International GAAP® 2019: Generally Accepted Accounting Practice under International Financial Reporting Standards
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risk to be made only once. The Basis for Conclusions states that this assessment is
made ‘at inception’. [IFRS 17.BC80]. We interpret this phrase to mean that the assessment
is made when the contract is issued rather than the start of the coverage period since
a contract can be recognised at an earlier date than the start of the coverage period
(see 6 below).
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As the assessment of significant insurance risk is made only once, a contract that
qualifies as an insurance contract remains an insurance contract until all rights and
obligations are extinguished, i.e. discharged, cancelled or expired, unless the contract is
derecognised because of a modification (see 12.1 below). [IFRS 17.B25]. This applies even
if circumstances have changed such that insurance contingent rights and obligations
have expired. The IASB considered that requiring insurers to set up systems to
continually assess whether contracts continue to transfer significant insurance risk
imposed a cost that far outweighed the benefit that would be gained from going through
the exercise. [IFRS 17.BC80]. For a contract acquired in a business combination or transfer,
the assessment of whether the contract transfers significant insurance risk is made at
the date of acquisition or transfer (see 13 below).
Conversely, contracts that do not transfer insurance risk at inception may become
insurance contracts if they transfer insurance risk at a later time, as explained in the
following example. This is because IFRS 17 imposes no limitations on when contracts
can be assessed for significant insurance risk. The reclassification of contracts not
meeting the definition of an insurance contract previously occurs based on changing
facts and circumstances, although there is no guidance on accounting for the
reclassification. This is illustrated by the following example.
Example 52.1: Deferred annuity with policyholder election
Entity A issues a deferred annuity contract which provides a specified investment return to the policyholder
and includes an option for the policyholder to use the proceeds of the investment on maturity to buy a life-
contingent annuity at the same rates Entity A charges other new annuitants at the time the policyholder
exercises that option.
This is not an insurance contract at inception because it does not contain significant insurance risk. Entity A
remains free to price the annuity on a basis that reflects the insurance risk that will be transferred to it at that
time. Consequently, on inception the contract is a financial instrument within the scope of IFRS 9.
However, if the contract specifies the annuity rates (or a basis other than market rates for setting the annuity
rates), the contract transfers insurance risk to Entity A (the issuer) because Entity A is exposed to the risk that
the annuity rates will be unfavourable when the policyholder exercises the option. In that case, the cash flows
that would occur when the option is exercised are within the boundary of the contract.
Some stakeholders suggested to the IASB that a contract should not be accounted for as
an insurance contract if the insurance-contingent rights and obligations expire after a
very short time. IFRS 17 addresses aspects of this by requiring scenarios that lack
commercial substance are ignored in the assessment of significant insurance risk and
stating that there is no significant transfer of insurance risk in some contracts that waive
surrender penalties on death (see 3.2.3 above). [IFRS 17.BC81].
3.4
Uncertain future events
Uncertainty (or risk) is the essence of an insurance contract. Accordingly, IFRS 17
requires at least one of the following to be uncertain at the inception of an insurance
contract: [IFRS 17.B3]
(a) the probability of an insured event occurring;
(b) when the insured event will occur; or
(c) how much the entity will need to pay if the insured event occurs.
Insurance contracts (IFRS 17) 4447
An insured event will be one of the following:
• the discovery of a loss during the term of the contract, even if the loss arises from
an event that occurred before the inception of the contract;
• a loss that occurs during the term of the contract, even if the resulting loss is
discovered after the end of the contract term; [IFRS 17.B4] or
• the determination of the ultimate cost of a claim which has already occurred but
whose financial effect is uncertain. [IFRS 17.B5].
This last type of insured event above arises from ‘retroactive’ contracts, i.e. those
providing insurance against events which have occurred prior to the policy inception
date. An example is a reinsurance contract that covers a direct policyholder against
adverse development of claims already reported by policyholders. In those contracts,
the insured event is the determination of the ultimate cost of those claims. The
implications of this on measurement is discussed at 8.9 below.
3.5
Payments in kind
Some insurance contracts require or permit payments to be made in kind. In such cases,
the entity provides goods or services to the policyholder to settle the entity’s obligation
to compensate the policyholder for insured events. Such contracts are insurance
contracts, even though the claims are settled in kind, and are treated the same way as
insurance contracts when payment is made directly to the policyholder. For example,
some insurers replace a stolen article directly rather than compensating the
policyholder for the amount of its loss. Another example is when an entity uses its own
hospitals and medical staff to provide medical services covered by the insurance
contract. [IFRS 17.B6].
