.7.1.1 Unit of account considerations for assumed reinsurance contracts

Sometimes, reinsurers enter into reinsurance contracts that provide coverage for direct insurance contracts that are issued for a specified period of time subsequent to the inception date of the reinsurance contract. In addition, reinsurers may provide coverage for different types of cedant products in a single legal insurance contract. These situations require consideration of the unit of account for recognition and measurement purposes.
Some entities may recognize assumed reinsurance as the direct reinsured contracts are issued (“look through approach”).
Under this approach, the assuming entity is effectively looking through the legal contract to the reinsured contracts issued by the ceding entity as the contracts for accounting purposes. In accordance with ASC 944-40-30-7, an entity must then determine the cohorts for its assumed contracts. In accordance with ASC 944-40-30-7, and consistent with how the ceding entity calculates its liability, the assuming entity “shall not group contracts together from different issue years but shall group contracts into quarterly or annual groups.” In applying this guidance to assumed reinsurance under the look through approach, each underlying reinsured contract is the unit of account for recognition purposes. Therefore, an assuming entity’s annual grouping limitation should be based on underlying reinsured contract policy issue dates, not the reinsurance contract issue date. When the direct reinsured contracts are the units of account for recognition purposes, the discount rate used to calculate the net premium ratio for a cohort would take into consideration the discount rate (or curve) in effect at the dates that each underlying reinsured contract was issued.
As of the publication date of this guide, there continues to be debate as to whether there may be circumstances when the reinsurance contract is determined to be the unit of account for recognition purposes rather than each of the underlying reinsured contracts. In such cases, the discount rate for interest accretion purposes would be the rate (or curve) at the date the reinsurance contract is entered into, and provisions that allow either party to terminate the reinsurance contract for newly-written business, such as a reinsurer’s right to cancel the contract for new business without cause with 90 days notice, would be considered in determining the accounting term of the contract. Due to the complex nature of reinsurance, if the treaty is determined to be the unit of measurement, we strongly recommend consulting with auditors and regulators on the acceptability of such an accounting approach. Additionally, it is important to note that when a termination provision shortens the accounting term of the reinsurance contract to annual periods or less, the differences in accounting results between the noncancellable term of the reinsurance contract approach and the look through approach may not be that significant.
We believe that consistent with ASC 944-40-30-7, if the accounting unit for measurement is determined to be the reinsurance contract, the measurement of the net premium ratio would include all future cash inflows (premiums) and outflows (benefits and expenses) expected for the life of the noncancellable term of the reinsurance contract, including cash flows relating to policies not yet written by the ceding entity, but subject to the treaty. Gross disclosures of benefits and net premiums would be required to be included in the rollforward, taking into account the amounts relating to all of those future cash flows.
A single reinsurance contract may reinsure multiple coverage types, including whole life, disability, long-term care, and universal life insurance. In practice, different types of business are often separated into smaller units of account for recognition purposes within the larger reinsurance contract. As a result, if there are separate units of account for different products, they would be included in separate cohorts with a separate net premium ratio and liability for future policy benefits calculated for each cohort.
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