Binding authority

1. Model laws bind through state statutes

The NAIC is explicit that models are drafted for legislatures to adopt: the goal of a model law "is to encourage legislatures or regulatory bodies to adopt the model law, with as few changes as possible, in a majority of states" (NAIC, Model Laws 101). The Standard Valuation Law (SVL, Model #820) binds because every state enacted its own version as statute — for example Minn. Stat. § 61A.25, enacted as Laws 1947, chapter 182. When you look up "the SVL" for a real valuation question, the binding text is the domiciliary state's statute, not the NAIC model.

2. Model regulations bind through commissioner rulemaking

Regulation XXX (Model #830), the Universal Life Model Regulation (#585), the Actuarial Opinion and Memorandum Regulation (#822), and the Reserve Financing Regulation (#787) are model regulations: each binds only after a state's insurance commissioner promulgates it under rulemaking authority granted by that state's SVL or insurance code. That is why their effective dates are state-by-state — e.g., Vermont adopted XXX as Regulation I-1999-03, effective January 1, 2000, and Kansas adopted the UL model as 40-15b-1. Since 2022, Model 787 is also an accreditation standard — the slow channel, retrofitted with the fast backstop.

3. The Valuation Manual binds through SVL Section 11 — including its future amendments

The 2009 SVL revision added Section 11, which does three unusual things. First, it sets a collective trigger: the Valuation Manual becomes operative on the January 1 after at least 42 of 55 jurisdictions, representing more than 75% of direct premiums written, have enacted the revised SVL — a threshold certified on June 10, 2016 (45 states, 79.5% of premium), making the manual operative January 1, 2017 (NAIC certification). Second, it requires reserves for policies issued after that date to follow the manual. Third — the part practitioners most often miss — it dynamically incorporates future NAIC amendments: changes adopted by a three-fourths NAIC supermajority representing more than 75% of premium take effect the following January 1 in every enacting state, with no new state legislation. Each year's Valuation Manual edition binds automatically. See the enacted text at NC G.S. 58-58-51 or RCW 48.74.100, and the manual itself (current edition, free PDF).

4. Actuarial Guidelines bind through the Accounting Practices & Procedures Manual

Actuarial Guidelines (AG 38, AG 48, and the rest) are written by the NAIC's Life Actuarial (A) Task Force as interpretations of existing valuation statutes — "not intended to be viewed as statutory revisions but merely a guide to be used in applying a statute to a specific circumstance" (NAIC, Actuarial Guidelines). They are codified in Appendix C of the NAIC Accounting Practices & Procedures Manual, and because essentially every state requires statutory financial statements to be prepared in accordance with that manual — adopted directly or by reference into state law under the post-1998 codification of statutory accounting — the guidelines bind reserve reporting in every state at once, with no legislature or commissioner acting (PwC Viewpoint 13.3; concrete example: Virginia's annual adoption order).

Where mortality tables and interest rates fit

Valuation mortality tables and interest standards ride whichever vehicle carried them: the 1941 and 1958 CSO tables were embedded directly in SVL/SNFL amendments; the 1980 CSO came in the December 1980 amendments (with the smoker/nonsmoker split added by a December 1983 model regulation); the 2001 CSO arrived through a dedicated recognition regulation (Model #814); and the 2017 CSO binds through the Valuation Manual (VM-M). The 1958 and 1980 tables also used company-elected operative dates — each insurer filed its own switch-over date with its commissioner, with mandatory backstops of January 1, 1966 and January 1, 1989 — so "when was this table in force" can differ by company, not just by state.

Honest caveats

• This site is model-level. States enact models on their own schedules and with their own edits, so era boundaries differ by state (e.g., North Carolina's interest-rate ladder pivots on its own enactment dates). A state-by-state adoption matrix is a planned future phase.
• New York is the standing exception. It has historically run parallel, stricter regimes (Regulation 147 alongside XXX being the classic example) — never assume the NAIC model describes New York.
• States can deviate. Prescribed and permitted accounting practices let a domiciliary state override the AP&P Manual, and states retain that authority over guidelines too.
• The binding text is always the enacting state's law. This site cites where each instrument's force of law comes from; for any real valuation question, read the domiciliary state's statute and regulations.