Description: The mismatch between how interest rate impacts the value of assets and liabilities could have material negative impact to companies’ earnings and surplus. To quantify and mitigate the impact of such mismatches, companies have used matching a combination of duration and convexity. I will review these measurement techniques and their limitations.

Description: As our industry rapidly adopts more advanced technologies, today's actuaries have more data and greater analytical capabilities than ever before. Nevertheless, these advancements come with their own set of challenges.Come explore the tools and techniques to optimize your processes and avoid common pitfalls so that you can get the most out of your experience studies.

Description: The rapid and persistent rise in rates has increased many insurer's concerns around liquidity, disintermediation, and overall ALM risk management. Learn an overview of ALM, including the goals and reasons for performing it, common approaches, and real-world examples of common pit falls and mistakes that have been made in the industry. Explore the differences in approaches, and the pros and cons of these various approaches.Learn about the importance of understanding the ALM approach, with clearly defined strategic objectives. Additionally,discover an understanding of the value to both managing risk and optimizing enterprise value. Come away with a deep appreciation for the value that a well-constructed ALM program can bring to valuation/capital planning/asset adequacy testing/pricing (life and annuity).

Description: Participate in a discussion with panelists from various functional areas andcompanies about the trend of increasing mutual attractions between private equity and insurance companies, the underlying strategic drivers from both sides, as well as the impact to both individual insurance companies and insurance industry as a whole. Take part in a conversation about the implications of insurers' obligations/changes to risk profiles and exposures when engaging offshore domicile of affiliated and unaffiliated reinsurers involved in the private equity-owned insurance business.

Description: In light of recent regulatory developments and international best practices, the Bermuda Monetary Authority has introduced proposed enhancements to the Bermuda regulatory framework for long-term commercial insurers. During this panel discussion, discuss the potential impacts of these proposed regulatory changes for existing commercial insurers and new entrants to the Bermuda life reinsurance market.

Description: "Hear AM Best rating analysts discuss the rating process and the best capital adequacy ratio (BCAR), a quantitative foundation for AM Best’s assessment of carriers’ financial strength. The benchmarking of BCAR scores for various company types (national MCOs, BCBS plans, smaller regional plans) will be discussed. Look at how changes in investment and underwriting environment impacted the results over the past several years. Further, AM Best’s view of the quality of capital and various factors impacting the overall assessment of the balance sheet strength will be discussed. By attending this session, you will: Gain an understanding of AM Best’s building block approach to ratings and how the BCAR results fit into the process. Learn the differences between RBC and BCAR models. Learn how various factors—e.g. liquidity, financial flexibility, financial leverage, the org structure—impact the final AM Best assessment of health companies' capital."

Description: The article introduces a cashflow matching strategic asset allocation (SAA) framework for life insurers. Given the recent shift to higher interest rates after two decades of persistent low interest rates, insurers have an opportunity to enhance their asset liability management by rebalancing asset portfolios to narrow duration gaps and attain higher risk-adjusted yields. The framework aims to align investment objectives with economic, regulatory, and rating agency requirements. It prioritizes cashflow matching as the primary optimization goal and incorporates security-level asset information to assist portfolio managers in executing SAA seamlessly. The article highlights the benefits of the cashflow matching SAA framework, including greater attention to cashflow matching, unbiased results, readily executable strategies, and stable economic reserves. A case study is included to demonstrate the effectiveness of the framework in improving risk-adjusted return and cashflow matching for a representative liability block.

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: The world of climate risk disclosures has seen dizzying levels of change in the last few years. In 2023, many regulators have publicly issued guidance on what insurance companies and other FIs should look to disclose. So what are we seeing in these disclosures and how do we use this information? Join our panel of experts to learn about the evolution of U.S. life insurance industry's climate disclosures and how insurers of all sizes and complexities are responding to NAIC's requirements.

Description: The introduction and effective application of US GAAP LDTI have increased the scrutiny of those reviewing the updated financial results. That is because LDTI has resulted in significant changes in actuarial reserving and deferred acquisition cost (DAC) models for long-duration contracts, including significant changes to data, assumptions and required disclosures. In light of the changes, greater reliance has been put on companies’ model risk management (MRM) teams and model validations to assess the conceptual soundness and accuracy of their companies’ actuarial models and to assess that the underlying data and process utilized are suitable and appropriate. This article covers a brief background on model validation, walk through a sample LDTI-focused model validation framework/test plan, then provide insights on common LDTI-related validation observations based on the authors' prior validation experience.