2023 Recent Technology Advances and New Market Reality Virtual Seminar

Unlocking Insights: Analytics-Driven Identification of Opportunities and Challenges in the US & Canadian Insurance Markets

Description: We will use reserving analytics to pinpoint both opportunities and concerns within the US & Canadian insurance Markets. This will include a data-driven evaluation of the effects of higher inflation, significant areas of uncertainty to consider in business planning, and where the market may be under- or over-reserved. This analysis will be achieved by integrating machine learning identified trends with data-driven ultimate projections using large market datasets split by company and class business for the US and Canada.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand how machine learning can be used to identify trends in triangle diagnostics.
• Aware of where and how inflation is coming through in US claims triangles at 2022 year-end.
• Aware of what the material areas of uncertainty and reserving judgements are within the US insurance market.

Moderator:

• Guo Harrison, FCAS - Guo Harrison is the Director of Actuarial Production for the New York Compensation Insurance Rating Board. She is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society with extensive experience in commercial lines pricing and strategic planning.

Speakers:

• Charlie Stone - Charlie Stone is a partner within LCP's insurance consulting team and is head of the insurance analytics team. He leads the design and development of our multi-award winning insurance analytics platform, LCP InsurSight, and leads the delivery of bespoke analytics solutions for specific client projects across actuarial, claims and underwriting.
• Laura Hobern, FIA – Laura Hobern is a partner in LCP’s insurance consulting team and signing actuary for Lloyd’s SAOs. Having worked both in consulting and directly for global (re)insurers, she has extensive experience across a broad spectrum of actuarial work. Laura helps her clients transform processes and translate data into valuable insights that drive the business forward.

Personal Auto: The New Normal

Description: The fleet of electric cars in the United States is growing, while the average vehicle is older than ever. More Americans are working from home, but accidents and fatalities are rising. There is evidence that reckless driving increased after COVID. More states are legalizing the use of marijuana and people are driving after smoking. The cost of auto repairs and replacement parts continues to increase, adding pressure to carriers trying to charge competitive prices while facing the potential of losing predictive rating information.

Welcome to the New Normal of Personal Auto Insurance. During this session, Louise Francis and Annmarie Geddes Baribeau will discuss how personal auto insurance has been changing since the start of COVID.

One of the most challenging tasks facing actuaries is predicting emerging trends. This session aims to educate actuaries on emerging risks in automobile insurance. Many of these risks are not currently being considered by actuaries.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn about current trends in automobile insurance
• What insurance companies are doing to manage the impact of the changes
• What can actuaries do to evaluate the impact of these changes?

Moderator:

• Katie Pipkorn, FCAS, MAAA - Katie is a Consulting Actuary for Milliman, Inc. with expertise in ratemaking, predictive analytics and loss reserve analysis. She has experience in various property and casualty lines of business, most notably personal lines and credit risk. Katie has provided actuarial assistance to risk-bearing entities in both the private and public sector. She has assisted clients with assignments developing new rating plans, refreshing existing rate plans, filing countrywide rating plans, estimating disparate impact, and evaluating the impact of proposed legislation.

Speakers:

• Louise A. Francis, FCAS, CSPA, MAAA - Louise Francis is the Consulting Principal and founder of Francis Analytics and Actuarial Data Mining.

  Ms. Francis has introduced insurance professionals to advanced modeling methods, including predictive modeling and reserve variability modeling, both as a speaker at conferences and as an author of papers and articles.

  Ms. Francis is a former VP Research for the CAS. Ms. Francis was a winner of the CAS’s Matthew Rodermund award for her lifetime contributions as a volunteer.

  Ms. Francis received her Bachelor of Arts degree from William Smith College and a Master of Science degree in Health Sciences from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

• Annmarie Geddes Baribeau - Annmarie Geddes Baribeau is president of Insurance Communicators, LLC, a marketing and communications firm serving the property-casualty industry. As an award-winning journalist, editor, researcher and thought leader, Annmarie has authored and published several booklets and more than 700 articles for national and regional publications covering topics ranging from personal and commercial auto to workers’ compensation. For the actuarial community, she has written for the Casualty Actuarial Society’s Actuarial Review magazine and the American Academy of Actuaries' Contingencies magazine.

