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: This article provides an overview of the GI Course within the SOA’s Climate Risk Certificate Program

Description: Organizations representing the actuarial professions in Canada and the United States have updated the Actuaries Climate Index (ACI) with data from the winter of 2018–19, with the 1.00 value for the season contributing to an upward trend in the average ACI value for winter.

Description: 2020 and 2021 presented numerous challenges to life and annuity product development actuaries. External forces required carriers to rethink underwriting requirements and risk assessment in real time. Alterations in regulatory frameworks and statutory requirements forced changes to product development priorities while alterationsin the work environment forced changes in how work routines were structured. This session will bring together a group of life and annuity stakeholders to discuss how they addressed these and other challenges, and how their work will be impacted going forward.

Description: The Society of Actuaries (SOA) Research Institute received a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) to educate insurance actuaries on the use of wildfire risk datasets and models to be developed by researchers from academia and the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Description: Product opportunities in the new interest rate environment

Description: A preview of the details and content of the new Certificate in Climate Risk to be offered by the SOA beginning in early 2023.

Description: The five-year moving average of the Actuaries Climate Index (ACI) reached a new high for the sixth consecutive quarter, according to the latest data release that includes summer 2019.

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?

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.