Slope Academy Course – Building Reports

We have introduced a new Slope Academy video series course “Building Reports in Workbooks” to help users understand the structure of the Slope data model and build reports in Workbooks. You can find the course in Slope Academy in this link. 

Updated Slope Life Library

ALM Example

Added an example setup to showcase how a user can set up a run incorporating interaction between assets and liabilities. You can find the following in the Assumptions Development section illustrating this:

• Projection template – “ALM – Pro-Rata Reinvestment Strategy example”
• Investment/Disinvestment module – several example Investment Strategies and example reinvestment Asset Allocations covering non-callable bonds and equities 

A few workbooks that are useful to review for such calculations include: ALM, Portfolio Summary, and Asset/Purchase Sale Details.

For more detailed information on how to utilize investment and disinvestments, please refer to our support site.

Other Updates

• Updated Life Onboarding Model to be consistent with 2024.03 Life Library model
• Added additional parameters to the Whole Life product to provide additional pre-built logic around different death benefit patterns
• Modified several Whole Life product variables and added an additional table “US STAT AG25 Rates” to enhance modeling capabilities around US STAT AG25 for Pre-need products
• Renamed all product variables and table columns from Smoker Status to Tobacco Status
• Updated all references to Smoker/Tobacco Status to reference a Tobacco Status array, with the status options referencing a limited set of options for consistency across the library model. Different tobacco statuses coming in from user inputs are mapped to this limited set in the “Data Mapping – Tobacco” table.
• Updated all references to Mortality Age Basis to reference an Age Basis basis array with possible values Age Last Birthday and Age Nearest Birthday to maintain consistency across the library model.
• Indexed Annuity US STAT Reserve can now be set as a choice between the Account Value or Cash Surrender Value
• Modified the Indexed Annuity Plan Code table column names to clarify that specific columns are related to US GAAP or US STAT
• Renamed specific Indexed Annuity US STAT Valuation Method array values to clarify that their usage is for AG35
• “Asset Type” column in the Externally Projected Assets table structure has been split into two columns: “Asset Type” and “Calculate Market Values from Cash Flows?”. Format also moved from integer to a dropdown list with text descriptions for each option to make the options more intuitive throughout the library model.
• Portfolio Summary workbook now has an additional field in the tooltip showing total invested assets for the period across all asset products
• ALM workbook now has a “View By” frequency control to dynamically switch the results view between Annual, Quarterly, and Monthly periods.
• Added minor enhancements and clarifications to the Indexed Annuity workbook around per policy calculations vs. decremented calculations.

Fixes

• Company Cash Flow Allocation company variable no longer has the Tax tag, which wasn’t consistent with the current usage of this variable
• Added missing US GAAP and US Stat product variable tags to a small number of corresponding US GAAP and US Stat related variables
• Externally Projected Asset product variable Time of Maturity now correctly references an optional Maturity Date model point file field instead of product variable “Term in Months”. If this field is not provided in the model point file, Time of Maturity defaults to 1200 (i.e. 100 years from projection start date).
• Externally Projected Liability product variable and table structure column “Risk Adjustment” renamed to “Market Value Spread” to avoid confusion with other uses of the term Risk Adjustment. This column’s intent is to specify the spread over risk free rates when calculating market value metrics.
• Whole Life product variable “Death Benefit Ratio Guaranteed” now references Issue Age product variable field rather than the model point field, allowing the calculation to work when a user provides Date of Birth rather than Issue Age in the model point file.
• Long Term Care model point field Tobacco Status set to not required which is consistent with the design of the library calculations.
• Portfolio Summary workbook no longer double counts results in the Invested Assets by Product visual when product output groupings are used in a projection.

New Workbooks

The following workbooks can now be found in the Slope System folder within sub-folder “Liability Products”.

Universal Life

Universal Life Single Policy Details

Whole Life

Whole Life Single Policy Details

Coming Soon

• Various onboarding initiatives to make it easier for users to find what they need as well as get up to speed with how to work in SLOPE
• Variable Annuity product
• IFRS 17 updates

New Features

Two-Dimensional Arrays

Two-dimensional arrays allow users to reference values from two different arrays within a single formula. This allows for the use of a single formula to calculate complex logic that varies by two different dimensions. Two-dimensional arrays help reduce the need for duplicated model logic and maintenance.

To learn how to setup and utilize two-dimensional arrays in your model, please review our support documentation here.

Portfolio Level Calculated Range Array Indexes

Calculated Range Array indexes can now be set using portfolio level variables to allow for more flexibility and minimize the need for extra array variables at the model point level.

Enhancements

Validation Updates

The following validation has been added in order to help our customers build and maintain more accurate models. Validation is added to prevent and alert our customers to invalid setups or configuration that could give incorrect or unexpected results.

• Variables that contain the ‘Projection Time Index’ system variable must have the ‘Force Recalc’ setting enabled.
• Cross level variables contained in a formula cannot reference different arrays (e.g. Product Variable formula references another product variable that uses one array as well as another portfolio variable that uses a different array).
• A standard variable cannot reference a post projection variable at another level.
• A non-time indexed variable cannot reference a time-indexed variable at another level.

Fixes

• Projection list loading times have been improved
• When uploading a new version of a file that is being used by an allocation, an error will no longer display.
• Output is now being written when an investment strategy errors after trying to sell more assets than are available.
• Now showing a descriptive error response on the Post Reports API endpoint when a workbook or element is not found