2020 Asia Pacific Virtual Symposium

Presenters: 2020 Asia-Pacific Annual Symposium Organizing Committee; Lisa S. Kuklinski, FSA, MAAA, SOA Board of Directors; Andrew D. Rallis, FSA, MAAA, SOA President

Moderator: Matthew Jordan Mohr, FSA, MAAA

Presenters: Robert T. Eaton, FSA, MAAA

The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the traditional business models of insurers and actuaries. Actuaries responded to the advent of the virus in many ways, personally and professionally. Following-up from the article, Actuaries in the Time of Coronavirus, this session will present examples of models that actuaries and their teams have built to address the challenges of coronavirus. The speaker will also discuss ways that actuaries have worked in cross-disciplinary teams, drawing on expertise from traditional insurance backgrounds, medical backgrounds, and other sciences.

Moderator: Matthew Jordan Mohr, FSA, MAAA

Presenters: Rob Curtis, Thanita Anusonadisai FSA, CERA; Wai Yi Lee

Moderator: Matthew Jordan Mohr, FSA, MAAA

Presenters: Charles Hill, FSA, CERA, FCIA, MAAA, Gavin Maistry, FSA, CERA, Hassan Kamil, FSA; Vincent Chen, FSA

Moderator: Boon Yoon Ho, FSA, CERA, FCIA

Presenters: Haibo Liu, FSA, CERA; Pu (Paul) Sheng, FSA

This session focuses on how digital footprint & big data can allow for better understanding of human behaviors and latent tendencies that are currently not measurable by the traditional underwriting approach. On this topic, the session will introduce various digital footprint use cases in the current insurance industry, it will also cover the depiction of possible big data enabled risk analytic framework and the potential applications. In the end it will also touch on future development of this approach including how AI can be applied in the advancement of this approach.

Moderator: Boon Yoon Ho, FSA, CERA, FCIA

Presenters: Julian Balasingam

This session will focus on the increasing importance of customer centricity in life insurance products and how advanced analytics offer the best opportunity for life insurers to implement a more customer centric approach. It will explore what it means to be customer centric, why it’s becoming more important, how this focus affects life insurance products, and what the industry can expect going forward with regards to how advanced data analytics will impact customer centricity.

The session will also touch on the important role actuaries and actuarial teams within life insurer companies can expect to play in this transformation in the years to come.

Moderator: Cheryl Liu, FSA, CERA

Presenters: Yannick Even

Part 1

• Key trends impacting our industry creating the need for digital innovation
• Emerging Asian middle class with no risk score but expecting digital/mobile solutions
• Mobile & IOT data for the 5G world
• Regulation pushing more direct distribution to bridge the gap for customer benefits

Part 2

• Emerging AI-enabled solutions across APAC
• The value chain and across Lobs
• Predictive Underwriting
• Inforce analytics
• Claims analytics & AI triage
• Early Warning systems

Part 3

• Scaling AI solutions- Impact and Challenges

Moderator: Cheryl Liu, FSA, CERA

Presenters: Ting Dai, FSA, CERA

The next generation of underwriting is key in order to better control risk and create a smooth process for the client. The presenter will share their experience on how to leverage AI techniques to build innovative underwriting solutions. This session will also address internal (for the insurance companies) and external (for insured) methodologies implemented in different regions of the world. The modeling life cycle, different modeling approaches (GLM vs ensemble methods) and the use state-of-the art techniques to interpret models will also be discussed.

Moderator: Martin Choo; Dennis Wen Wei Ng

Presenters: R. Dale Hall, FSA, CERA, MAAA

Moderator: R. Dale Hall, FSA, CERA, MAAA

Presenters: Elvin Seet-Yeow Tharm, FSA; Calvin Chiu, FSA

This is an follow up to a 2019 presentation where the audience learned about the 5 pillars of the retirement model, which require all stakeholders including the government, employers, retirement service providers and individuals to jointly tackle this important yet complicated issue of retirement readiness. This presentation will provide an update on the retirement systems across Asia. Three case studies covering the pension reform journey from China, Malaysia and HK will be presented. Through the case studies, the audience will learn about the different approaches that different markets have taken, the successes they have accomplished as well as challenges going forward. These experiences present valuable insights for other markets and industry practitioners as they think about setting up their pension systems or enhancing their current ones.

