IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jrinsu/v85y2018i4p1055-1082.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Actuarial Independence and Managerial Discretion

Author

Listed:
  • Shinichi Kamiya
  • Andreas Milidonis

Abstract

Appointed actuaries are responsible for estimating the largest liability on property–casualty insurance companies’ balance sheet. Actuarial independence is crucial in safeguarding accurate estimates, where this independence is self‐regulated by actuarial professional institutions. However, professional conflicts of interest arise when appointed actuaries also hold an officer position within the same firm, as officer actuaries also face managerial incentives. Using a sample of U.S. insurers that employ in‐house appointed actuaries from 2007 to 2014, we find evidence that officer actuaries have different reserving practices than nonofficer actuaries. This difference in reserving is associated with tax shielding and earnings management incentives. Results are consistent with managerial discretion dominating actuarial independence; they are economically significant and should be of concern to regulators and professional institutions.

Suggested Citation

  • Shinichi Kamiya & Andreas Milidonis, 2018. "Actuarial Independence and Managerial Discretion," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 85(4), pages 1055-1082, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:jrinsu:v:85:y:2018:i:4:p:1055-1082
    DOI: 10.1111/jori.12199
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jori.12199
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jori.12199?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jan Hájek, 2020. "Effect of tax deductibility on technical reserves recognized by Czech and Slovak insurance companies [Vliv daňové uznatelnosti na výši technických rezerv tvořených českými a slovenskými pojišťovnam," Český finanční a účetní časopis, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2020(3-4).
    2. Berry-Stölzle, Thomas R. & Irlbeck, Steven, 2021. "Religiosity and risk taking: Is there a demand-side effect?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    3. Alhassan, Abdul Latif, 2023. "Financial Health of Medical Schemes in South Africa," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    4. Jan Hájek, 2020. "Effect of tax deductibility on technical reserves recognized by Czech and Slovak insurance companies [Vliv daňové uznatelnosti na výši technických rezerv tvořených českými a slovenskými pojišťovnam," Český finanční a účetní časopis, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2020(3-4), pages 25-37.
    5. Ben Ammar, Semir & Eling, Martin & Milidonis, Andreas, 2018. "The cross-section of expected stock returns in the property/liability insurance industry," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 292-321.
    6. Jill Bisco & Kathleen McCullough & Hugo Moises Montesinos Yufa & Eleanor Tice Sirmans, 2023. "The impact of monitor choice on insurer loss reserves," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 26(1), pages 83-105, March.
    7. Michaelides, Alexander & Papakyriakou, Panayiotis & Milidonis, Andreas, 2019. "Corporate Pension Plan Funding Levels and Pension Assumptions," CEPR Discussion Papers 13591, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jrinsu:v:85:y:2018:i:4:p:1055-1082. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ariaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.