• 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.

Contract boundaries - existing contracts

P

phos2

Member
Contract boundaries are defined as:

Under Solvency II, the boundary for existing insurance contracts is set at the point at which the company:

can unilaterally terminate the contract, refuse to accept a premium, or
amend the benefits or premiums in such a way that the premiums fully reflect the risks.

This contract boundary sets the point at which premiums can be recognised on existing contracts. Within the boundary period, both contractual recurring premiums and premiums arising from policyholder options to renew or extend their policies should be considered on a best estimate basis.
For example, if a non-life insurance undertaking is one year into a three year contract at the balance sheet date, allowance needs to be made for expected premiums and claims, on a best estimate basis, during the remaining two years of the contract. This could potentially have the effect of increasing or reducing technical provisions, depending on whether the contract is expected to be profitable.


If I'm understanding this correctly, you can only count a contract under solvency II when you can unliaterally terminate the contract, refuse to accept a premium or amend the benefits or premiums in such a way that the premiums fully reflect the risks. In most cases, is this not the expiry date of the policy?

If this is the case, what about an annual policy (say motor) which incepts at 1/10 in the year and our valuation is at 31/12. Given at 31/12 we cannot unilaterally terminate the contract, does this policy just not get included at all? Or does the core reading mean that we should only recognise premiums up until the boundary point and none after?

I am just confused because the core reading says "this contract boundary sets the point at which premiums can be recognised on existing contracts", which would imply we can only recognise premiums after that point, and in the above example means after the policy has expired which would mean that that policy would not be recognised at all despite it incepting in 1/10.​
 
If I'm understanding this correctly, you can only count a contract under solvency II when you can unliaterally terminate the contract, … ….

It’s the exact opposite Phos2.
The Core Reading says: “Within the boundary period, both contractual recurring premiums and premiums arising from policyholder options to renew or extend their policies should be considered on a best estimate basis.” So if you cannot terminate the contract (or amend benefits, or refuse to accept premium), then you should include it under Solvency II.
 
Back
Top