3.6
The distinction between insurance risk and financial risk
The definition of an insurance contract refers to ‘insurance risk’ which is defined as
‘risk, other than financial risk, transferred from the holder of a contract to the issuer’.
[IFRS 17 Appendix A].
A contract that exposes the reporting entity to financial risk without significant
insurance risk is not an insurance contract. [IFRS 17.B7]. ‘Financial risk’ is defined as ‘the
risk of a possible future change in one or more of a specified interest rate, financial
instrument price, foreign exchange rate, index of prices or rates, credit rating or credit
index or other variable, provided in the case of a non-financial variable that variable is
not specific to a party to the contract’. [IFRS 4 Appendix A].
An example of a non-financial variable that is not specific to a party to the contract is
an index of earthquake losses in a particular region or an index of temperatures in a
particular city. An example of a non-financial variable that is specific to a party to the
contract is the occurrence or non-occurrence of a fire that damages or destroys an asset
of that party. Furthermore, the risk of changes in the fair value of a non-financial asset
is not a financial risk if the fair value reflects changes in the market prices for such assets
(i.e. a financial variable) and the condition of a specific non-financial asset held by a
party to the contract (i.e. a non-financial variable). For example if a guarantee of the
residual value of a specific car exposes the guarantor to t
he risk of changes in that car’s
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condition, that risk is insurance risk, not financial risk. [IFRS 17.B8]. This is illustrated by
the following example:
Example 52.2: Residual value insurance
Entity A issues a contract to Entity B that provides a guarantee of the fair value at a future date of an aircraft
(a non-financial asset) held by Entity B. Entity A is not the lessee of the aircraft (residual value guarantees
given by a lessee under a lease are within the scope of IFRS 16).
This is an insurance contract (unless changes in the condition of the asset have an insignificant effect on its
value). The risk of changes in the fair value of the aircraft is not a financial risk because the fair value reflects
not only changes in market prices for similar aircraft but also the condition of the specific asset held.
However, if the contract compensated Entity B only for changes in market prices and not for changes in the
condition of Entity B’s asset, the contract would be a derivative and within the scope of IFRS 9.
Contracts that expose the issuer to both financial risk and significant insurance risk can
be insurance contracts. For example, many life insurance contracts guarantee a
minimum rate of return to policyholders, creating financial risk, and at the same time
promise death benefits that may significantly exceed the policyholder’s account
balance, creating insurance risk in the form of mortality risk. Such contracts are
insurance contracts. [IFRS 17.B9].
Under some contracts, an insured event triggers the payment of an amount linked to a
price index. Such contracts are insurance contracts provided that the payment
contingent on the insured event could be significant. This is illustrated by the following
example: [IFRS 17.B10]
Example 52.3: Contract with life contingent annuity linked to price index
Entity A issues a life-contingent annuity the value of which is linked to a cost of living index.
The contract is an insurance contract because the payment is triggered by an uncertain future event – the
survival of the person who receives the annuity. The link to the price index is a derivative, but it also transfers
insurance risk because the number of payments to which the index applies depends on the survival of the
annuitant. If the resulting transfer of insurance risk is significant, the derivative meets the definition of an
insurance contract in which case it should not be separated from the host contract (see 4.1 below).
The definition of an insurance contract requires that risk is transferred from the
policyholder to the insurer. This means that the insurer must accept, from the
policyholder, a risk to which the policyholder was already exposed. Any new risk
created by the contract for the entity or the policyholder is not insurance risk.
[IFRS 17.B11].
3.6.1 Insurable
interest
For a contract to be an insurance contract the insured event must have an adverse effect
on the policyholder. [IFRS 17.B12]. In other words, there must be an ‘insurable interest’.
The IASB considered whether it should eliminate the notion of insurable interest and
replace it with the notion that insurance involves assembling risks into a pool in which
they can be managed together. [IFRS 17.BC74]. However, the IASB decided to retain the
notion of insurable interest contained in IFRS 4 because without the reference to
‘adverse effect’ the definition might have captured any prepaid contract to provide
services with uncertain costs. In addition, the notion of insurable interest is needed to
avoid including gambling in the definition of insurance. Furthermore, the definition of
Insurance contracts (IFRS 17) 4449
an insurance contract is a principle-based distinction, particularly between insurance
contracts and those used for hedging. [IFRS 17.BC75].
