• We are pleased to announce that the winner of our Feedback Prize Draw for the Winter 2024-25 session and winning £150 of gift vouchers is Zhao Liang Tay. Congratulations to Zhao Liang. If you fancy winning £150 worth of gift vouchers (from a major UK store) for the Summer 2025 exam sitting for just a few minutes of your time throughout the session, please see our website at https://www.acted.co.uk/further-info.html?pat=feedback#feedback-prize for more information on how you can make sure your name is included in the draw at the end of the session.
  • Please be advised that the SP1, SP5 and SP7 X1 deadline is the 14th July and not the 17th June as first stated. Please accept out apologies for any confusion caused.

Core reading example 1 chapter 31 - assumptions for a annuity projection

S

ST6_aspirant

Member
Part (i)
Why are expenses of the contract an assumption?
Are the expenses not taken account of by a charge on the fund (maybe a fund management charge) that is pre-determined and already told to the member?

Why is future inflation an assumption?
The fund will earn whatever is the investment return expected (outlined as an assumption in the solution).
 
Hi - these are good questions!

Yes, "charges" is the right way to think about these "expenses". But they are not necessarily fully pre-determined as they may not be fixed (they could be variable) and they may not be the same for every fund (and the individual may be able to switch between funds). So they therefore require an assumption to be made rather than being fully known in advance.

Re future inflation: yes agree with what you have said. But a separate future inflation assumption would be needed if the charges are specified as an amount per contract (rather than a % fund) and that amount increases in line with inflation. Future inflation may also be taken as a starting point for the salary growth assumption. And it can also impact the annuity rate terms if the preferred annuity form is index-linked.

Hope that helps.
 
Yes that helped, thank you for the explanation and encouragement on asking good questions :)
 
Back
Top