Description: Amid the growing adoption of AI/ML models for underwriting and pricing, Life and Annuity carriers are facing increasing regulation in North America on Model Risk Management (MRM) and the use of AI. Colorado has set a precedent in the US by requiring reporting in June 2024, with other states looking to follow suit. To ensure compliance, Chief Risk Officers and Heads of MRM, working with their business partners, will need to evolve their MRM and AI risk frameworks, enhance model validation capabilities, and strengthen governance. This session will present: - Key trends and challenges faced by carriers amid increasing model landscape complexity and regulatory expectations - Regulatory outlook and implications for carriers' MRM and AI risk programs - An approach to enhance MRM and AI risk frameworks, including specific model validation program updates to address the unique risks of AI/ML models - Opportunities to enhance both MRM validation effectiveness and efficiency through the adoption of more risk-based approaches, smart sourcing, and automation - Case studies of how leading carriers are evolving their MRM and AI risk programs Upon attending the session, the attendees will develop a good understanding of increasing regulatory expectations, the required MRM and AI risk framework enhancements, and approaches to design and execute an effective MRM validation program in a cost-efficient manner.

Description: Recent and potential near future extreme experiences are leading us to a new normal rather than back to the prior environment. Learn more about several examples of past Regime Changes along with a detailed discussion of how recent disruptions lead toward a persistent change in the business, social and political environment. Come develop an understanding of these drivers of change as well as the likely impacts on the Financial Services industry.

Description: The COVID-19 pandemic has been an acute reminder of the material impacts that pandemics can have on Life (re)insurance and society at large. Learn to describe the journey of a Life reinsurance practitioner to model and operationalize pandemic and infectious disease risk, why this is of importance to actuaries, and their risk management. It will consider how such models have been used, developments over time, and challenges in using and calibrating these models. The session will also provide perspectives from a pandemic model provider who will describe the fundamental metrics for pandemic loss distributions and how learnings from the COVID-19 pandemic can be used to quantify the potential impact of the next pandemic. Finally, dive into an outline of how biological principles can be applied to anticipating plausible pathogens causing the next pandemic.

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: Model Risk Management at insurers has been an established practice for well over ten years now. Until recently, a primary focus of model governance was on actuarial models. The Gen AI evolution we’ve experienced in the last two years, has shone a spotlight on “all things AI”. Along with the increased capabilities AI brings, there is increased concern for the proper use of these models, protection of IP, safeguarding of PII, and overall security. This session will bring together a diverse panel to discuss how we can adapt our established practices for these new models to minimize the risks that come with Gen AI and help our organizations optimize the benefits of AI.

Description: Learn from panelists from different companies as they come together to discuss their experiences.

Description: Modeling Approaches and Challenges focuses on approaches to real world simulation and the challenges and considerations in real world simulation. Topics include: A frequency domain approach to build realistic multi-horizon scenarios. (Ortec approach) Cascade models structure linking models for major asset classes and economic variables. (Moody’s approach) Overview of models, calibrations & approaches within the context of different use cases. Deterministic & stochastic approaches. Importance of model re-calibration flexibility. We will also discuss specific insights into considerations and challenges in real world simulation, which include topics like: Setting capital market assumptions and/or calibration targets. Assumptions about correlation and causality. Calibrating the model to capital markets assumptions. Validating the model against capital market assumptions. Role of history, market data and stylized facts. Importance of back testing. Calibrating the model to multiple investment horizons. Inclusion of alterative asset classes such as private equity, infrastructure, and direct real estate. Associated issues of limited data, illiquidity and greater uncertainty about calibration targets.

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.

Description: When it comes to climate-related risks, what does the future hold? Will we see a rise in global temperature of 3 degrees Celsius or more, or can we keep it to less than 1.5 degrees? Will we see ambitious climate policies instituted globally in the near future, or will the status quo prevail, leading to irreversible changes to the climate and more severe physical risks? As actuaries, we are accustomed to planning for an uncertain future, but assessing the long-term impact of climate change poses a unique challenge. There are several public institutions developing scenarios like those above and others, which can help actuaries understand and assess the risks posed by a changing climate. Through scenario analysis, organizations can consider a range of possible outcomes to inform decision-making. Scenario analysis can be qualitative or quantitative, and there is no uniform framework that is currently being used by organizations that are studying the impact of climate change on their business. At the end of this session, participants will be able to: - Describe future climate scenarios. - Describe how actuaries can use scenario analysis to assess the impact of climate change and climate policies. - Explain why actuaries might use scenario analysis to understand climate risk.

Description: The NAIC continues to move ahead with the GOES (generator of economic scenarios) project for the transition to a new real-world economic scenario generator (ESG) prescribed for principle-based reserve and capital calculations. This session will provide a detailed project update from the regulator and practitioner perspective. An overview of model details and methods that have been decided, what remains to be determined, and the projected timeline for implementation will be discussed. Recent developments such as the industry field test and NAIC model office testing to assess the potential impact on reserves and capital will be discussed as will a review of the implementation of the stochastic exclusion ratio test (SERT). We will also discuss the components of the ESG model and the associated scenario sets the NAIC has exposed with respect to target and acceptance criteria. At the conclusion of this session, attendees will understand the current status of the NAIC GOES project and its projected timeline and will be able to describe the components of the model and how the model has been calibrated and validated. Attendees will also appreciate the remaining challenges in bringing the model to full implementation.