The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) are working on numerous joint projects, one of which, a project on Insurance Contracts. This project has the potential of changing the reporting in the near future of insurance products for both U.S. GAAP and IFRS reporting. Among some of the changes, property and casualty insurance companies may expected to include loss reserves that will be discounted and include a margin for uncertainty, a new presentation in regards to the income statement, and far more extensive financial statement disclosures.
The IASB recently issued an exposure draft that reflects several years of efforts on this project, and the FASB will be issuing a discussion paper on the same topic. This session will begin with a historical perspective on the Insurance Contracts project, provide a summary of the key decisions and views reached by the FASB and IASB thus far, and explain the perspectives of the FASB and IASB board members and project teams that worked to shape the views expressed in the IASB’s exposure draft and the FASB’s discussion paper.