Description: The SOA Investment Section is holding a three-part Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) Investment Considerations Webcast Series in September and October, which will cover the challenges and implementation. This series is suited for actuaries, consultants, plan sponsors and asset managers that work with insurance companies or pension funds and want to learn more about the latest in ESG. The increasing focus on climate change and recent social movements witnessed globally brought many institutional investors to further think about and perhaps reevaluate, the way they integrate ESG factors into their investment decisions. This new reality raises many questions: what's next for ESG in the institutional space? What will be the challenges? How will institutional investors go beyond the basics? What are current and future ESG needs and who will meet them? This will be the first of three educational sessions aimed at taking the conversation on ESG integration to the next level. During this webcast, you will hear from a panel of various types of asset owners who will share their perspectives, challenges and learnings in the journey to implementing their ESG views, including in the context of a pandemic. The discussion will start broadly, and narrow down to some of the most pressing topics today with the focus on climate change resilience and adaptation of assets.

Description: Where once an insurer's chief investment officer (CIO) reigned supreme over assets-aided and sometimes hindered by the involvement of a chief risk officer (CRO)-these days managing portfolio risk and return seems to be an altogether more complex affair. No less of this complexity has come from the expansion by insurers into illiquid assets in the last decade. Moving away from traditional assets has raised scrutiny of liquidity risk management, but how do insurers tackle this? In a world 'brimming with large and growing portfolio allocations to illiquid private assets,' liquidity management concerns are distinct from a typical CRO's portfolio or asset risk orientation. There's a need to look at all aspects of a fund's liquidity demands and sources, such as top-down asset allocation, bottom-up private market deal-making activities, and internal and external operations. A dedicated liquidity management function should also be able to identify both explicit and potential liquidity demands and sources and, in particular, stay in touch with market movements and the regulatory environment. It should identify, evaluate and keep at-the-ready possible external liquidity facilities-for example, the secondary market for private equity stakes, a collateralized portfolio liquidity line, a repurchase agreement or a futures program. A high-quality liquidity management team can also identify when a fund has too much liquidity, the cost of being overly cautious and how to put excess liquidity to work.

Description: Discuss a comparison of the U.S. general and insured population mortality experience and how COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 excess deaths impacted the populations differently. Discover the population mortality experience in the UK with a focus on the recent emergence of excess deaths for non-COVID causes. The long-term implications on the insured population will also be explored. Wrap up with a discussion of different conditions of long COVID, including organ impairments.

Description: Discuss a comparison of the U.S. general and insured population mortality experience and how COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 excess deaths impacted the populations differently. Discover the population mortality experience in the UK with a focus on the recent emergence of excess deaths for non-COVID causes. The long-term implications on the insured population will also be explored. Wrap up with a discussion of different conditions of long COVID, including organ impairments.

Description: Bringing together industry experts spanning investment management and property/casualty insurance, this panel discussion will take the audience beyond spelling ESG correctly and will share their insights about what Environmental Social Governance is.

Description: The growing global recognition of the importance of climate-related risks (transition and physical) has triggered a significant demand for research on the interface between climate and actuarial sciences, for example on the impact of risks from climate change on insurance markets and their operations. Furthermore, the systemic nature of climate-related risks underpins actuaries’ need to engage and work with diverse groups of stakeholders, including clients, communities, governments, regulators, boards, and investors. Contributions are invited for a special issue of the Annals of Actuarial Science featuring research on the topic ‘Managing Climate-Related Risks’. This special issue aims to capture leading interdisciplinary thinking, with clear relevance to actuarial problems in pensions and insurance.

Description: Bringing together industry experts spanning investment management and property/casualty insurance, this panel discussion will take the audience beyond spelling ESG correctly and will share their insights about what Environmental Social Governance is. Following is a sampling of the questions the panel will address: How did we get to the current economic state of ESG? Why is ESG controversial, and how has it become controversial? Does integrating ESG into the investment process enhance returns?