  Having a deep knowledge of the P&C industry, Annmarie serves clients, including actuarial firms, insurance companies, associations and vendors. Annmarie graduated cum laude from Ohio University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism.

Risk Distribution: Actuaries Leading the Way

Description: Quantifying risk distribution to demonstrate that a transaction qualifies as insurance is a hot button issue, like risk transfer/ERD were before it.

Learning Objectives:

• Educate attendees on the current relevance of risk distribution
• Discuss key criteria for a risk distribution metric and discuss expected adverse deviation (EAD) metric
• Discuss lessons learned from performing EAD on hundreds of new captive insurance companies.

Speakers:

• Robert J. Walling, III, FCAS, MAAA, CERA - Rob is primarily focused on product development, ratemaking and loss reserving studies for captive insurance companies, risk retention groups (RRGs), self-insurance programs and admitted insurance companies.

  He is the appointed actuary and/or loss reserve specialist for scores of domestic and Bermuda insurance companies, RRGs, captive insurance companies and self-insurance programs. Rob has also been advisor to more than 20 state insurance departments and government insurance programs, and a partner assisting captives, RRGs and insurance companies developing commercial insurance products and pricing, including innovative coverages and emerging markets.

• Derek W. Freihaut, FCAS, MAAA - Derek has considerable experience in assignments involving loss reserving, funding studies, loss cost projections, captive feasibility studies, risk transfer analyses, and personal and commercial lines ratemaking.

  Prior to joining Pinnacle, Derek was employed at a large insurance company, where his responsibilities included personal and commercial lines pricing. His pricing duties included private passenger and commercial auto, commercial multi-peril and rental program lines of business.

• Nicholas Gurgone, FCAS, MAAA - Nick has experience in assignments involving captive funding and feasibility studies, loss reserving, loss cost projections, and development of industry benchmarks.

  He has worked with pricing and loss reserve analyses for captive insurers writing enterprise risk coverages and group captive insurers writing commercial multi‐peril, workers’ compensation, auto liability, general liability and auto physical damage coverage. He also assists in developing and updating industry benchmarks by analyzing industry databases.

• Gregory W. Fears, Jr., FCAS, MAAA, ARM - Greg has considerable experience in assignments involving loss reserving, funding studies, loss cost projections, captive feasibility studies, risk margin calculations, simulation methods, deductible analyses, cost allocation mechanisms, financial analyses of insurance companies, commercial lines ratemaking and competitive analyses. His research interests lie heavily in the analysis of industry annual statement information to identify prevailing reserving trends among industry sectors.

  Greg has made numerous presentations to industry professionals regarding loss reserving, future loss projections and how their companies’ characteristics impact their actuarial calculations. He also works with the students and faculty at Illinois State University (ISU) by assisting with the compilation of data for academic research, and discussing the actuarial profession with current and prospective actuarial science majors.

Thriving in a Hybrid Environment: The New Norm

Description: The presentation will focus on working effectively in a hybrid environment.  Leaders will be able to more effectively motivate employees. 

Learning Objectives:

• Lead others to maximum engagement in a hybrid environment
• Motivate teammates in a hybrid environment
• Proactively communicate across all levels of the organization

Moderator

• William (Bill) Lakins, ACAS - Bill Lakins has over 42 years of experience in the P & C Insurance Industry. He has worked for Allstate, CNA, Kemper, Coregis, and the Warranty Group. He served as an AVP and Appointed Actuary at the Warranty Group. Additionally, Bill functioned as a consulting actuary. He’s currently a consulting actuary.

Speaker:

• Kelly McKeethan – Kelly McKeethan is a 1991 graduate of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville with a BS in Mathematics. He is a Senior Actuary for frontdoor, a provider of home warranty coverage. He has been with frontdoor since 2013. Previously Kelly has worked for Bank of America, Insurance Industry Consultants, Merastar Insurance Company, and Southern Heritage Insurance Company. He is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society and is also a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries. He also holds the designations of Chartered Enterprise Risk Analyst and Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter. Kelly lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with his wife and two kids.