Description: As our industry rapidly adopts more advanced technologies, today's actuaries have more data and greater analytical capabilities than ever before. Nevertheless, these advancements come with their own set of challenges.Come explore the tools and techniques to optimize your processes and avoid common pitfalls so that you can get the most out of your experience studies.

Description: The life insurance industry is facing a rapidly changing landscape, with several emerging risks demanding the attention of actuaries and industry professionals. While actuaries commonly examine historical experience to guide our estimates of future outcomes, we are often faced with evidence that some of the forces that dictated past performance no longer persist and in some instances may even turn into contrary forces. This session aims to explore the key challenges and opportunities presented by risks with limited historical context, and discuss strategies to effectively manage them. We will delve into critical emerging risk areas, such as interest rate and asset risk, the rise of AI, climate change, predictive analytics in underwriting, and more. The session will feature speakers who are experts in managing risk, as well as results from interviews with top corporate risk professionals, such as CROs and ERM leads from major insurance and reinsurance companies. Attendees will gain valuable insights into emerging risks and practical strategies to navigate the evolving life insurance landscape.

Description: Speakers representing investment and risk management teams share how they are integrating climate risks into their investment management practices. We will discuss methods to measure and assess climate risks in the investment portfolio, for both transition risks and physical risks. Speakers will also touch on how climate risks can be integrated into the bottom-up investment process. Lastly, we discuss climate-action-oriented programs to decarbonize investment portfolios and their challenges. At the end of this session, participants will be able to: - Understand methods and challenges to measuring exposure to climate risks in their portfolio - Understand methods and challenges in integrating climate risks into the investment process - Understand methods and challenges in implementing decarbonization programs such as Net Zero.

Description: The Academy Economic Scenario Generator is set to be replaced by a new ESG created in a partnership between the NAIC and Conning. This summer, we will present three separate webinars that will investigate the key features of the new ESG, examine the process through which it was created, and discuss what it all means for actuaries impacted by the change.

Description: Actuaries are increasingly being asked to incorporate Economic Scenario Generators into their work. Whether it be a Risk Neutral model for pricing or a Real-World version for Economic Capital modelling, using these tools can help produce a much more robust analysis. Unfortunately, these models and their underpinnings are also very complicated, which can lead to confusion. Come watch the presenters try to demystify some of this. In particular, they will address the following questions: • What is the difference between Real-World and Risk Neutral scenarios? • When should I use one or the other? • How are these models calibrated? • What are some of the misconceptions about these models? At the conclusion of the session, attendees will be able to: • Explain the difference between Real-World and a Risk Neutral scenarios • Understand the appropriate usage of both • Identify some of the calibration questions that go into developing an appropriate set of scenarios • Avoid some of the common misconceptions about these scenarios

Description: 2022 was a year of radical change for the annuity market as interest rates increased from historic lows. The rapid growth of RILA products stalled as FIA and MYGA products saw a significant increase in market share. The impacts of the higher rate environment are continuing to be realized in experience, in force management, product design and more. Learn more about the retail annuity market with a focus on the impacts of higher interest rates. Session materials will draw on experience studies, sales results, product changes, and more, which will examine how higher interest rates have altered the annuity market.At the conclusion of this session, you will understand recent trends in the annuity market, including emerging experience, inforce management actions, new product designs, and the impact of reinsurance.

Description: This session series is sponsored by Hannover Re Session 1 - COVID-19: Past, Present and Future and Its Impact on Health Products COVID-19 has had an unprecedented impact on the health industry, forcing insurance companies and other risk-sharing entities to re-assess how to write and manage its business going forward. This first of two sessions in the special COVID-19 series will review the impact the pandemic has had on the development, pricing and risk management of health products. The speakers will review COVID-19 mortality and morbidity trends, share possible outlooks for the future of the virus, and analyze how COVID-19 has impacted the pricing strategies and risk management of health business across various markets (e.g., the ACA marketplace, Group Commercial and Medicare). By attending this session, you will be able to explain the latest COVID-19 trends in the US and globally and the resulting impact on mortality and morbidity experience. Attendees will develop a clearer understanding of how the pandemic has impacted the pricing and risk management of health products.

Description: Have you heard of Prospect Theory, the Nobel-winning concept from psychologists Kahneman and Tversky, which is the inspiration for much of behavioral economics? Come examine this concept that focuses on how people sometimes make irrational and logically inconsistent decisions depending on the framing of the question. You'll also explore how Prospect Theory applies in the world of insurance and how it offers an explanation for why selling retirement income products is more challenging than selling life insurance. Leave this session with ideas on how to design and market retirement income products that are likely to be more successful. The presentation will be largely based upon this paper: https://www.soa.org/sections/joint-risk-mgmt/joint-risk-mgmt-newsletter/2023/february/rm-2023-02-reynolds/

Description: Behavioral economics research has shown that small details can have a large impact on how a person behaves. As life insurance continues its evolution into the digital domain, life insurers now have an almost infinite number of ways to tweak their product offering, positioning, and delivery to the end consumer. Behavioral science is becoming increasingly more important to optimize these product design decisions and improve outcomes for both insurers and their customers. Discover a brief overview of key behavioral economic concepts and dive into two SOA research projects that are exploring how behavioral economic techniques can be used in different parts of the life insurance value chain. First, you'll start before a policy is even sold, by exploring how behavioral economics, through techniques such as the messenger effect, can be used to increase consumers' comprehension of policies and life insurance's value. Second, you'll look at how underwriting question design can impact applicant behavior and lead to higher quality application data. At the conclusion, you'll enjoy having a better understanding of how behavioral economic techniques can be applied in a life insurance context.

Description: Given the rise in interest rates during 2022, explore the implications of increasing rates on FA and FIA business by looking at industry experience for FA and FIA products for 2022 compared to earlier years. Additionally, come walk through partial withdrawals, GLWB utilization, mortality and what to expect as interest rate volatility continues. You'll also discover how direct writers and reinsurers are handing the in-force management aspects of these products in the uncertain and volatile economic periods. Key learning outcomes include: - Understand the impact of rising rates on dynamic lapse for FA and FIA products - Explanation ofin-force management actions that are being taken in the current interest rate environment - Be informed of current trends in GLWB utilization