Moderator: R. Dale Hall, FSA, CERA, MAAA

Presenters: Kay Ying Shong, FSA, CERA

Life and health insurers, as well as reinsurers have developed life and critical illness (CI) plans of different forms, in Southeast Asia in the past decade. Currently, many are also trying to develop the next-gen CI products. This session will address the latest developments in the CI product landscape in Southeast Asia and will outline the risk considerations and mitigation as food for thought for the audience.

Moderator: Paul Setio Kartono, ASA, CFA, FSAI, MAAA

Presenters: Paul Manson; William Halley

Traditionally, insurers assume constant volatility during the investment process, and do not assume asset-liability interaction. Given the complexity of life insurance liability, a new approach is deemed necessary. This presentation will introduce and elaborate on the approach that utilizes a stochastic ALM model and big data analytics to assess the impact on portfolio risk/return when changing strategic asset allocation. The new approach assumes stochastic volatility and considers asset-liability interaction. This is particularly relevant to life insurance as investment planning assumes a long investment horizon that matches the term of liability. Big data analytics is utilized so that the management can use visualized results to analyze different aspects of the SAA portfolio, make decisions, and monitor the portfolio as it develops.

Moderator: Paul Setio Kartono, ASA, CFA, FSAI, MAAA

Presenters: Valerie Gilles-Coeur; Kenneth Lo

The insurance business is built on shareholders' capital and every now and then, bond issuance. Reinsurance is regarded as a volatility protection tool. Little by little with the new reforms ahead of our industry (IFRS17, ICS, new capital regimes) and the disappointing returns delivered by some of us, we observe investors dis-interest for the industry insurance (esp. in Korea). We propose to consider reinsurance as an additional tool to manage companies' financial soundness. On top of enabling insurers to keep their capital requirement under control, reinsurance also provides volatility protection and may help insurers deliver attractive KPIs to investors. This session will discuss when reinsurance would be a "good deal" versus an increase in shareholders' equity. This will be explained through case studies that explain how reinsurance can be used strategically for Life and Health companies, or for a General Insurer to comply with regulatory capital requirements (RBC), or in order to maximize the company valuation (i.e. attractiveness for investors). We will also explain how actuaries should assess the cost / return of different options to help their company select the best solution for them.

Moderator: Paul Setio Kartono, ASA, CFA, FSAI, MAAA

Presenters: Dennis Chiu, FSA

After over 20 years of development, the new insurance accounting regime will replace the current IFRS 4 starting 1 January 2023. The transition date, as defined in IFRS 17, will be one year prior to the effective date, i.e. 1 January 2022. Entities are required to “reset” their balance sheet at the transition date. This will be a one-off exercise that may lead to long-lasting impacts.

Having the right starting point for the new accounting regime involves a number of strategic decisions that are constrained by accounting requirements, operational feasibility and financial and business objectives. IFRS 17 includes specific requirements for transition but also includes some optionality which gives entities flexibilities in getting to the right starting point. Understanding what is required and where accounting choices exist would enable management to make well-informed strategic decisions. It is crucial that entities develop a transition plan involving all the stakeholders at an early stage in order to ensure a smooth transition to the new regime.

Moderator: Paul Setio Kartono, ASA, CFA, FSAI, MAAA

Presenters: Ang Sock Sun

Insights from APAC entities’ IFRS 17 programme strategy, progress and challenges

Presenters: 2020 Asia-Pacific Annual Symposium Organizing Committee

Presenters: Raymond Tam, FSA

Moderator: Billy Wong, FSA

Presenters: Hassan Odierno, FSA