Description: This paper describes methods for determining bounds on the price of derivative instruments, such as option on insurance futures, given only market information. From Securitization of Insurance Risk: The 1995 Bowles Symposium, M-FI97-1.

Description: By establishing insurance risk as an asset class, participants will provide the insurance industry with vast pools of capital to mitigate catastrophic risk through the use of new nontraditional reinsurance products. From Securitization of Insurance Risk: The 1995 Bowles Symposium, M-FI97-1.

Description: New tools for managing insurance risk have particularly emerged in the 1980s and 1990s, usually with roots in the financial markets. A strong motivating factor has been the record number of natural catastrophes and their impact in insured losses. New organization or joint ventures have been created to meet this demand. From Securitization of Insurance Risk: The 1995 Bowles Symposium, M-FI97-1.

Description: Shareholders provide capital and receive the insurance profit. This paper demonstrates than an optimal capital level exists that generates the highest return for the shareholders of an insurance company. This result is derived using a risk capital model by Perold. The no-arbitrage argument, developed by Modigliani and Miller, is used throughout the paper and puts the discussion on a solid economic footing. From 2006 Enterprise Risk Management Symposium, M-AS06-1.

Description: Catastrophic insurance futures are being traded, albeit thinly, at the Chicago Board of Trade. This paper examines the broad context for trading insurance risk. The motivation for trading insurance risks, specifically to increase the capacity to cover risk, is discussed. From Securitization of Insurance Risk: The 1995 Bowles Symposium, M-FI97-1.

Description: There is no right price for a piece of insurance. There is simply the transacted market price, which is high enough to bring forth sellers and low enough to induce buyers. From Securitization of Insurance Risk: The 1995 Bowles Symposium, M-FI97-1.

Description: The concept of crosshedging gives us the key to the actuarial understanding of most new tools arising in the area of alternative risk transfer mechanisms. Securitization of insurance, which is the theme of this symposium can, as I see it, almost always be seen as an exercise in crosshedging. The 1995 Bowles Symposium, M-FI97-1.

Description: Actuaries measure, model, and manage risks. Risk associated with the investment function is a major uncertainty faced by many insurance companies. Actuaries should have knowledge of the asset side of the balance sheet of an insurance company and how it relates to the liability side. From Securitization of Insurance Risk: The 1995 Bowles Symposium, M-FI97-1.

Description: This paper reviews the main methodological questions underlying the theoretical pricing of catastrophe insurance futures. From Securitization of Insurance Risk: The 1995 Bowles Symposium, M-FI978-1.

Description: This paper evaluates the current practice of operational risk management in the insurance sector. Operational risk is nothing new in insurance, but, because of regulatory requirements, companies have initiated computation of risk capital for their operational losses. The current effort to manage operational risk is not a naturally evolving phenomenon, and operational risk, in the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision’s Basel II definition, is unlikely to be a significant cause of insurers’ failure. In addition, the current Basel II definition of operational risk is not suitable for the insurance sector. Consequently, the invention of models and tools based on the definition is incomplete and illusionary. My findings are based on the analysis of dozens of interviews with insurance industry professionals. I demonstrate the way operational risk is quantified in practice, show that the result obtained from this computation is of littl e use in managerial decision making and propose a set of policy recommendations illustrating the characteristics of operational risk in insurance. This study can be used as a platform for launching dialogues to initiate fresh thinking about operational risk in insurance beyond the current artificial and narrow boundaries.