Tentative Board Decisions

Tentative Board decisions are provided for those interested in following the Board´s deliberations. All of the reported decisions are tentative and may be changed at future Board meetings.

April 16, 2014 FASB Board Meeting

Consolidation: Principal versus Agent Analysis. The Board continued redeliberating the November 2011 proposed FASB Accounting Standards Update, Consolidation (Topic 810): Principal versus Agent Analysis.

Money Market Funds

At its October 24, 2013 meeting, the Board decided to exclude the following types of money market funds from the scope of Topic 810:
  1. Those that are required to comply with Rule 2a-7 of the Investment Company Act of 1940 ("the Act")
  2. Those that operate in accordance with requirements that are similar to those in Rule 2a-7 of the Act.
At today´s meeting, the Board discussed how the scope exception should be defined for those money market funds included in (2) above. The Board also discussed what disclosures should be required in the notes to financial statements for those money market funds that meet the requirements of the scope exception.

The Board decided to provide additional language in the scope exception for purposes of clarifying the term similar. The Board does not expect significant differences to how the scope exception is applied today.

The Board also decided to require fund sponsors of money market funds excluded from the scope of Topic 810 to disclose the explicit arrangements to provide support to the money market funds they manage as well as any instances of support provided for the periods presented in the performance statement.

Decision Maker´s Fees as a Variable Interest

The Board discussed how to evaluate whether fees paid to a decision maker represent a variable interest.

The Board decided not only to retain the amendments to paragraph 810-10-55-37 in the proposed Update, but also to make additional amendments that would remove the criteria related to assessing the magnitude and variability of a decision maker´s fees in that paragraph.


Insurance Contracts. The Board discussed which targeted improvements to the accounting for long-duration contracts and which potential disclosures about short-duration contracts should be included in the scope of the insurance project. The Board did not discuss whether reinsurance issues should be included in the scope of the insurance project, pending completion of stakeholder outreach.

Long-Duration Contracts

For long-duration contracts, the Board decided that the following targeted improvements should be included in the scope of the insurance project for consideration at future Board meetings:
  1. Liability for future policy benefits:
    1. Whether assumptions should be updated periodically
    2. If assumptions should be updated, how often assumptions should be updated
    3. If assumptions should be updated, how the effects of the changes in assumptions should be recognized in the financial statements
    4. What discount rate should be used for reflecting the time value of money in measuring the liability for future policy benefits
    5. Whether reporting entities should disclose specific information about the methods and assumptions used in determining the liability for future policy benefits, including the discount rates used
    6. How reporting entities should measure certain options and guarantees that do not meet the criteria to be accounted for under Subtopic 815-10 or Subtopic 815-15 (on derivatives and hedging)
    7. Whether the liability for future policy benefits should include a provision for adverse deviation.
  2. Deferred acquisition costs:
    1. How deferred acquisition costs should be amortized
    2. If deferred acquisition costs should be amortized using estimated gross profits and estimated gross margins, whether adjustments should be retrospective or prospective
    3. If retrospective unlocking is required, whether reporting entities should disclose information about the determination and future effects of retrospective unlocking
    4. Whether reporting entities should disclose a rollforward of deferred acquisition costs.
  3. Premium deficiency and loss recognition:
    1. Whether the level of aggregation for performing the premium deficiency analysis should be clarified
    2. Whether certain disclosures should be required, such as the current loss recognition margin, level of aggregation, significant assumptions, and the amount of premium deficiency recorded during the period.
  4. Revenue recognition:
    1. Whether certain disclosures should be required, such as amounts included in revenue that are required to be returned to policyholders or their beneficiaries regardless of whether an insured event occurs.
The Board will consider the unit of account when deliberating the topics included in the scope of the insurance project. The Board also directed the staff to provide information about the cash flows that are included in the liability for future policy benefits for possible consideration at a future meeting.

Short-Duration Contracts Disclosures

The Board decided to include the following potential disclosure requirements in the scope of the insurance project for consideration at a future Board meeting:
  1. Incurred and paid loss development tables
  2. Claim reserve duration in time bands
  3. Information about the frequency and severity of claims
  4. Qualitative and quantitative information about claims estimates
  5. Information about premium deficiency testing
  6. If a reporting entity discounts the liability for unpaid claims and claim adjustment expenses, the effects of discounting.
The Board directed the staff to gather information about compliance and audit costs for inclusion in future analyses of the potential disclosure requirements. The Board also decided to explicitly consider whether the disclosures should be provided for both interim and annual periods.

The Board also directed the staff to perform additional analysis on whether management should disclose a hypothetical discount rate for claim liabilities that are not discounted in the financial statements.

Project Plan

The Board agreed to conduct the insurance project in two parts, one focused on disclosures about short-duration contracts and the other focused on targeted improvements to the accounting for long-duration contracts.