By Anthony Cappelletti
Welcome to the July 2019 issue 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). This edition includes a couple of articles on current issues facing the general insurance industry. The first article is “The Increasing Risk of Wildfire Catastrophes.” It’s one that I wrote which strives to inform our readers about the threat of catastrophes from wildfires and its effect on general insurance. The second article is “America has an Opioid Problem: Who’s Going to Pay to Fix it?” This article is by Amy J. Kallal and Tyler Flynn. It was originally published in the spring 2019 issue of AIRROC1 Matters and provides insights into the opioid crisis and how it may impact general liability policies.
In the past several issues of General Insurance Insights, SOA senior staff fellow Stuart Klugman, FSA, CERA, Ph.D., has provided updates on the NAIC’s review of the SOA GI Track. On May 31, 2019, the SOA was notified by the NAIC that the SOA’s GI track, after some modest changes to the syllabus, is an NAIC Accepted Actuarial Designation, meeting NAIC standards of a qualified actuary to sign the NAIC P&C actuarial opinion. This was great news for the SOA. This result was precisely what we were looking for when we originally approached the NAIC a number of years ago. Recognition of the SOA’s GI Track is an extremely positive statement about the track. On a personal note, it provided me with a sense of accomplishment as I have been part of the team working on this track since 2012. A great deal of work went into the track by many people. A big thank you to all of the volunteers and SOA staff that made this a reality. In this issue, Stuart provides readers with some details on this notification from the NAIC.
Also included in this issue:
- “General Insurance Research Update,” an update on the latest from the SOA’s Research efforts relevant to GI; and
- “GI PD Opportunities Update,” an update of professional development (PD) opportunities with significant GI relevant content.
Last issue, I provided an update on NFIP reauthorization. At that time, I noted that NFIP reauthorization has been replaced by a sequence of temporary extensions. The latest temporary extension was set to expire on May 31, 2019. On May 31, Congress passed a two-week extension of the NFIP. This was definitely a very short-term reauthorization. By the time this is published, we will already know what happened when this one expires. It will either be reauthorized without significant changes, with significant changes or another temporary extension will occur. Given the recent past, the most likely occurrence is another temporary extension. Hopefully a little longer than two weeks.
UPDATE: On June 6, Congress passed legislation with another temporary extension for the NFIP. This reauthorization is a little longer than the last one. It expires on September 30, 2019.
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 authors (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.
1 Historically known as the Association of Insurance & Reinsurance Run-Off Companies, this association now goes strictly by its acronym, AIRROC. From AIRROC’s website, “AIRROC’s MISSION is to promote and represent the interests of entities with legacy business by improving industry standards and enhancing knowledge and communications within and outside of the (re)insurance industry.” https://www.airroc.org/mission-statement