The following is a listing of professional development (PD) opportunities with significant general insurance (GI) relevant content that were offered by the SOA in 2018:
- 2018 ERM Symposium, April 19–20, 2018
- Advanced Business Analytics, March 27–29, 2018
- Economic Scenario Generation for the Practitioner Seminar, May 6, 2018
- Practical Predictive Analytics Seminar, May 9, 2018
- Python Boot Camp for Actuaries, May 22–23, 2018
- Asia-Pacific Annual Symposium, May 24–25, 2018
- SimErgy ERM Boot Camp, June 11–12, 2018
- 2018 Actuarial Research Conference (London, ON, Canada), Aug. 8–11, 2018
- Predictive Analytics Seminar—Malaysia, Aug. 27, 2018
- Predictive Analytics Seminar—Hong Kong, Aug. 29, 2018
- Predictive Analytics Seminar—Taiwan, Aug. 31, 2018
- Predictive Analytics Symposium (Minneapolis), September 20–21, 2018
- SOA Annual Meeting & Exhibit (Nashville, Tenn.), October 14–17, 2018
- Advanced Business Analytics (Chicago, Ill.), December 12–14, 2018
This year’s SOA Annual Meeting & Exhibit included a full slate of GI specific/relevant sessions including:
- Stronger as One: Town Hall With the SOA and CAS
- SOA General Insurance Hot Breakfast (included discussions relevant to the SOA GI track)
- Artificial Intelligence for Actuaries
- Autonomous Vehicles and Loss Cost Trends
- Closing the Nat Cat Protection Gap in Latin America
- Emerging Risks
- Emerging Technology Implications for Actuaries
- Hot Topics in Pet insurance
- IFRS 17: A Peek at the Finance Cockpit of 2021
- Innovation in Auto Insurance: Driverless Cars and the Not-Too-Distant Future
- StandRe: The Swiss Standard Solvency Model for Reinsurers
In addition to this, there were many sessions that were not GI specific, or GI relevant, but were of interest to all actuaries, including those in GI. For example, the session “Actuarial Professionalism: Judge and Jury” was entertaining, informative and provided professionalism continuing professional development (CPD) credit.
The SOA looks forward to planning another schedule with significant GI relevant content for the 2019 SOA Annual Meeting & Exhibit in Toronto. Very soon, there will be a call for session proposals. Please be sure to submit your proposals to the SOA for GI relevant sessions.
The SOA also offers E-Courses and webcast recordings for PD. Some of these are relevant to GI, such as:
- Applications of Statistical Techniques for Professional Development E-Course,
- Enterprise Risk Management E-Course and
- Insurance Analytics with Machine Learning: A Primer for Actuaries Webcast Recording.
Be sure to check out the SOA’s professional development opportunities at /pdopportunities/. The web page allows filtering on many levels to facilitate searching for opportunities. It also includes links to past events which may include access to the presentation slide deck. Also check out the SOA’s research page for general insurance related topics at /research/topics/research-emerging-topics/#general. Reading research papers can be a good source of professional development.
The SOA counts on everyone’s support and ideas to make the most of our continuing education opportunities. If you have any GI specific (or GI relevant) ideas for seminars, meeting sessions, and webcast topics, or would like to write a GI relevant article, please forward them to staff fellow Anthony Cappelletti at acappelletti@soa.org.
There are also volunteer opportunities to work on the GI Track exams as an item writer and/or grader. Refer to the SOA website for volunteering ( /volunteer-program/default/, select View Volunteer Opportunities and then select General Insurance Exams Item Writers).
In addition to offerings from the SOA, there were plenty of GI PD opportunities in 2018 from other sources. For example:
- In April, the European Actuarial Academy held the seminar, “Loss Reserving in Property and Casualty.”
- In May, the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries hosted the IFOA Asia Conference.
- At the end of May, the Singapore Actuarial Society held the General Insurance Conference.
- In June, the IAA held the International Congress of Actuaries in Berlin, Germany. Also, in June, the European Actuarial Academy is presenting a seminar in Milan, Italy on “The Actuarial Control Cycle—Traditional and New Applications in Case Studies,” and the Canadian Institute of Actuaries is holding its Annual Meeting.
- In September, The Canadian Institute of Actuaries held the “Seminar for the Appointed Actuary” and the Actuarial Society of Hong Kong is holding the Asian Actuarial Conference.
- In November, the Institute of Actuaries of Australia held the “General Insurance Seminar” in Sydney, NSW, Australia.
- Throughout the year, numerous events were held by the Casualty Actuarial Society.