The adverse effect on the policyholder is not limited to an amount equal to the financial
impact of the adverse event. So, for example, the definition includes ‘new for old’
coverage that pays the policyholder an amount that permits the replacement of a used
or damaged asset with a new asset. Similarly, the definition does not limit payment
under a life insurance contract to the financial loss suffered by a deceased’s dependents
nor does it preclude the payment of predetermined amounts to quantify the loss caused
by a death or accident. [IFRS 17.B12].
A contract that requires a payment if a specified uncertain event occurs which does not
require an adverse effect on the policyholder as a precondition for payment is not an
insurance contract. Such contracts are not insurance contracts even if the holder of the
contract uses the contract to mitigate an underlying risk exposure. For example, if the
holder of the contract uses a derivative to hedge an underlying financial or non-financial
variable correlated with the cash flows from an asset of the entity, the derivative is not
conditional on whether the holder is adversely affected by a reduction in the cash flows
from the asset. Conversely, the definition of an insurance contract refers to an uncertain
future event for which an adverse effect on the policyholder is a contractual
precondition for payment. This contractual precondition does not require the insurer
to investigate whether the uncertain event actually caused an adverse effect, but it does
permit the insurer to deny payment if it is not satisfied that the event caused an adverse
effect. [IFRS 17.B13].
The following example illustrates the concept of an adverse effect on the policyholder:
Example 52.4: Reinsurance contract with ‘original loss warranty’ clause
Entity A agrees to issue a contract to Entity B to provide reinsurance cover for £5m against losses suffered.
The losses recoverable under the contract are subject to an original loss warranty of £50m meaning that only
losses suffered by Entity B up to £5m from events exceeding a market cost of £50m in total can be recovered
under the contract.
Assuming insurance risk is significant, this is an insurance contract as Entity B can only recover its own
losses arising from those events.
If the contract allowed Entity B to claim up to £5m every time there was an event with a market cost exceeding
£50m regardless of whether Entity B had suffered a loss from that event then this would not be an insurance
contract because there would be no insurable interest in the arrangement.
3.6.2
Lapse, persistency and expense risk
Lapse or persistency risk (the risk that the policyholder will cancel the contract earlier
or later than the issuer had expected in pricing the contract) is not insurance risk. This
is because the resulting variability in the payment to the policyholder is not contingent
on an uncertain future event that adversely affects the policyholder. [IFRS 17.B14].
Similarly, expense risk (the risk of unexpected increases in the administrative costs
incurred by the issuer associated with the serving of a contract, rather than in the costs
associated with insured events) is not insurance risk because an unexpected increase in
expenses does not adversely affect the policyholder. [IFRS 17.B14].
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Therefore, a contract that exposes an entity to lapse risk, persistency risk or expense
&n
bsp; risk is not an insurance contract unless it also exposes the entity to significant insurance
risk. [IFRS 17.B15].
3.6.3
Insurance of non-insurance risks
If the issuer of a contract which does not contain significant insurance risk mitigates the
risk of that contract by using a second contract to transfer part of that first contract’s
risk to another party, this second contract exposes that other party to insurance risk.
This is because the policyholder of the second contract (the issuer of the first contract)
is subject to an uncertain event that adversely affects it and thus it meets the definition
of an insurance contract. [IFRS 17.B15]. This is illustrated by the following example:
Example 52.5: Insurance of non-insurance risks
Entity A agrees to compensate Entity B for losses on a series of contracts issued by Entity B that do not transfer
significant insurance risk. These could be investment contracts or, for example, a contract to provide services.
The contract issued by Entity A is an insurance contract if it transfers significant insurance risk from Entity B
to Entity A, even if some or all of the underlying individual contracts do not transfer significant insurance
risk to Entity B. The contract is a reinsurance contract if any of the underlying contracts issued by Entity B
are insurance contracts. Otherwise, the contract is a direct insurance contract.
3.7
Examples of insurance and non-insurance contracts
This section contains examples given in IFRS 17 of insurance and non-insurance contracts.
3.7.1
Examples of insurance contracts
The following are examples of contracts that are insurance contracts, if the transfer of
insurance risk is significant: [IFRS 17.B26]
• insurance against theft or damage;
• insurance against product liability, professional liability, civil liability or legal expenses;
• life insurance and prepaid funeral plans (although death is certain, it is uncertain
when death will occur or, for some types of life insurance, whether death will
occur within the period covered by the insurance);
• life-contingent annuities and pensions (contracts that provide compensation for
the uncertain future event – the survival of the annuitant or pensioner – to assist
the annuitant or pensioner in maintaining a given standard of living, which would