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Video series on recent enhancements to AXIS Following is a series of video presentations on recent enhancements and new features added to AXIS. Instructional videos are grouped into the section below. Click on a presentation heading for summary information and to watch the video. A video player will open in a new browser when you click to watch. 2008 MCCSR Seg Fund Capital Requirements The OSFI revised the rules for segregated fund guarantee capital requirements, effective for 2008 year-end. AXIS Annuity and Stochastic Processing modules have been enhanced to assist in the determination of the segregated fund guarantee capital requirements, and this video describes those features that can be used to assist in that determination, as permitted under the revised MCCSR Guidelines December 2008.
AXIS DataLink – Key Enhancements Exciting recent enhancements to the DataLink module include Local Caching for DataLink Macros, Loading from Other (ODBC) Databases via Collect Records, Indexing Tables – Accelerating Queries, Searching for Text in DataLink Objects, Creating and Updating AXIS Future Scenarios, and the DataLink Formula Option to Process Tables in Specific Order.
AXIS GridLink – Other EnhancementsIn addition to Active Backup, other key enhancements to the GridLink module include Resource Priority, Integration with Enterprise Grids, Remote Job List Refresh Speed, Resubmitting Jobs from the Remote Job List, Viewing the Remote Master CPU Usage, AXIS GridLink Easy Upgrade, Larger Server Farm Support, and Failure Detection and Recovery.
Dynamic Reinvestment Strategy With the release of AXIS version 12.4.02.001 in April 2009, a Reinvestment Category formula table was added to the Asset and Reinvestment cells in AXIS. Reinvestment category formula tables enable you to specify the changing reinvestment category for an asset or reinvestment cell, or assets purchased in matching strategy, when the Reinvestment Category needs to vary by the remaining term to maturity of the asset. Reinvestment Categories are used for defining a target mix of assets required as part of a Target Allocation Reinvestment Strategy. Reinvestment Categories are defined using Asset Category objects; that is, the same type of object is used for defining Reinvestment Categories and Reporting Categories, and any Asset Category object can be used for either purpose, or both purposes. This video describes Dynamic Reinvestment Strategy using AXIS.
Enhanced Tax Accounting Basis This video describes the recently Enhanced Tax Accounting Basis in AXIS. The Taxes section in the Asset and Reinvestment cells have been expanded and renamed as the Tax Accounting Basis section in AXIS version 12.5.02.001 released October 2009. This new feature provides the user additional flexibility for calculating the taxes at the Asset and Reinvestment cell levels by calculating the Tax Accounting Basis in a separate projection.
Equity Indexed Annuity (EIA) AXIS now supports a full spectrum of functionality for the Equity Indexed Annuity (EIA) product with a point-to-point crediting strategy. EIA is a product predicated on an equity-based guarantee that generally has a natural hedge. In AXIS, EIA functionality is much more than just the product features; it also encompasses a broad array of new features including designated hedge strategies for the equity-based guarantee, modeling of the backing hedge assets and incorporation in Cash Flow Testing, stochastic-based pricing and analysis, and an enhanced scenario format to capture the option pricing data.
Multiple Reserves, Required Funds and FinancialsThis video describes features related to the new Book Profit Financials in the Liability Subfund, Fund and Office, which are available in AXIS starting with version 12.5.02.001 released October 2009. The new "Reserves" section was added to the Liability Subfund and Fund assumption screens. At the Subfund and Fund levels, the new section allows the user to adjust the deferred tax liability (DTL) included in Statutory reserves, and Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth reserves.
Required Surplus Required Surplus functionality has undergone several key enhancements in the Regular Life, Universal Life, Par Products and Disability Modules. Major items addressed here are: The number of Required Surplus calculations has been expanded, calculations can be based on any of the Statutory through Fifth Reserves, and detailed output is now available for each Required Surplus using category reports. AXIS now offers the ability to simultaneously calculate three sets of Required Surplus. Each of these calculations allows for the full set of inputs – factor tables, mortality components calculations and lapse risk component calculations.
Reserve Reconciliation and Reserve Component Reports Among the many useful reports produced as part of the policy year calculations performed by AXIS, the Reserve Reconciliation Report and the Reserve Component Report are particularly useful. However, until recently, these have had only limited availability in the Participating Life module. The Reserve Component report that had previously only been available with the PPM reserve method is now also available for the “Natural” reserve method. A new Reserve Component report has been created for most other reserve methods. Finally, a new comprehensive Reserve Reconciliation report has been created and is now available for most reserve methods including PPM.
Scenario Sets and Market Models With the release of AXIS version 12.0.01.001, Scenario Sets were added to AXIS ScenarioTools, the package of tools in AXIS that enables you to generate scenarios, analyze the scenarios, and analyze the results projected when you run the scenarios. Projecting your business through a large number of stochastically generated scenarios provides information that assists you with identifying, quantifying and managing risks. ScenarioTools is designed so that you can perform this task easily and efficiently with AXIS.
SSAP 43 Prospective ApproachThis video describes the SSAP 43 prospective approach amortized cost basis method, in accordance with NAIC reporting, now available in the Asset module in AXIS. The SSAP No. 43 Loan-backed and Structured Securities NAIC accounting regulation establishes statutory accounting principles for investments in loan-backed securities and structured securities. The amortized cost of these securities is to be calculated on either one of the prospective or retrospective methodologies. This video describes the prospective approach implemented in AXIS version 12.5.01.001 released August 2009.
