Edition

GI PD Opportunities Update

By Anthony Cappelletti

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Editor’s Note: SOA in-person events in 2022 are being held in locations where the COVID-19 pandemic is deemed to be under control and government restrictions on travel and public gatherings are no longer in place. Furthermore, in-person events in 2022 may be offered on a hybrid basis in which some or all of the content is offered virtually.

The following is a list of recent professional development (PD) opportunities, offered by the SOA, with general insurance (GI) relevant content:

  • “How to Be an Effective Leader Using EQ and AQ,” Jan. 13, Webcast
  • “Digital Transformation: Customer Engagement and Data Science,” April 12, Webcast
  • “Blockchain and Current & Future Adoption in the Insurance Space,” May 4, Webcast
  • “The SOA Asia-Pacific Annual Symposium,” June 6–7, Online
  • “Predictive Analytics Seminar,” June 9, Online

If you missed a webcast, remember that recordings of past webcasts are available on-demand.

Session planning is underway for the 2022 SOA ImpACT Conference. The conference is scheduled as a hybrid event. It will be held in Orlando, October 23–26 and virtually October 26–28. Please be sure to submit any session proposals you may have for GI relevant topics.

The SOA offers the following GI relevant e-courses for PD:

  • Applications of Statistical Techniques for Professional Development e-Course, and
  • Enterprise Risk Management e-Course.

Additionally, the SOA now offers three certificate programs, all of which are relevant to GI:

  • IFRI Certificate,
  • Predictive Analytics Certificate, and
  • Ethical & Responsible Use of Data Certificate.

Be sure to have a look at the SOA’s webpage for professional development opportunities. The webpage allows filtering on many levels to facilitate searching for opportunities. It also includes links to past events that may include access to the presentation slide deck.

Reading actuarial papers is a good source of PD. The North American Actuarial Journal often includes papers that are relevant to GI. GI relevant articles published online in March included:

  • “The Economic Impact of Extreme Cyber Risk Scenarios,” by Martin Eling, et al.
  • “How Much Telematics Information Do Insurers Need for Claim Classification?” by Francis Duval, et al.
  • “A Nonproportional Premium Rating Method for Construction Risks,” by Daniel Abramson.

The SOA’s digital publication, The Actuary, often includes articles that are relevant to GI. Recently posted articles that are GI relevant include:

  • “Addressing Insurance Fraud,” by Vahid Mirjalili.
  • “Agricultural Insurance Must Adapt,” by Rémi Villeneuve.
  • “Big Data, Big Discussions,” interview of Neil Sprackling by Stephen Abrokwah .
  • “Improving Strategic Risk Management,” by Bryon Robidoux.
  • “Tools to Tackle Climate Challenges,” by Priya Rohatgi.

Reading research papers can be a good source of professional development. Check out the SOA Research Institute for GI relevant research at SOA General Insurance Research, SOA Catastrophe & Climate Research and SOA Risk Management Research. SOA GI relevant research posted on online from November 2021 to March 2022 include the following:

  • “Potential Impacts of Climate Change on U.S. Inland Flood Risk by Mid Century”
  • “Actuarial Weather Extremes: December 2021”
  • “15th Emerging Risks Key Finding”
  • “Municipalities and Climate Change”
  • “A Tool for Tabulating Johns Hopkins University's Coronavirus Database”
  • “Iowa Tornados: March 5, 2022”
  • “Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) Best Practices”

The SOA counts on everyone’s support and ideas to make the most of our continuing education opportunities. If you have any GI specific (or GI relevant) ideas for seminars, meeting sessions, and webcast topics, or would like to write a GI relevant article, please forward them to SOA Staff Fellow Anthony Cappelletti at acappelletti@soa.org.

There are also volunteer opportunities to work on the GI Track exams as an item writer and/or grader. Refer to the SOA website for volunteering—select View Volunteer Opportunities and then select General Insurance Exams Item Writers.

In addition to offerings from the SOA, many GI PD opportunities are expected to be held during the year from other sources. For example, from March to May of this year, the following were offered by other organizations:

  • In March, the American Academy of Actuaries held the webinar “Wildfire Lessons Learned and State of Wildfire Risk Modeling,” the Casualty Actuarial Society Spring Meeting was held as a hybrid event, the International Association of Actuaries held the ASTIN webinar “Discrimination-Free Insurance Pricing,” and Pinnacle Actuaries Resources Inc. held the webinar “Commercial Auto Insurance: Moving Right Along.”
  • In April, the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries held the webinar “Mind the Gap—Safely Incorporating Deep Learning Models into the Actuarial Toolkit,” the International Association of Actuaries held the ASTIN webinar “Climate Science: A Summary for Actuaries,” the National Association of Insurance Commissioners held the Spring 2022 NAIC National Meeting as a hybrid event, and PropertyCasualty360 held the webinar “Make Smarter, Better and Faster Underwriting Decisions with Location Intelligence.”
  • In May, the Actuaries Institute of Australia held the hybrid event “All-Actuaries Summit,” the Casualty Actuarial Society held their CAS Spring Meeting as a hybrid event, and the European Actuarial Academy held the online event “EAA e-Conference on Data Science & Data Ethics.”

Statements of fact and opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and are not necessarily those of the Society of Actuaries, the editors, 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.