ACCOUNTING INFORMATION MANAGEMENT THROUGH THE TECHNICAL PROVISIONS CONSTITUTED BY INSURANCE COMPANIES

Abstract

The main objective of this research is to investigate the accounting information management through the technical provisions constituted by insurance companies as a response to the economic and tax regulations of the Brazilian insurance market. The accounts of the technical provisions enable discretionary accounting choices, and the uncertainty around its estimative provide significant opportunities for the accounting information management, aiming at achieving two purposes: i) the improvement of the solvency parameters and ii) the reduction of tax payments. The specific accruals approach was applied on a sample of 360 observations from 60 insurance companies and a time series of 6 years (2001-2006). Regarding the evidences from the empiric research, the hypotheses established were confirmed, that is, the directors of the insurance companies influence the technical provisions downwards if the parameters for solvency and taxes are lower, but on the other hand, they influence the technical provisions upwards if the values of the parameters for solvency and taxes are higher. However, in order to achieve more robust results from the empiric research, the use of estimate error of the technical provisions is suggested as the dependent variable for the econometric models adopted. This is still not possible in Brazil because the ruling entity of this sector does not make the necessary information for this analysis available, differently from the procedures adopted by the North American insurance market.