Are any practitioners still using this? When I worked in pensions this was dropped from allowable valuation methods in about 2002. Clearly it's used by share analysts in fundamental analysis. What about life insurance?
In the pensions area, for funding, solvency and accounting valuations a market value is mandatory. However, for assessing realistic cost over a long time horizon, or for asset/liability/cashflow exercises then discounted income approaches have many merits. Having said that, I haven't used this approach - or seen it used - for ages, but I suppose that reflects the mix of work I get exposed to.
Discounted income valuations don't really feature in life insurance either. In the UK, market valuation of assets is used for most things. Lynn
