Reinsurance Administration Professionals Association (RAPA): An Update from the New Chair

By Jill Dupuis

Reinsurance News, April 2023

For those unfamiliar with RAPA we are a nonprofit industry organization that has existed for more than 25 years as a forum for reinsurance administration professionals to gather to share best practices, network and drive change in the industry. RAPA started as a reinsurance round table, with about 10 members literally around a table and has now grown to include direct writers, vendors, reinsurers and retrocessionaires from primarily the U.S. and Canada, but also the Caribbean and Europe.

RAPA has partnered with other organizations in our industry for many years. We have strong relationships with TAI, LOMA, the Canadian Reinsurance Conference (CRC) and MIB, to name a few.

Our mission is to be the primary educator of reinsurance administration professionals. Our focus is operational risk, innovation, data, leadership, education and key industry trends, and standards. RAPA creates a forum to build and cultivate professional networks and works to bring together reinsurance professionals to both deliver valuable content and enhance client relationships throughout our industry.

Pre-covid we delivered on this mission through in-person meetings with our annual RAPA conference each October being our flagship event. This annual meeting is a cost-effective way to:

• Introduce newer members of your operations/administration teams to their clients and peers,
• to support their education, and
• to help them see the value of a career in our industry.

Through the Pandemic

Throughout the worst of the pandemic, like so many other organizations, RAPA pivoted from primarily meeting its members’ needs through in-person meetings to delivering meaningful content virtually to insurance and reinsurance professionals in operations and administration. Key focus areas include—client relationships, reinsurance financial transactions, treaties, claims administration, audits, risk management and other trending topics in the industry.

Under the guidance of our past Chair Genevra Pflaum, from Hannover Re, along with a dedicated volunteer board and Planning Committee, we sourced industry speakers, hosted virtual meetings, breakout sessions and educational webinars to:

• Keep in touch with our membership,
• reach out to newcomers to the (re)insurance industry,
• create a virtual space for knowledge-sharing, and
• continue to add value to our business and support our operations community.

I’m proud to say we offered these services at no cost to attendees to expand our reach, support our industry and maintain RAPA’s relevance in challenging times.

ReConnect—2022

Technology provided us with many opportunities to meet virtually, but I would argue that nothing beats face-to-face meetings for building new relationships and forging connections. Imagine our delight when we could finally convene in person in October 2022, in beautiful Clearwater Beach, Florida!

Our theme for the conference was REconnect.

As always, we had informative and engaging industry speakers including:

• The chief economist Americas, Swiss Re Institute, who spoke on the global economic outlook with inflation at the center;
• the VP, medical director from Hannover Re, on the Covid pandemic and its impacts on our industry past, present and future; and
• RAPA member, Karen Rotondi, the VP, head of operations, Gen Re, speaking on “The Great Resignation, Psychology, Corporate Culture or Economic Trend.”

We also had the ever-popular Shaun Downey, AVP, reinsurance operations, Reinsurance CoE, Group Finance & Actuarial, John Hancock hosting a “So you think you have all the answers?” session. Shaun’s sessions are always lively because the audience discusses complex reinsurance administration issues and shares ideas about how best to handle them. Attendees actively engage in discussing the perspectives of direct writers, reinsurers, and retrocessionaires on thorny topics.

Based on attendees’ feedback, this was one of our most highly-rated sessions and it is expected that a similar session will run again in 2023!

Networking events were a major focus of the 2022 conference because of the desire to “REconnect” after the long delay. We also ran a Journey Through RAPA panel discussion with a diverse panel of participants representing a (re)insurance vendor, reinsurers, and a retrocessionaire. We shared stories about our involvement in RAPA, along with the benefits we gained from this both personally and professionally, and the added value we bring to our companies, from our participation in RAPA.

I shared on the panel that my journey in RAPA started more than 25 years ago. I have served on various initiatives and in various positions on RAPA’s Board of Governors. Among the initiatives, I’m most proud of my involvement in the education initiative. RAPA partnered with LOMA to develop LOMA’s reinsurance basics program for new joiners and the Associate, Reinsurance Administration (ARA) designation, both of which are still in use today to onboard new employees in our industry. I have served two terms on the board as RAPA’s secretary, then served as the vice chair, and now the chair. The benefits to my organization and me of my participation in RAPA have been immeasurable. I have forged strong relationships that have lasted years and have made new connections too. I believe that the power of relationships cannot be underestimated when partnering with clients to solve urgent or complex business problems!

REConnect Replayed

For the first time, in a nod to our new normal in a hybrid world, we recorded the 2022 conference, to provide content to those who were unable or unwilling to make the trip to Florida. Our plan is to make this content available to members on our website and to use some of the content as webinars in the future. We view this as a cost-effective way for members to share the benefits of RAPA within their companies. This is especially important in an era of increased focus on the environmental impact of air travel in addition to the need to reduce travel costs.

We received a lot of positive feedback from attendees on last year’s conference, with networking opportunities having the highest rating of all the benefits! This is no slight to our speakers who were excellent. But this feedback demonstrates the very real need people have to reconnect face to face after almost three years of COVID, and various lockdowns and travel restrictions.

Get Involved

RAPA volunteer board members serve for two years. Last year was an election year, and this year, we have a new board in place. Board members are:

Chair: Jill Dupuis, Pacific Life Re
Vice Chair: Karen Rotondi, Gen Re
Past Chair: Genevra Pflaum, Hannover Re.
Treasurer: Aswini Ramachandran, TAI
Secretary: Yvonne Kangas, Pacific Life Re

Looking forward, the RAPA Board and our planning committee have some exciting things in store for 2023!

For those looking to get more involved, RAPA is always looking for new members, and for volunteers to both lead and serve on our existing initiatives and to suggest/implement new ones.

Current RAPA Initiatives

Initiative	Initiative Lead(s)
Education	Elena Gilev, Swiss Re
Data	Laura Gray, Munich Re and Shannon Therkildsen, Hannover Re
Innovation	Max Kraus, RGAx
Audit and Compliance	John Whitaker, RGA Re and Tina Mashhadian, Q-PERIOR
Planning	Michelle Wisner, Security Mutual Life
Membership	Claudine Allert, