The Fair Value of Insurance Business (The New York University Salomon Center Series on Financial Markets and Institutions)

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Risk Management: FASB recently postponed the implementation of its new rules on accounting for the use of derivatives instruments. However, if the final set of rules for figuring the fair value of derivatives is not carefully crafted, it may be possible that companies prudently hedging their risks are subject to penalties in their financial reports, while companies taking greater risks appear to have less volatile financial performance. Compared to banks and other financial intermediaries, life insurance companies have the longest term and most complex liabilities, and hence the new FASB requirement poses the most severe challenges to the life insurance industry. The lessons learned from the debate among life insurance academics and professionals about how respond to the fair value reporting rule will be instructive to their counterparts in other sectors of the insurance industry, as well as those involved with other financial institutions. Of particular note are the two papers which comprise Part III. The first provides examples of the fair valuing of annuity contracts, while the second offers examples of the fair valuing of term insurance products. As the papers collected in The Fair Value of Insurance Business extend and update some of the issues treated in a previous Salomon Center conference volume, The Fair Value of Insurance Liabilities, this new volume may be viewed as a companion to the earlier book.

The Fair Value of Insurance Liabilities (The New York University Salomon Center Series on Financial Markets and Institutions)

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The Fair Value of Insurance Liabilities (The New York University Salomon Center Series on Financial Markets and Institutions)

Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0792399412

Book Description

This book explores theoretical and practical implications of reflecting the fair value of liabilities for insurance companies. In addition, the contributions discuss the disclosure of these values to the financial and regulatory communities and auditing firms which are actually calculating this illusive but important variable. It combines contributions by distinguished practitioners from the insurance, accounting and finance fields, with those of prominent academics. One of the central themes of the collection is that adequate disclosure of the true economic value of insurance company liabilities is both possible and desirable. Wherever possible, the insurance valuation process is wedded with modern financial theory. For example, the use of option pricing theory is applied to insurance companies, where the true value of the firm's liabilities is a critical variable. Methods such as cash flow, earned profit and indirect discount are explored.

Fair dues: many people underestimate the significance of the shift to fair value accounting in the process of converging international accounting standards. ... An article from: Financial Management (UK)

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Fair dues: many people underestimate the significance of the shift to fair value accounting in the process of converging international accounting standards. ... An article from: Financial Management (UK)
Hugh Osburn
Manufacturer: Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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This digital document is an article from Financial Management (UK), published by Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) on May 1, 2003. The length of the article is 837 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Fair dues: many people underestimate the significance of the shift to fair value accounting in the process of converging international accounting standards. Hugh Osburn offers some perspectives on value. (Finance IAS).(International Accounting Standards Board, Financial Accounting Standards Board form pact)
Author: Hugh Osburn
Publication: Financial Management (UK) (Magazine/Journal)
Date: May 1, 2003
Publisher: Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA)
Page: 33(1)

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The Fair Value of Insurance Business. (Book Reviews).(Book Review) (book review) : An article from: Journal of Risk and Insurance

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The Fair Value of Insurance Business. (Book Reviews).(Book Review) (book review) : An article from: Journal of Risk and Insurance
J. Paul Newsome
Manufacturer: American Risk and Insurance Association, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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This digital document is an article from Journal of Risk and Insurance, published by American Risk and Insurance Association, Inc. on March 1, 2002. The length of the article is 675 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Fair Value of Insurance Business. (Book Reviews).(Book Review) (book review)
Author: J. Paul Newsome
Publication: Journal of Risk and Insurance (Refereed)
Date: March 1, 2002
Publisher: American Risk and Insurance Association, Inc.
Volume: 69 Issue: 1 Page: 114(2)

Article Type: Book Review

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Fair values of equity and debt securities and share prices of property-liability insurers.: An article from: Journal of Risk and Insurance

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Fair values of equity and debt securities and share prices of property-liability insurers.: An article from: Journal of Risk and Insurance
Kathy Ruby Petroni , and James Michael Wahlen
Manufacturer: American Risk and Insurance Association, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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This digital document is an article from Journal of Risk and Insurance, published by American Risk and Insurance Association, Inc. on December 1, 1995. The length of the article is 8822 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the supplier: The relationship of fair values of equity and fair maturity debt securities and share prices of property-liability insurers is studied. Results show that fair values of equity investments and US Treasury investments can account for property-liability share prices after historical costs are controlled. Fair values of other investment securities do not account for the share prices beyond historical costs.

Citation Details
Title: Fair values of equity and debt securities and share prices of property-liability insurers.
Author: Kathy Ruby Petroni
Publication: Journal of Risk and Insurance (Refereed)
Date: December 1, 1995
Publisher: American Risk and Insurance Association, Inc.
Volume: v62 Issue: n4 Page: p719(19)

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Global insurer accounting standard still way off: definition of fair value accounting is just one obstacle slowing international effort.(Too Many Regulators?): ... & Casualty-Risk & Benefits Management

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Global insurer accounting standard still way off: definition of fair value accounting is just one obstacle slowing international effort.(Too Many Regulators?): ... & Casualty-Risk & Benefits Management
John Sanders
Manufacturer: The National Underwriter Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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This digital document is an article from National Underwriter Property & Casualty-Risk & Benefits Management, published by The National Underwriter Company on August 2, 2004. The length of the article is 653 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Global insurer accounting standard still way off: definition of fair value accounting is just one obstacle slowing international effort.(Too Many Regulators?)
Author: John Sanders
Publication: National Underwriter Property & Casualty-Risk & Benefits Management (Magazine/Journal)
Date: August 2, 2004
Publisher: The National Underwriter Company
Volume: 108 Issue: 29 Page: 33(1)

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IRS issues guidance on valuation of life insurance in qualified plans: the guidance provides a formula for determining fair market value.(REGULATION) : ... from: National Underwriter Life & Health

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IRS issues guidance on valuation of life insurance in qualified plans: the guidance provides a formula for determining fair market value.(REGULATION) : ... from: National Underwriter Life & Health
Matt Brady
Manufacturer: The National Underwriter Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from National Underwriter Life & Health, published by The National Underwriter Company on May 2, 2005. The length of the article is 599 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: IRS issues guidance on valuation of life insurance in qualified plans: the guidance provides a formula for determining fair market value.(REGULATION)
Author: Matt Brady
Publication: National Underwriter Life & Health (Magazine/Journal)
Date: May 2, 2005
Publisher: The National Underwriter Company
Volume: 109 Issue: 17 Page: 6(1)

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Fair Value of P&c Liabilities: Practical Implications

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Fair Value of P&c Liabilities: Practical Implications

Manufacturer: Casualty Actuarial Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Sun in the Church by J.L. Heilbron is a provocative work of scholarship that challenges long-held views of the relationship between science and Christianity. Heilbron's main point is simple enough: "The Roman Catholic Church gave more financial and social support to the study of astronomy for over six centuries, from the recovery of ancient learning during the late Middle Ages into the Enlightenment, than any other, and, probably, all other, institutions." Despite the persecution of Galileo, Heilbron notes, the Church actively supported mathematical and astronomical research--often designing cathedrals that could also function as observatories--in order to set the precise date of Easter (a crucial endeavor for maintaining the unity of the Church). Heilbron's fluid, engaging style brings his detailed reconstructions of 16th- and 17th-century Church politics to life. And his argument that scientific knowledge was deemed both morally neutral and politically useful during the Reformation and beyond yields an unusually interesting, complex, and human understanding of Catholicism in the early Modern period. --Michael Joseph Gross

Book Description

Between 1650 and 1750, four Catholic churches were the best solar observatories in the world. Built to fix an unquestionable date for Easter, they also housed instruments that threw light on the disputed geometry of the solar system, and so, within sight of the altar, subverted Church doctrine about the order of the universe.

A tale of politically canny astronomers and cardinals with a taste for mathematics, The Sun in the Church tells how these observatories came to be, how they worked, and what they accomplished. It describes Galileo's political overreaching, his subsequent trial for heresy, and his slow and steady rehabilitation in the eyes of the Catholic Church. And it offers an enlightening perspective on astronomy, Church history, and religious architecture, as well as an analysis of measurements testing the limits of attainable accuracy, undertaken with rudimentary means and extraordinary zeal. Above all, the book illuminates the niches protected and financed by the Catholic Church in which science and mathematics thrived.

Superbly written, The Sun in the Church provides a magnificent corrective to long-standing oversimplified accounts of the hostility between science and religion.

Customer Reviews:

The Sun in the Church.......2006-03-08

It's a beautiful book; it's astronomy and history all together.Very well written.

havent read it yet but.........2005-03-29

hate to nitpick but looking at the index, it looks like they used the name bianchi where the modern and accepted name is bianchini
(see http://web.romascuola.net/itaer/vaula/geografia/Meridiana/OrigMer.htm )

3 stars for the effort for now.

The Dawning of the Age of Aquarius............2002-05-20

One does not need a mathematical background to follow the narrative of J.L.Heilbron's THE SUN IN THE CATHEDRAL but a knowledge of high school geometry will probaly help. Dr. Heilbron was aware of the "geometrically challenged" reader when he developed his book and has written the text for the lay person. Heilbron received the Watson Davis Prize for Public Understanding of Science for his work DILEMMAS OF AN UPRIGHT MAN. The average reader without a fear of math should be able to follow the ABCs in the text and link them to the ABCs in the diagrams. It took me several weeks to read the text, not because it is so difficult, but because it is filled with information and I had to take breaks to absorb what I had read.

THE SUN IN THE CATHEDRAL is nothing less than the story of how the Christian Church parented modern science and technology. Although the ignorant will persist in accusing the Church of being a roadblock, the truth is that the impetus and sustenance of scientific exploration in the West came from the church, and although one might call it an unholy alliance, Christian ideology and Science have moved in lockstep ever since. Heilbron predicts that eventually Gallileo, who was sponsored by the Church, will be cannonized a saint.

Why does this happen? Dr. Rock who invented the modern birth control pill was Roman Catholic. He developed the pill to help RC women control their fertility in a manner acceptable to the Church that had to do with the timing of the release of the ova. His method was not accepted by the Church, but nevertheless the use of Rock's pill has led to falling birth rates in the U.S. and other Catholic countries (U.S. is 40 percent RC) and a subsequent decline in the poverty rates. (Economic development is important, but per capita household income is affected by fertility levels.) Maybe he will become a saint someday.

How did the Church become interested in the study of time? The means of communication were slow in the early days of the Church and this slowness led to a requirement for advance knowledge of the moveable feast dates which the Church passed on to its far-flung parishes. The problem of determining when these dates would occur lay with determining when Easter would occur. The moveable feasts of the Church year fall in accordance with Easter (i.e. Chistmas is a fixed date, Pentacost is a moveable feast that follows Easter by 40 days, Good Friday and Lent preceed Easter by a fixed numer of days. Easter is calculated relative to the Spring Equinox which is the point at which the day and the night (solar) are exactly equal.)

To address the problem of measuring the Spring Equinox, the church employed bright young men (like Gallileo) and gave them the resources they needed including church facilities. THE SUN IN THE CHURCH is their story and the story of those who followed them who were sponsored by the Reformed Church and Royalty of both RC and Reformed persuasion.

The book suggests that even as one problem was solved, yet another arose (you need the geometric diagrams to understand the intricacies of these problems as well as their solutions). First there was the problem of finding a structure large enough to create a BIG sundial, since sundials were useful for figuring out the length of the day. This led to the use of cathedrals and other very large public buildings where even today a numer of gnomen (little windows that admit sunlight) and meridians (sun dial like stuctures inside the building) can still be found. Inside these cathedrals, pillars and other obstacles had to be overcome and how this was done is ingenious.

Obstacles to the precision of measurment led to discussions about the height of the terrain where a building was situated, the thickness of the earth under the building (some sank), the shape of the earth (affected the location of the center or apex of the triangle of measurement), the distance of the moon from the earth and the sun, etc., etc.

Most importantly, a discussion ensued about whether or not the world was heliocentric. If you start from a false premise such as the sun revolves around the earth, no matter how carefully you conduct your calculations the results will be wrong. The issue of heliocentricity proved a big stumbling block. In the end, the records of the scientists who said the earth moved about the sun were preserved (else Heilbron couldn't have written his book) but for a long time the Church held that the sun revolved around the earth, and anyone who said differently was speaking heretically. Some really funny compromises occurred, probably because intelligent church men knew they were not necessarily correct (some of the scientists were Jesuits or former clergy). And, at one point England and Italy were on two different calendars because the English refused to accept anything Rome devised, even if it was CORRECT!!.

The study of time led naturally to the study of space and both led to global explorations. The Jesuits (grey friars) traveled the globe and impressed their new converts with the science (magic) of the West. The Domincans came to the New World with the Conquistadors and recorded the science and magic of the inhabitants.

Protestants continued the tradition of exploration which led to the discovery of longitude. Seems the earth is not the same diameter every where. A team measuring the diameter of the earth in Peru was attacked by local Indians who thought the Europeans with sticks were lunatics or socerers. Ditto the Appenines in Italy. "Who would think Italian countymen could behave like savages" remarked one scientist. Geodetic surveys and even the GPS system in use today are descended from this research.

THE SUN IN THE CATHEDRAL is a fabulous book, and one every one who wants to gain a better understanding of the world around us should read. This book cancels the mistaken notion that the church tried to block science. This book is about how science and ideology interacted and framed the world we live in with "Western" ideas. And, as Heilbron points out, even in our so-called advanced state of knowledge censorship is alive and well. "All of which will be unpleasantly familiar to observers of the operation of political correctness in contemporary universities." Reason and science are threatened today by a much more insidious enemy.

Astronomy and the Church.......2002-01-01

J.L. Heilbron's The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Solar Observatories is a beautifully illustrated, finely written exposition of how the Roman Church used sacred space to perform astronomy. The most sacred day in the Church calendar is Easter, established as the Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. As it turns out, this was an astoundingly difficult day to calculate, especially years in advance. As a result, in the Middle Ages the celebration of Easter "drifted" from the true date; the Church found itself commemorating Christ's resurrection on the "wrong" Sunday, a matter of grave concern. To solve this problem, astronomers determined that large buildings - most ideally churches themselves - could be made into solar observatories with a light opening at the apex and a meridian line placed on the floor. By this device, Church-supported scientists could observe the sun's precise position and movement with reference to the meridian line, and thereby make needed Easter (and other) calculations.

I confess that I am mathematically challenged, and much of this book is devoted to fairly detailed geometric and trigonometric proofs. I had no choice but to "bleep" over these sections. Heilbron's prose and argument are clear, entertaining, and persuasive, and I felt I lost none of his key points by needing to skip the proofs. Everything about Church history and astronomy in the Church - except a chapter about the unfortunate treatment of Galileo - was entirely new to me, and I was absolutely enthralled. For those who have read Dava Sobel's Galileo's Daughter, this is a useful second perspective on the Church and astronomy.

I wish there were more books like this!.......2000-07-21

I'm a professor of mathematics, but I'm also a "closet historian". This book is a great work of scholarship both in terms of history and mathematics. It's true that if you don't know much about spherical astronomy, you may get a bit of shell-shock, but why don't you pick up Kaler: "The Ever-changing Sky" or Evans: "The History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy" to learn the basic. The you can go back to Heilbron's book to appreciate it fully. Believe me, it's worth the effort!
PS. One of my students has written a mathematical supplement to this book. It's available on my home page. (Amazon won't let me give you the URL in the review, but just do a quick searh on the web or look at the "äbout me section".) So far it only covers the first few chapters, but we hope to be able to expand on it later. I hope some of you may find it useful.

The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Solar Observatories

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The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Solar Observatories
J. L. Heilbron
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000H5AHQU

God's Observatories.(Review): An article from: American Scientist

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God's Observatories.(Review): An article from: American Scientist
Steven J. Harris
Manufacturer: Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Solar Observatories.(Review): An article from: Renaissance Quarterly

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The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Solar Observatories.(Review): An article from: Renaissance Quarterly
Michael H. Shank
Manufacturer: Renaissance Society of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Renaissance Quarterly, published by Renaissance Society of America on June 22, 2000. The length of the article is 799 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Solar Observatories.(Review)
Author: Michael H. Shank
Publication: Renaissance Quarterly (Refereed)
Date: June 22, 2000
Publisher: Renaissance Society of America
Volume: 53 Issue: 2 Page: 574

Article Type: Book Review

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The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Solar Observatories.: An article from: Church History

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The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Solar Observatories.: An article from: Church History
David Himrod
Manufacturer: American Society of Church History
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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Book Description

This digital document is an article from Church History, published by American Society of Church History on March 1, 2001. The length of the article is 1112 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Solar Observatories.
Author: David Himrod
Publication: Church History (Refereed)
Date: March 1, 2001
Publisher: American Society of Church History
Volume: 70 Issue: 1 Page: 170

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The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals As Solar Observatories
J. L. Heilbron
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MUCCZE

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