Looking Ahead

Welcome to the January 2026 issue of General Insurance Community Newsletter, the inaugural issue of the SOA’s biannual newsletter for those with an interest in general insurance (GI)—also referred to as non-life (NL) insurance, and property and casualty (P&C) insurance. This newsletter is really a continuation of the previous SOA newsletter General Insurance Insights. With the creation of the SOA’s GI Community, the name of this publication was changed to reflect its new focus as a source of information for the SOA GI Community. If you are new to this publication, I encourage you to review the many articles written in the prior publication. There might be something of interest to you.

The introductory article for each issue of General Insurance Insights was titled “Notes in General.” With the renaming of the publication, renaming the introductory article seemed appropriate. We hope the new title, “Looking Ahead,“ is more descriptive—looking ahead to the articles in the issue, and brief notes on current events that are shaping the world of general insurance.

This issue includes a couple of articles I wrote that look into two different types of insurance. The first article is “The Growth of Parametric Insurance.” In this article, I explain the use of parametric insurance as an alternative to indemnity insurance. It’s currently a niche product but it is expected to grow significantly. The second article is “Where’s the Policy? The Use of Embedded Insurance.” This is a different distribution method for insurance that is expected to grow significantly over the next few years.

By the time this is published, the new FSA pathway exams will have been administered in November 2025. Hopefully everything went smoothly. This pathway redesign shifts earning the FSA credential from a track-based system to a flexible course-based system to enhance global relevancy and improve the experience for candidates. This redesign includes:

• Enhancement of the syllabus for each course
• Course study guides
• Guided examples with solutions
• Curated past exam items and solutions (relevant to the new courses)
• More focused study materials
• Faster grading of exams
• Publication of the pass mark
• Feedback for all candidates that did not pass (with an option for more detailed feedback for those candidates that were close to the pass mark)
• A shift of U.S.-focused material to either an optional U.S. specific exam or off the syllabus
• Plans to develop and offer new elective courses

I hope candidates find this new system better suited to their needs and the needs of the market.

In January 2025, California was hit with two major wildfires that caused catastrophic damage. This occurred well ahead of the typical “wildfire season.” There were some fears that this would be the start of a year filled with major wildfires. Thankfully that wasn’t the case. California did experience additional wildfires in 2025, but none were major catastrophic events like those in January.

Inflationary pressures continued to drive up the cost of various products and services, subsequently impacting general insurance (GI) policies. It remains to be seen whether consumers of personal lines insurance will call for stricter control of rate increases. Regulators may be tempted to cap rate increases. However, regulatory caps on actuarially indicated rate increases in a competitive market may reduce the availability of insurance. Alternatively, implementing measures such as tort reforms to decrease claim size presents another opportunity for cost reduction. Ultimately, as inflation persists in raising the prices of goods and services, insurance costs will follow suit.

As I write this in mid-October, the hurricane and typhoon seasons have only a few weeks left. Observations so far are as follows:

As of mid-October, the United States Congress failed to pass a full appropriations bill which has created a government shutdown. The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) requires reauthorization to continue. The latest reauthorization expired on Sept. 30, 2025, and Congress has yet to authorize it because of the shutdown. So, what does this mean? NFIP policies currently in force continue to be effective until the end of their policy period. However, until the NFIP is reauthorized it cannot process any new or renewal policies. This will create a situation where some property owners that require NFIP coverage will not be able to obtain it. Hopefully, this will be resolved before this article is published.

Our goals with this newsletter are to keep readers informed on topics of interest to GI actuaries and to develop the GI actuarial community within the SOA. We welcome your feedback and ideas to help us achieve these goals. If you have questions, feedback, or ideas regarding this e‑newsletter, feel free to contact me.

I would also like to take this opportunity to inform our readers that we are always looking for volunteers in general insurance at the SOA. Please visit the SOA Volunteer Opportunities Database. The database includes all open volunteer opportunities at the SOA. If you do not see a GI exam committee volunteer opportunity in the database and are interested, contact me directly. We can always use new volunteers. Additionally, we are looking for paid item writers and paid graders for the GI exams.

In addition to this, we are also looking for ideas on GI continuing education offerings and authors (or ideas) for articles on upcoming issues of this newsletter. Let me know if you would like to contribute.

This article is provided for informational and educational purposes only. Neither the Society of Actuaries nor the respective authors’ employers make any endorsement, representation or guarantee with regard to any content, and disclaim any liability in connection with the use or misuse of any information provided herein. This article should not be construed as professional or financial advice. Statements of fact and opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and are not necessarily those of the Society of Actuaries or the respective authors’ employers.

Anthony Cappelletti, FSA, FCIA, FCAS, is a staff fellow for the SOA. He can be contacted at acappelletti@soa.org.