Maintenance: The SOA will be performing scheduled maintenance of our Actuarial Directory and Explorer servers on Thursday, April 25th, 2024 from 5:00 AM to 9:00 AM CT.

Edition

Chairperson’s Corner

By Sandee Schuster

Risk Management, April 2022

rm-2022-04-schuster-hero.jpg

The Joint Risk Management Section (JRMS) Council met virtually in February to discuss plans for the coming year, with a heavy focus on research and continuing education. Our industry liaisons and SOA partners were also there, along with the liaison for risk management research. All attendees came ready with ideas and suggestions on what should or could be done this year and moving forward.

We had a very engaging conversation about potential research topics. Some of the topics brought forth for consideration included: Impact to the insurance market of an economic paradigm shift; risks related to IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts (International Financial Reporting Standard) and the fundamental change to accounting standards; gaining a broader perspective on the risk related to major private equity players entering the insurance space; smart devices and agricultural insurance; impact to insurers of large scale infrastructure projects such as canals; comparative research on the governance roles and responsibilities of data scientists and actuaries when it comes to model risk.

Along with these ideas were some of the more familiar topics, often with a modern twist: Role of actuaries in the three lines of defense governance model; cyber risks as an operational risk and as a type of coverage; InsurTech disruptions to the business model; qualitative measurement of operational risk; insurance implications of climate change beyond hurricanes, such as why an insurer writing in Wisconsin should care about climate change; use of analytical tools and machine learning in the day-to-day life of the actuary; new models and new technologies.

Our discussion of continuing education topics and delivery approaches was next. As expected, several of the topics discussed as possible research ideas were also well suited for webinars and possibly pod-casts. A current research project underway related to regulatory risks in the U.S., Canada, China and India is expected to provide opportunities for several focused webinars, such as data privacy and the evolving insurance regulatory environments in China and India. More on this research project will appear in a future edition of this newsletter.

There were many creative ideas brought to the table for continuing education topics including preparing for large regulatory disruptions, such as California eliminating gas powered vehicles by 2045, and ensuring all aspects of risk are in place for infrastructure changes, such as a canal build in Nigeria. Cyber insurance, crypto currency, micro insurance, smart contracts, and technology risk frameworks are also being considered.

Now the tricky part is taking that vast array of ideas, breaking it down and building it back up again into fantastic continuing education opportunities. We are currently building the webinar program for 2022 and planning for early 2023 as well to ensure we can bring you webinars throughout the year. There will also be a professionalism webinar late in the year and I suspect many of us will attend as we wrap up our professionalism credits for the year.

Two additional exciting developments came out of the planning meeting that I want to share with you.

  1. We will be adding more audible books to the e-library this year to provide alternate and more inclusive delivery methods for continuing education material as well as resources for our everyday life at work.
  2. A small but powerful change will be a new JRMS LinkedIn group that will be public, readily visible and easily accessible through a simple LinkedIn search on “JRMS.” The existing LinkedIn group will continue running in parallel until all are well aware of the new JRMS group. Watch for communication on this new LinkedIn group.

I am excited about all the efforts we have underway to bring more value to JRMS members. We will be sure to keep you posted in this newsletter, through our new LinkedIn group, the SOA JRMS webpage and the occasional email update. If at any time you have ideas, suggestions or topics to consider, please let us know!

Sandee Schuster, FSA, MAAA, is chair of the Joint Risk Management Section Council and works in operational risk management at USAA. She can be reached at sschuster@tds.net.