Description: Article describing content and key takeaways from experience completing the SOA PA Certificate

Description: Creating a predictive model is one thing, but then taking that model and getting full stakeholder buy-in is another. Learn from presenters' experiences and insights on proving model effectiveness in the long-term care (LTC), life and annuity spaces. Explore various topics such as feasibility, model transparency, fairness and equity, ROI measurement, data assets and compliance, infrastructure and more. By the end of the session, you will gain an understanding of how to navigate the challenges of proving the effectiveness of predictive modeling and obtaining management buy-in.

Description: Highlight the importance of assigning granular policyholder behavior assumptions to cohorts of a block that behave differently for universal life products. The case study assumption testing will focus on potential cash flow impacts of surrender, lapse and premium persistency behavior— individually and combined. The case study will be based on testing data related to typical demographics for a ULSG product and not on any specific company data.

Description: There has been a shift in finance and actuarial modernization in the insurance industry over the past 2 to 3 years. Discuss the latest trends in the marketplace and the key changes we see actuaries and actuarial employers needing to make in the future of work. Learn how actuarial work is evolving and about the changing manner in which work is performed. Brainstorm specific ways actuaries can thrive in the future, including performing more strategic work.

Description: As insurers search for ways to optimize the value of their actuaries, cloud-based data architecture has emerged as a leading solution to deliver quality data that enables the unlocking of actuarial potential. Hear an introduction to cloud based data architecture, explore cloud-based data strategies and view a live demo. Learn about different data “zones”, piping data between the zones, transforming data, and a collection of cloud-based tools that could be used for each one of these steps.

Description: Data science is being used to create more algorithms used across a variety of applications, including underwriting and pricing. As data science gains traction, it is imperative that we as actuaries consider the ethical implications of use of these algorithms. This session will discuss techniques for evaluating whether your algorithms are inadvertently making biased decisions and considerations for ensuring that your algorithms minimize risk of making biased decisions. Learn to identify potential ethical issues with their algorithms and techniques to address them.

Description: The actuarial profession is changing rapidly and the skills needed to be successful are also changing. In this session, we will debate key topics and questions, such as: What is the predominant future career path for actuaries? Specialists or generalists? Does the actuarial profession have a meaningful value prop outside our core domains e.g. insurance? What skills are needed for the actuary of the future? What’s the best approach to improve actuarial storytelling to non-actuarial audiences? What’s the role of actuaries to managing and predicting emerging trends and assumptions? What is the role of actuaries in relation to development and ownership of advanced modeling? Is the future actuarial profession smaller/larger than it is today? In either case, how does it differ from today in terms of make-up, deployment, function, purpose, value add, etc.?

Description: Internal modernization initiatives and external changes of the financial reporting regulations (e.g., LDTI, IFRS 17) increase the amount of validation activities for actuarial models. In addition, the use of predictive analytics in actuarial modeling requires a different set of validation skillsets/techniques in model validation. These internal and external forces call for a structured, streamlined and robust model validation practice.

Description: "As digitization and automation rapidly progress in today’s life and health industry, issues with misrepresentation during the insurance application process are also becoming a growing concern for insurers around the globe. A recent survey finds that misrepresentation in application forms costs the average insurance customer an estimated 5% to 10% in higher premiums. In order to reduce this risk, insurers must find and correct areas of misrepresentation, consult post-issue sampling, review the automated underwriting processes, and monitor the quality of financial advisory firms. Learn how predictive disclosure modeling detects and reduces misrepresentation by harnessing readily available underwriting data to analyze issues, helping insurers understand various drivers for disclosure rates and areas of misrepresentation.Advantages of this modeling to various stakeholders in the life insurance journey include improved risk selection, claims experience, and reinsurance terms for insurers. For customers, it leads to increased certainty of coverage, payout of the claim, and ultimately lower premiums on average. By the end of the session, attendees will understand: The disclosure modeling process at a high level The technical details of a standard approach to disclosure modeling: data cleaning, standardization, visualization, and predictive modeling Success stories about how predictive disclosure modeling has impacted insurers"

Description: The session will highlight trends in recent industry mortality and lapse studies that have been conducted, including areas where individual companies typically have limited data. The sources of data feature SOA studies as well as other industry studies conducted by consultants and/or reinsurers. Gain an understanding of current drivers of mortality and lapse experience for life insurance evidenced in industry studies, and an understanding of available data to supplement experience in areas where you may have limited internal experience.