At its meeting on September 20-21, 2023, the AcSB discussed feedback received from its Private Enterprise Advisory Committee and Small Practitioners Working Group on a proposed Accounting Guideline for accounting for insurance contracts with cash surrender value. The AcSB decided to limit the scope of the proposed Accounting Guideline to accounting treatment of life insurance contracts with cash surrender value by the owner of the life insurance policy. The Board also decided that, to meet the definition of an asset, the owner would also need to be the policy’s beneficiary. Additionally, the Board decided to include a consequential amendment to Section 1582, Business Combinations and Section 4449, Combinations by Not-for-Profit Organizations, to provide exceptions to the fair value measurement requirement. These amendments would require measurement of cash surrender value at the acquisition date at the amount that would be realized by the owner of the policy upon termination of the policy, consistent with the measurement requirement under the proposed Guideline. The AcSB approved an exposure draft proposing Accounting Guideline AcG-21, Accounting for Insurance Contracts with Cash Surrender Value. The Board expects to issue this exposure draft in November 2023 with a 90-day comment period.

Review the Executive Summary on the AcSB's Web site.