Description: The actuarial profession and our stakeholders in the insurance industry are in a unique position to help quantify and mitigate environmental risks via pricing and benefit incentives. Property insurance prices and benefits can encourage responsible and sustainable development. By developing insurance markets and making various types of insurance available in developing regions, which are disproportionately affected by environmental risks and hazards, we can provide protection that is critical for economic development. In spite of the risks posed by environmental issues to actuaries and our stakeholders, and in spite of the opportunities for actuaries and our stakeholders to address environmental risks, actuarial literature is limited with respect to such topics as: environmental risks, including natural disasters, pollution, clean air and water, degradation of the natural and human environment, resource depletion and sustainability, climate change and its consequences; local, national, regional and global efforts to address environmental risks; methods and models used by the scientific community to study environmental risks; methods and assumptions used to quantify the economic or financial risk associated with environmental hazards. This webcast will feature three of the papers addressing these topics that have been published so far in this series of twelve papers. The authors of the papers will present their topics and attendees will be able to participate with questions and answers.

Description: Actuary Dave Dillon describes his role volunteering his time as a teacher in higher education, including the rewards and challenges that teaching offers. He discusses the importance of being attentive to his audience’s pre-existing knowledge and adapting his presentations accordingly. His work as a teacher typically encompasses three distinct domains: 1) acquainting young students with the actuarial profession, 2) educating non-actuaries about public policy issues related to health insurance (including the Affordable Care Act), and 3) instructing current actuaries on advanced methodologies and principles within the field. Recently he taught a health insurance course for actuarial science graduate students at Georgia State University and lectured at Boise State University’s master's program in Population & Health Systems Management. In every teaching and mentoring opportunity, actuaries can contribute to the expansion and prosperity of the profession and are encouraged to pursue these endeavors.

Description: Update of climate risk related governance and disclosure.

Description: The Life Meeting, is the result of combining the Life & Annuity Symposium (LAS) and the Valuation Actuarial Symposium (ValAct). The Life Meeting will offer sessions specific to pricing and valuation as well as sessions on emerging issues relevant to both groups. These common themes include InsurTech, diversity, accounting change and the current economic environment.

Description: In September 2017, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) issued the “C-ROSS Phase II project construction plan”, planned to be used across three years’ time, by perfecting the regulations, improving the operational mechanism and strengthening the regulatory cooperation.

Description: There is a growing amount of “off-balance sheet” talent in the US and Global workforce. This spans from consultants and contractors, to gig workers and the crowd (both curated crowd and open crowd). One such example is Uber and Lyft workers. Insurance companies and the Actuarial profession have started to experiment with platforms such as Kaggle and this will continue to grow and evolve. This article explores these new sources of talent for companies, the implications to the actuarial function, benefits and challenges of the evolving workforce.

Description: The Research Executive Committee (REC) of the SOA Research Institute oversees the funding of the Emerging Issues Pool. This key source of research funding is used to sponsor projects that are beneficial to the entire profession, across practice area boundaries that may require funding levels beyond the normal annual funding budgets of research committees and sections. The REC is issuing this Request for Proposals (RFP) to fulfill the strategic goals of the organization through the use of this pool for funding new projects.

Description: Discover a comparison of U.S. and international mandated leave programs which mandate employers to provide a minimum level of benefits to employees for qualifying leaves of absence, such as parental leave or medical leave.

Description: As the insurance industry continues to evolve due to a pandemic and rapidly changing economic and regulatory conditions, the role of data scientists and actuaries has become increasingly important. In an interview with the Atidot data science and actuarial team, we discuss what it is like to work at an InsurTech, how data scientists and actuaries can collaborate, and look at some concrete technical examples of where the innovation is having an impact. This article explores what collaboration can look like and how the role of data science and actuary may evolve in the InsurTech industry in the future.

Description: Notes on the IAA meeting that took place in D.C. in May