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: An opinion about the consolidation of actuarial organizations.

Description: The goal of this paper is to examine similarities between value investing and enterprise risk management (ERM) methods.

Description: The articles discusses how Principles-based approaches PBA to setting reserves and capital can be combined with Enterprise Risk Management to create a competitive advantage for an insurance company. Those companies can leverage these models by combining unique risks and strategies to measure and manage risk.

Description: GDP growth has slowed as numerous headwinds have emerged. This article summarizes a research paper by Mark Alberts and Max Rudolph that addresses reasons why this is so and how risk managers can address using scenarios.

Description: This article discusses that while life style funds make sense for some, a growing minority of individuals successfully make their own investment decisions. It points out that these options should be kept available and that if proper education is provided the informed investor population would grow.

Description: Web page with link to research report that describes the current state of Enterprise Risk Management practices for health organizations.

Description: Dealing with more known unknowns? More scary knowns? Or unknown unknowns? What is the next unthinkable? What future events should actuaries actively be modelling and keep us up at night? The Catastrophe & Climate Strategic Research Program of the Society of Actuaries Research Institute (SOA) put forth a call for essays exploring these risks. The Program Steering Committee selected these essays submitted by Sam Gutterman and Max Rudolph to publish, and are awarding them each a prize of $500. The Catastrophe & Climate Strategic Research Program Steering Committee congratulates the authors and is happy to publish the winning essays on the SOA website.

Description: Initiated by the Financial Reporting Section, this paper explores rising interest rates. Following this path, the paper will look at implications of interest rate changes for the life insurance industry, current stress testing practices, and how a risk manager can proactively prepare for an uncertain future. A paper published in 2014 focused on why rates could stay low, and some aspects of this paper are similar (e.g., description of insurance products). This paper also uses a sample model office to help practitioners look at their own exposures. It includes typical interest-sensitive insurance products and how they might perform across various scenarios, as well as a survey to establish current practices for how insurers are testing interest rate risk currently.

Description: Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been our chosen metric for growth since the Great Depression, but expectations are for lower GDP growth going forward than we are accustomed to. Its two components, population and productivity, face headwinds—population from a declining birth rate and longevity, and productivity from increased climate events, energy costs, global conflict and raw materials shortages. Comparing demographic results from the U.S., China and Nigeria, representing countries with varying population growth rates, illustrates the potential economic growth issues of aging populations and high dependency ratios. The demographic challenges can be turned into opportunities to broaden prosperity; productivity can be improved by providing a level playing field and helping those in the lowest socioeconomic classes find opportunities. These topics and more will be discussed and enhance foresight about them.