By Anthony Cappelletti
Welcome to the June 2018 edition of General Insurance Insights, the SOA’s biannual newsletter for those with an interest in general insurance (aka P&C or property and casualty insurance). Included in this edition are several articles for actuaries in the SOA’s GI Community. The first article is one that I wrote: “Will Legalization of Marijuana Affect Automobile Insurance?” It is an overview of the issues faced by automobile insurers from the increasing trend of legalized marijuana. The second article is by SOA staff fellow, Scott Lennox, FSA, FCIA, FCAS. Scott’s article, “InsurTechs—What are They, and why do Actuaries Need to Know Them?” takes a look at the rapidly developing world of InsurTechs in the business of insurance.
As you may (or may not) recall, the December 2017 edition of this newsletter included an article with my observations of the continuing efforts by the SOA to have actuaries with the FSA designation in the GI Track recognized as being qualified to sign property and casualty reserve opinions in the U.S. That article included details on the NAIC’s creation of the Job Analysis Project. In this edition, SOA senior staff fellow Stuart Klugman, FSA, CERA, Ph.D., provides an update on the NAIC Job Analysis Project for general insurance appointed actuaries in the U.S.
Also included in this issue, an update on the latest from the SOA’s GI Climate and Environment Sustainable Research Committee and an update of “GI professional development (PD) opportunities.” The GI PD update has a listing of recent and upcoming professional development opportunities with significant GI relevant content and some preliminary information on sessions at the upcoming 2018 SOA Annual Meeting in Nashville.
Last issue, I gave an update on the reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) by Congress. Since that time, there were developments. But before I mention these developments, I’ll provide a brief summary of the background. The NFIP was set to expire last year on Sept. 30 without a reauthorization by Congress. The program carried debt in the tens of billions of dollars. Many parties sought changes to the program to make it more efficient and sustainable. However, instead of reauthorization, Congress temporarily extended the NFIP for three months. This is where my update from last issue ended. Now, I’ll provide the developments since last issue. That temporary extension was just the first of several short-term extensions. The last extension was passed by Congress in March of this year. It is set to expire at the end of July. Once again, it will be interesting to see how Congress handles NFIP reauthorization. Will it be another temporary extension, will it be reauthorized without significant changes or will it be reauthorized with significant changes? Only time will tell. I’ll provide another update in the December 2018 issue of General Insurance Insights.
Our goals with General Insurance Insights are to keep readers informed on topics of interest to general insurance actuaries and to develop the general insurance 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 General Insurance Insights, 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. In addition to this, we are also looking for ideas on GI continuing education offerings and writers (or ideas) for articles in upcoming issues of General Insurance Insights. Let me know if you would like to contribute.
Anthony Cappelletti, FSA, FCIA, FCAS, is a staff fellow for the SOA. He can be contacted at acappelletti@soa.org.