Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/35Show full title

Subsection 3 U.K. Cash flow projections for the calculation of the best estimate

Article 28 U.K. Cash flows

The cash flow projection used in the calculation of the best estimate shall include all of the following cash flows, to the extent that these cash flows relate to existing insurance and reinsurance contracts:

(a)

benefit payments to policy holders and beneficiaries;

(b)

payments that the insurance or reinsurance undertaking will incur in providing contractual benefits that are paid in kind;

(c)

payments of expenses as referred to in point (1) of Article 78 of Directive 2009/138/EC;

(d)

premium payments and any additional cash flows that result from those premiums;

(e)

payments between the insurance or reinsurance undertaking and intermediaries related to insurance or reinsurance obligations;

(f)

payments between the insurance or reinsurance undertaking and investment firms in relation to contracts with index-linked and unit-linked benefits;

(g)

payments for salvage and subrogation to the extent that they do not qualify as separate assets or liabilities in accordance with [F1 UK-adopted international accounting standards];

(h)

taxation payments which are, or are expected to be, charged to policy holders or are required to settle the insurance or reinsurance obligations.

Textual Amendments

F1 Words in Art. 28(g) substituted (31.12.2020) by The Solvency 2 and Insurance (Amendment, etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/407), regs. 1(2), 11(10) (as amended by S.I. 2019/1390, regs. 1(4), 11(3)(g); S.I. 2020/1385, regs. 1(2), 54(2); and with savings in S.I. 2019/680, reg. 11); 2020 c. 1, Sch. 5 para. 1(1)

Article 29 U.K. Expected future developments in the external environment

The calculation of the best estimate shall take into account expected future developments that will have a material impact on the cash in- and out-flows required to settle the insurance and reinsurance obligations over the lifetime thereof. For that purpose future developments shall include demographic, legal, medical, technological, social, environmental and economic developments including inflation as referred to in point (2) of Article 78 of Directive 2009/138/EC.

Article 30 U.K. Uncertainty of cash flows

The cash flow projection used in the calculation of the best estimate shall, explicitly or implicitly, take account of all uncertainties in the cash flows, including all of the following characteristics:

(a)

uncertainty in the timing, frequency and severity of insured events;

(b)

uncertainty in claim amounts, including uncertainty in claims inflation, and in the period needed to settle and pay claims;

(c)

uncertainty in the amount of expenses referred to in point (1) of Article 78 of Directive 2009/138/EC;

(d)

uncertainty in expected future developments referred to in Article 29 to the extent that it is practicable;

(e)

uncertainty in policyholder behaviour;

(f)

dependency between two or more causes of uncertainty;

(g)

dependency of cash flows on circumstances prior to the date of the cash flow.

Article 31 U.K. Expenses

1. A cash flow projection used to calculate best estimates shall take into account all of the following expenses, which relate to recognised insurance and reinsurance obligations of insurance and reinsurance undertakings and which are referred to in point (1) of Article 78 of Directive 2009/138/EC:

(a) administrative expenses;

(b) investment management expenses;

(c) claims management expenses;

(d) acquisition expenses.

The expenses referred to in points (a) to (d) shall take into account overhead expenses incurred in servicing insurance and reinsurance obligations.

2. Overhead expenses shall be allocated in a realistic and objective manner and on a consistent basis over time to the parts of the best estimate to which they relate.

3. Expenses in respect of reinsurance contracts and special purpose vehicles shall be taken into account in the gross calculation of the best estimate.

4. Expenses shall be projected on the assumption that the undertaking will write new business in the future.

Article 32 U.K. Contractual options and financial guarantees

When calculating the best estimate, insurance and reinsurance undertakings shall take into account all of the following:

(a)

all financial guarantees and contractual options included in their insurance and reinsurance policies;

(b)

all factors which may affect the likelihood that policy holders will exercise contractual options or realise the value of financial guarantees.

Article 33 U.K. Currency of the obligation

The best estimate shall be calculated separately for cash flows in different currencies.

Article 34 U.K. Calculation methods

1. The best estimate shall be calculated in a transparent manner and in such a way as to ensure that the calculation method and the results that derive from it are capable of review by a qualified expert.

2. The choice of actuarial and statistical methods for the calculation of the best estimate shall be based on their appropriateness to reflect the risks which affect the underlying cash flows and the nature of the insurance and reinsurance obligations. The actuarial and statistical methods shall be consistent with and make use of all relevant data available for the calculation of the best estimate.

3. Where a calculation method is based on grouped policy data, insurance and reinsurance undertakings shall ensure that the grouping of policies creates homogeneous risk groups that appropriately reflect the risks of the individual policies included in those groups.

4. Insurance and reinsurance undertakings shall analyse the extent to which the present value of cash flows depend both on the expected outcome of future events and developments and on how the actual outcome in certain scenarios could deviate from the expected outcome.

5. Where the present value of cash flows depends on future events and developments as referred to in paragraph 4, insurance and reinsurance undertakings shall use a method to calculate the best estimate for cash flows which reflects such dependencies.

Article 35 U.K. Homogeneous risk groups of life insurance obligations

The cash flow projections used in the calculation of best estimates for life insurance obligations shall be made separately for each policy. Where the separate calculation for each policy would be an undue burden on the insurance or reinsurance undertaking, it may carry out the projection by grouping policies, provided that the grouping complies with all of the following requirements:

(a)

there are no significant differences in the nature and complexity of the risks underlying the policies that belong to the same group;

(b)

the grouping of policies does not misrepresent the risk underlying the policies and does not misstate their expenses;

(c)

the grouping of policies is likely to give approximately the same results for the best estimate calculation as a calculation on a per policy basis, in particular in relation to financial guarantees and contractual options included in the policies.

Article 36 U.K. Non-life insurance obligations

1. The best estimate for non-life insurance obligations shall be calculated separately for the premium provision and for the provision for claims outstanding.

2. The premium provision shall relate to future claim events covered by insurance and reinsurance obligations falling within the contract boundary referred to in Article 18. Cash flow projections for the calculation of the premium provision shall include benefits, expenses and premiums relating to these events.

3. The provision for claims outstanding shall relate to claim events that have already occurred, regardless of whether the claims arising from those events have been reported or not.

4. Cash flow projections for the calculation of the provision for claims outstanding shall include benefits, expenses and premiums relating to the events referred to in paragraph 3.