From IFRS.org:

“IFRS 17 is effective for annual reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2021 with earlier application permitted if IFRS 9 and IFRS 15 are also applied.

Insurance contracts combine features of both a financial instrument and a service contract. In addition, many insurance contracts generate cash flows with substantial variability over a long period. To provide useful information about these features, IFRS 17:

1)      combines current measurement of the future cash flows with the recognition of profit over the period that services are provided under the contract

2)      presents insurance service results (including presentation of insurance revenue) separately from insurance finance income or expenses

3)      requires an entity to make an accounting policy choice of whether to recognise all insurance finance income or expenses in profit or loss or to recognise some of that income or expenses in other comprehensive income

The key principles in IFRS 17 are that an entity:

1)      identifies as insurance contracts those contracts under which the entity accepts significant insurance risk from another party (the policyholder) by agreeing to compensate the policyholder if a specified uncertain future event (the insured event) adversely affects the policyholder

2)      separates specified embedded derivatives, distinct investment components and distinct performance obligations from the insurance contracts

3)      divides the contracts into groups that it will recognise and measure

4)      recognizes and measures groups of insurance contracts at a risk-adjusted present value of the future cash flows (the fulfilment cash flows) that incorporates all the available information about the fulfilment cash flows in a way that is consistent with observable market information plus (if this value is a liability) or minus (if this value is an asset) an amount representing the unearned profit in the group of contracts (the contractual service margin)

5)      recognizes the profit from a group of insurance contracts over the period the entity provides insurance cover, and as the entity is released from risk. If a group of contracts is or becomes loss-making, an entity recognises the loss immediately

6)      presents separately insurance revenue (that excludes the receipt of any investment component), insurance service expenses (that excludes the repayment of any investment components) and insurance finance income or expenses

7)      discloses information to enable users of financial statements to assess the effect that contracts within the scope of IFRS 17 have on the financial position, financial performance and cash flows of an entity

IFRS 17 includes an optional simplified measurement approach, or premium allocation approach, for simpler insurance contracts.”

Stay tuned for next month’s update.

A Certified Public Accountant, business author of several books (including IFRS Simplified”) Mike Morley is an entertaining and informative speaker, a recognized authority in the field of finance, and offers various training programs, such as IFRS, SOX, and Financial Statement Analysis that focus on providing continuing education opportunities for finance and accounting professionals. His website (mikemorley.com) features an upcoming webinar about the new IFRS 9.