Description: Insurance is a technically demanding, risk-based, capital intensive business. It is therefore not surprising that the industry is fertile ground for the development of technical models used to measure and price risk and manage capital. This session presents the forces which have significantly influenced the evolution of risk and capital management techniques and organization in the insurance industry, including regulatory changes, financial market instability, enlightened self-interest and ultimately a focus on shareholder value creation. Combining over 20 years in the industry in risk and finance roles with a rigorous academic approach, the presenter will provide insights into the most important business questions which insurers face today and the technical tools and frameworks used to answer them.

Description: Breakout Sessions 1A: The Fundamentals of Pricing for Underwriters

Description: Milliman Risk Score will now consider an applicant's Rx and Credit Data. RGA has developed a comprehensive DHD platform and scoring algorithm to transform raw DHD into actionable underwriting assessments. Both new tools will be presented.

Description: In this mock jury trial, a life insurance company defends their underwriting process. The audience, as the jury, will render the verdict.

Description: This session will provide an update on international implications of current tax developments affecting the life insurance industry, including: International add-on taxes from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) Base Erosion Anti-Abuse Tax (BEAT) and impacts on offshore reinsurance An overview of the Global Intangible Low-Taxed Income (GILTI) tax Legislative activities impacting company taxation

Description: The world is changing at an increasing pace and is disrupting everything from how one orders goods and services to how they take a taxi or Uber. Increasingly, this disruption is affecting the work of actuaries. Moreover, actuaries are being asked to provide more value-added services. Not only is this requiring actuaries to leverage exponential technologies not traditionally used in the insurance industry, but it is also impacting the types of staffing and training models utilized by actuaries. With a broader trend to alternative workforce arrangements, such as the gig economy and crowdsourcing, how will actuaries transition to this new future of working? What are the different types of off-balance sheet workers? How can companies create a strategy to deal with the hybrid workforce that involves different types of workers, cross-country borders, and other changes? This session will outline how actuaries and actuarial functions can successfully prepare themselves for this change.

Description: With the halfway point of the transition period in the rear view mirror, many companies are well underway with their VM-20 implementation and analysis efforts. Beyond attempting to master the new rules of the road, actuaries have discovered new effects of product design and assumption setting. Panelists in this session will discuss their experiences with VM-20 reserves for various products and designs, their applications of actuarial judgement and the areas where even they don’t have all the answers. The audience is encouraged to bring their questions and also to share their insights.

Description: Vast sums of private equity are flowing into start-ups intent on lowering healthcare trend. This presents a huge challenge for insurance company actuaries to stay current on such start-ups and the innovations they're advancing. Further, it can be overwhelming to evaluate the many vendors eager to sell their services to the company. This session will provide an overview of the start-up and private equity process, review some of the emerging innovators, and discuss approaches to evaluate their Return on Investment (ROI) as efficiently as possible.

Description: Papers: Quantification and Management of Longevity Risk in China – Johnny Li, FSA, ACIA, Ph.D. - Univeristy of Melbourne, Kenneth Q. Zhou, ASA, ACIA, Ph.D. - Arizona State University, Wai-Sun Chan, FSA, CERA, Ph.D. - The Chinese University of Hong Kong A Value-Based Longevity Index for Hedging Retirement Income Portfolios – Kevin Krahe, Jonathan Ziveyi, Ph.D., Michael Sherris, FSA, FIAA, FIA, Andres M. Villegas, Ph.D. - UNSW Australia

Description: Dr Horvath's research lies at the intersection of aging research, epidemiology, chronic diseases, epigenetics, genetics, and systems biology. He works on all aspects of biomarker development with a particular focus on genomic biomarkers of aging. He developed a highly accurate multi-tissue biomarker of aging known as the epigenetic clock. Dr Horvath developed systems biologic approaches such as weighted gene co-expression network analysis which lend themselves for integrating gene genomic data sets. These methods have been used for a broad spectrum of age-related diseases including neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, cardiovascular disease. Dr. Horvath received a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 1995 and a Doctorate of Science in Biostatistics from the Harvard School of Public Health in 2000.