Month: December 2021

NEW

In App C3 Phase I Interest Rate Generator

You can now generate economic scenarios using the C3 Phase I Interest Rate Generator from the American Academy of Actuaries and SOA without having to leave the SLOPE application. In-app generation for 12 and 50 standard scenarios is supported with a monthly, quarterly or annual time step.

IMPROVEMENTS

Projections

To allow for greater flexibility on annuity contracts in which valuation rates are specified daily, the Projection Start date can now be any date in the month and is specified as a day, month and year. Time period zero will still occur at the end of the month.

SLOPE API

Example scripts are now available in Java for the Slope API on our GitHub repository available here.  The Projection Patch Error messaging has also been updated to explain when the delimiter does not match the file type. 

Table Editor Improvements

• The data table version on a table that was copied from an existing table will now be reset to version 1 for the new copy. 
• Percentages from excel can now be pasted directly into the new table editor without reformatting

Additional Improvements

• The time period and variable will now reflect the lowest level of information in the run logs for Single Value (formula) variables set to warn. 
• The current Projection Time record has been added to the Force Recalc Results tables so that all force recalculation results can be viewed in a single table.
• The Slope filters displayed above a Look in the Execute module will now update when the Looker filters are added or removed and saved within the Look.

FIXES

• When a data column is added to a table structure and the associated data tables do not have data in the new column, that column will read like an empty result. 
• Range array index performance improvements have been made.
• Deleted Data and Mortality Tables will now display in historical versions of tables only. 

NEW

New Table Editor

Slope has an updated table editor that now supports in-application editing of up to 100,000 rows and offers greater keyboard support more consistent with excel.

• A few specific improvements of the new table editor include the ability to:
  • Select entire rows/columns by the header for easier copying and pasting.
  • Undo, redo, copy and paste using the right click menu or keyboard shortcuts.
  • Insert rows into the middle of a table.
  • Extend cell selection with shift arrow shortcuts.
  • Check and uncheck actions for boolean fields.

Please note that rows are no longer added in the lower right hand corner of the interface. Instead you can use the left click menu to insert a row or copy and paste multiple blank rows into your table.

Default Values in Data Tables

Empty index values are now valid in the data table editor and will be treated as a default. Clearing out the value in an index field will display the <DEFAULT> label. When the values you are looking up match those specified in the index columns, the values in the matching rows will be used. When the values you are looking up don’t match those specified in the index columns, the rows with default values will be used. This allows you to define a standard value or set of values in non-index columns using <DEFAULT> and then define specific exceptions. 

In the example below, you will see that by default, a commission rate of .05 will be applied unless the plan code and issue year combination matches one of the other specified lookups.

IMPROVEMENTS

Economic Scenario Generator

You can now continue to use the SLOPE application while your economic scenarios are generating in the background. Additionally, we have added the ability to generate up to 10,000 scenarios with a monthly time step to the Academy Interest Rate Generator.

Looks in the Analyze Module

Now when you load a look in the Analyze module, the projection ID will automatically be set to the projection you selected.

Additional Improvements

• The 1st “Duration (in months)” label in Annuity Factors was updated to “Annuity Length (in months) for clarity.
• Projection Start Date was added as an option in System Variables and can be used in place of DateOf (Time 0).

FIXES

• Fetching Treasury Rates is now retrieving rates following an update by the US Treasury.
• Duplicate options were removed from the System Variable drop down.
• Referencing “Current Array Value” within a Time formula will now consistently return the correct array value.
• Merging Array variables that reference table structures from the Slope Library (e.g. Collateral Adjustment variable in the Asset Backed Security product) will now properly merge the Array variable and map the table structure.