By Anthony Cappelletti
Welcome to the December 2021 issue of General Insurance Insights, the SOA’s biannual newsletter for those with an interest in general insurance (aka, P&C or property and casualty insurance). This issue includes an article that I wrote, “Recent Developments in AI for GI.” In this article, I look at the current issues in the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that affect general insurance (GI). Also included in this issue is the “GI PD Opportunities Update” and the “General Insurance Research Update.”
Recently, the SOA announced changes to the ASA curriculum, the introduction of micro-credentials, and Affiliate membership. Details of these changes can be found on the SOA website. None of these changes directly affect the GI fellowship track. However, the changes do allow for some changes to the GI fellowship track curriculum. This is because some of the topics included in the Financial Economics and Applications of Statistical Techniques modules will be included in the ASA curriculum. Changes to the GI fellowship track are currently in the planning stage. These changes will likely be announced soon. They will be explained in the June 2022 issue of General Insurance Insights.
In 2017, the SOA introduced the Predictive Analytics Certificate Program. After the successful track record for this program, the SOA has begun offering two new certificate programs this year: IFRI Certificate Program and the Certificate Program on the Ethical and Responsible Use of Data and Predictive Models. All three certificate programs are relevant to GI actuaries.
In the December 2020 issue of General Insurance Insights, I commented on the Actuarial Standards Board (ASB) of the American Academy of Actuaries approval of a final exposure draft that revised Actuarial Standards of Practice (ASOP) No. 38. This ASOP was previously titled “Using Models Outside the Actuary’s Area of Expertise (Property and Casualty).” The final revision is titled “Catastrophe Modeling (for All Practice Areas).” The comment deadline for this draft was in January. On Sept. 9 of this year, the ASB announced that this final exposure draft was adopted and is effective for work performed on or after Dec. 1, 2021.
The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is once again in the spotlight. Since 2017, the NFIP has been kept operational through an unprecedented sequence of temporary extensions. Some of them lasting only a few weeks, while the past two reauthorizations were for nine months (with an expiration date of Sept. 30, 2020) and 12 months (with an expiration date of Sept. 30, 2021). On Sept. 30, 2021, the NFIP was reauthorized on a short-term basis, expiring on Dec. 3, 2021. A longer-term reauthorization that considers reforms to help the program’s stakeholders is required.
In August, the American Academy of Actuaries released a Cyber Risk Toolkit. It was produced by the Academy’s Casualty Practice Council, Cyber Risk Task Force. It consists of a series of papers addressing issues with cyber risk insurance and cyber exposures. It is geared to a varied audience including policymakers, regulators, insurers, actuaries and the public. If you are interested in cyber risk insurance, this is a good addition to the resources available on the topic.
Revised U.S. Qualification Standards Issued—SOA GI Fellows RecognizedOn Nov. 30, 2021, the American Academy of Actuaries announced approval of revisions to the qualification standards. Per the revised document, “Section 3.1.1.2, related to the issuance of a ‘Statement of Actuarial Opinion, NAIC Property and Casualty Annual Statement,’ was amended to recognize that the Society of Actuaries also administers relevant examinations.” This follows changes previously made by the NAIC to recognize SOA GI fellows with regard to signing the Property and Casualty Annual Statement. |
Our goals with General Insurance Insights are to keep readers informed on topics of interest to GI actuaries and to develop the GI actuarial community within the SOA. We welcome your feedback and ideas to help us achieve these goals. If you have questions, feedback or ideas regarding General Insurance Insights, feel free to contact me.
I would also like to take this opportunity to inform our readers that we are always looking for volunteers in general insurance at the SOA. Please visit the SOA Volunteer Opportunities Database. The database includes all open volunteer opportunities at the SOA. If you do not see a GI exam volunteer opportunity in the database and are interested, contact me directly. We can always use new volunteers for GI exam item writing and grading. In addition to this, we are also looking for ideas on GI continuing education offerings and authors (or ideas) for articles in upcoming issues of General Insurance Insights. Let me know if you would like to contribute.
Statements of fact and opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and are not necessarily those of the Society of Actuaries, the editors, or the respective authors’ employers.
Anthony Cappelletti, FSA, FCIA, FCAS, is a staff fellow for the SOA. He can be contacted at acappelletti@soa.org.