Description: Economic capital is an embedded part of the banking risk management and regulatory framework. The insurance industry has relied on rating agency and regulatory formulas that have been criticized as overcapitalizing and not appropriately differentiating risk drivers in the capital formulation. The emergence of C-3 Phase I and C-3 Phase II have introduced an economic approach to capital in the insurance industry. This half-day seminar takes a detailed look at the subject of economic capital. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries 2005, Volume 31, No. 1: 2005 New Orleans Life Spring Meeting, May 22-24, 2005, Session 9 Seminar.

Description: Presented at September 1995 Valuation Actuary Symposium. Discusses the Health Organization Risk-Based Capital formula.

Description: In recent years a lot of time has been spent discussing a variety of different ways to measure the performance of an insurance company. One of the dominating concepts in the discussion of this has been 'Economic Capital' and with this the question of allocation of the [Economic] Capital with the intention of introducing a risk related measure of performance. In this paper, the authors view the performance measuring as a question of determining the appropriate distribution of a risk loading for participants in a risk pool having the overall risk priced by an actuarial premium principle. They show that the covariance principle can be found as the optimal solution to this risk sharing problem and show that the covariance principle fulfills some reasonable requirements. They furthermore suggest how the covariance principle can be at the basis of a target setting procedure for a multi-line insurance company.

Description: In this article, we summarize inflationary factors that may result in a sharp increase in interest rates and implications for life insurer convexity risk exposure, most notably to dynamic policyholder lapsation. We further provide insights into potential ALM strategies to mitigate this convexity risk. Due to the prolonged low-interest rate environment and low minimum interest rate guarantees offered to policyholders, liability convexity is higher than prior historical periods, which results in life insurers’ ALM positions being extremely vulnerable to short-term interest rate spikes. Convexity mismatches cause issues for life insurers under both rising and declining interest rate scenarios. This means that life insurers are not compensated for taking convexity risk and, therefore, convexity matching should always be considered in the asset optimization process. There are mixed signals from policymakers and financial markets regarding potential inflationary and sharply rising interest rate scenarios. The key takeaway is that life insurers are not compensated for taking convexity risk and it is the right time for insurers to review convexity exposure. There are different approaches available to mitigate convexity exposure through rebalancing of asset positions and hedges within each life insurer’s risk limits.

Description: This article discusses the whys and hows of managing risk and capital at the enterprise level.

Description: Presented at May 2005 Spring Meeting. Panelists discuss annuity risk management, with particular focus on RBC and the proposed Actuarial Guideline on reserving, and how this can be applied to new product development as well as in-force product management.

Description: The International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) continues its development of the Insurance Capital Standard (ICS) with the introduction of ICS 1.0 in summer 2017 and plans for ICS 2.0 in 2019. This session will provide updates on the development of the standards and summarize insights from Field Testing and ICS Consultations. This session will deliver an overview of the framework and provide industry and regulatory perspectives on potential implications and next steps.

Description: Introduction and table of contents of essay collection.

Description: This article discusses a good way for insurance companies to calibrate economic capital (tail risk level) that is consistent with the market opinion on its risk. It also establishes a bridge between a risk neutral evaluation and a real world evaluation.

Description: In this article, we provide practical guidance for understanding how to develop and apply an effective risk appetite statement.