Odomirok.20-IRIS
Reading: Financial Reporting Through the Lens of a Property/Casualty Actuary - Chapter 20 - IRIS Ratios
Author: Kathleen C. Odomirok, FCAS, MAAA, Liam M. McFarlane, FCIA, FCAS, Gareth L. Kennedy, ACAS, MAAA, Justin J. Brenden, FCAS, MAAA, EY
| BA Quick-Summary: IRIS Ratios
The IRIS (Insurance Regulatory Information System) by the NAIC helps insurance regulators assess the financial health of insurance companies using a series of 13 financial ratios categorized into these groups:
Reserve ratios are particularly critical for property/casualty actuaries and include tests for one-year and two-year reserve development, as well as estimated current reserve deficiencies. These ratios are not analyzed in isolation but are used alongside other financial data to identify insurers that may need further regulatory scrutiny, with unusual values indicating a need for additional analysis rather than immediate concern. |
Study Tip
Chapter 20 from Odomirok is a companion to NAIC.IRIS, but Odomirok doesn't cover any of the IRIS formulas. Instead, it provides a more conceptual discussion of the IRIS ratios.
You can completely skip this chapter but if you're too nervous to do that, use it for bedtime reading. It's only 3 pages and has no formulas. The formulas are discussed in detail in the other IRIS reading NAIC.IRIS.
BattleTable
See NAIC.IRIS for relevant exam problems
- this reading has not been tested on any exam from the year 2012 to Fall 2019 when the exams stopped being published.
reference part (a) part (b) part (c) part (d) no prior questions
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In Plain English!
| DELETION: The most recent version of the Odomirok source text no longer discusses the "Analyst Team". |
Everything you need to know about IRIS ratios is in the NAIC.IRIS. The IRIS chapter in Odomirok is very short and has only 1 thing that doesn't seem to be in the NAIC reading.
Odomirok briefly discusses the Analyst Team of financial examiners from all 4 geographic regions of the U.S. They categorize companies into 3 levels according to their IRIS results and other solvency monitoring tools like RBC:
- Level A: requires immediate regulatory attention
- Level B: shows adverse results but doesn't require immediate attention
- Reviewed: no level assigned, and no regulatory attention required.
That's it.
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