SSAP 43 Retrospective ApproachThis video describes the SSAP 43 retrospective approach amortized cost basis method, in accordance with NAIC reporting, now available in the Asset module in AXIS. The SSAP No. 43 Loan-backed and Structured Securities NAIC accounting regulation establishes statutory accounting principles for investments in loan-backed securities and structured securities. The amortized cost of these securities is to be calculated on either one of the prospective or retrospective methodologies. This video describes the retrospective approach implemented in AXIS version 12.5.02.001 released October 2009.
Stochastic Processing and Memory ManagementThe technology used by AXIS for Stochastic Processing has undergone several key enhancements: When a Block is run, AXIS can now split it into smaller segments; each one comprised of a small number of scenarios. These segments are then distributed among helpers. This enables AXIS to run Blocks of any number of scenarios. Once the distribution processing is done, the AXIS master processes the Block as a whole to arrive at the results. The amount of memory available to AXIS used to be the limit. This stage has been reorganized so that only a small amount of memory is needed at any time. Thanks to these innovations, AXIS can now process blocks of practically any size, and any number of scenarios. All of the above is accomplished automatically by AXIS.
Instructional Videos The following videos demonstrate how to use recent enhancements and new features added to AXIS.
2005 Seg Fund Guarantee Capital Model This video describes the "2005 Seg Fund Guarantee Capital Model" and how to use AXIS Script functions to create a User Defined Stochastic Generator in AXIS (as of version 12.4.01.002 released March 2009). The "2005 Seg Fund Guarantee Capital Model" is a User Defined Stochastic Model, which may be used for reserving and capital calculations. It is an integrated model that reflects the relationship between yield curve and equity.
AXIS/BondEdge LinkThis video presents the enhancement to AXIS that seamlessly links Interactive Data’s BondEdge structured finance cashflow engine and library, which enables the generation of scenario-driven cashflows of structured finance assets such as mortgage-back securities for asset-liability analysis, under virtually unlimited interest rate environments, in AXIS. BondEdge is a sophisticated fixed income analytical tool widely used by investment managers.
AXIS GridLink Active BackupThe Active Backup feature enables server farm administrators to back up farm profiles or AXIS datasets with other related directories based on the backup schedule provided (similar to "Windows Scheduled Tasks"). When a backup job starts, any dataset marked as busy (where the dataset is used in one of the current running jobs or another user is modifying the assumption) is skipped. Therefore, the farm administrator need not worry about backup datasets with partial results, or causing the active running job to crash; common problems observed when using third party backup software.
Category ReportsThe calculated results of Calendar Year Projections in AXIS have been growing significantly. Additional Category Results and Category reports have been introduced in the basic Calendar Year Projections structure, and many existing Calendar Year Results lines have been moved into these new Category Results. The lines available for reporting the results of Calendar Year Projections are now organized into a shorter basic list intended for the Calendar Year Results reports and a number of special purpose lists supporting each new Category Report.
Output ManagerThe Output Manager feature in AXIS enables you to centrally manage and edit all outputs in selected batches at a glance. You can see the type of output, its target location, table or Excel sheet name (where applicable). You can also see whether it is set to append to existing data or overwrite it, and whether it is enabled or disabled. All these parameters can be modified by using Output Manager. This utility enables you to quickly audit, redirect and enable or disable outputs without having to modify and save each batch separately. This is especially useful for datasets received from other computers, which may have all outputs set to locations that do not exist on your computer.
Premium Calculation Tables This video presents the functionality of Premium Calculation Tables introduced in AXIS. In the Universal Life module, you can enter a table of values as your expected premium in the Target Regular Prem slot. However, AXIS now also allows you to calculate your premium instead by using the Premium Calculation table. A powerful use of the Premium Calculation table is to mimic the Universal Life Fund mechanics, to enable you, for example, to calculate a level premium to fund either the Universal Life Fund itself, or a Notional Account to maturity.
Run FiltersThe Run Filters feature represents a group of settings that determine how cells included in the batch are run. These settings include whether to use seriatim records attached to the cell and/or the volume tables, which product ages and issue dates to run, seriatim records sampling strategy, and usage of seriatim optional fields. Batch Testing jobs enable you either to run cells with the default run filter (that is, to run everything) or to select one or more run filter objects to be run in a sequence. Using run filters has many advantages. Run with a filter may be used to perform sampling, or if multiple filters are set up to run distinctive groups of policies – ranges of issue years, for example – then it may be used to produce results broken down by desired characteristics of policies.
Scenario Linked TablesThis video describes scenario linked tables in AXIS. With the release of AXIS version 12.5.01.001 in July 2009, a new section called Scenario Links was added to Asset and Reinvestment cells, to allow use of different scenario link indices for multiple linked objects. Scenario link objects in the Asset cell include the supplement, income rate, sinking fund, yield spread, yield proportionate adjustment and pay side yield spread and yield proportionate adjustment tables. Scenario link objects in the Reinvestment cell include the yield spread and yield proportionate adjustment and pay side yield spread and yield proportionate adjustment tables.
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