Description: This discussion looks at the problems considered in drafting war-aviation clauses, plans for mitigating catastrophe hazard with respect to policyholders in the event of a major war, and steps which may be taken to minimize war disruptions of life insurance home office operations.

Description: This article summarizes the results of the eleventh annual survey of emerging risks.

Description: In a well-designed enterprise risk management (ERM) program, the firm integrates risk management into the strategic planning process, addressing strategic risk, financial risk, operational risk and hazard risk under a single overarching process. This is particularly important to large financial firms, such as property and casualty (P&C) insurers, which face a diverse set of risks. In contrast to previous studies that document a significant product line and geographic diversification discount relative to more focused competitors, our analysis suggests that firms with effective ERM programs exhibit a performance premium. Using the Standard and Poor’s (S&P) ERM ratings from 2006 to 2012, we find that product line diversification has a significant positive effect on value for more diversified firms with well-implemented ERM programs, as compared to those with weak ERM.

Description: This report summarizes the major findings from the 14th (2020) emerging risk survey.

Description: This survey attempts to track the thoughts of risk managers about emerging risks across time. It is the 14th survey of emerging risks sponsored by the Canadian Institute of Actuaries (CIA), Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS) and Society of Actuaries (SOA). The researcher thanks the Financial Reporting and Reinsurance Sections for their financial support, and the Joint Risk Management Section for logistics and governance.

Description: The article summarizes the SOA survey conducted of risk professionals regarding their understanding of important risk terms. The results contain perceptions by individuals and also firm-level information. Survey responses clearly demonstrated high differences in risk definitions.

Description: The Chinese insurance market is grappling with product innovation, business growth and regulatory oversight as it tries to keep pace with a sharp growth in demand across product segments. In this context, the authors have highlighted insurance trends in China, based on available research and literature, with a particular focus on topics that will drive the enterprise risk management (ERM) function of insurance companies. ERM provides an opportunity for insurers to identify and mitigate potential insurance risks by enhancing their policies and risk management activities. This report explores the insurance trends in detail, drawing on findings from interviews of practitioners in the Chinese market, to provide context for the drivers of ERM transformation.

Description: Panel discusses securitization as a popular method for improving returns and clearing up balance sheets. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 23, No. 3., Session 74 PD of the Washington Annual Meeting

Description: Much of enterprise risk management has its roots in portfolio management and corporate finance. The concepts of trading off risk and return and benefits of diversification are well understood and articulated in both the actuarial and economics fields, so I don’t believe there are significant knowledge gaps preventing actuaries from contributing to the field. In fact, actuaries may have an advantage in many situations where a large part of a firm’s overall risk arises from pension activities or other more typical actuarial risks.

Description: This article discusses new developments on the regulatory front. Under the new agreement, insurance company management and boards will be required to issue a statement that reflects their judgment about the firm’s viability, including its capital adequacy. The required opinion will have five elements - identifying risks, measuring risks, a risk feedback loop, a risk tolerance statement, and a risk policy.