Recent whistleblower allegations against GE have put a spotlight on mounting insurance liabilities that will hit corporate balance sheets in the next few years as accounting rules shift.
The Financial Accounting Standards Board issued Accounting Standards Update No. 2018-12 two years ago to require companies to make some improvements in how they account for long-duration insurance contracts, most notably to improve the timeliness of the recognition of liabilities. Now it appears FASB intends to put that improvement on the back burner for a few years to give companies more time to adjust to other major accounting changes that have come before it.
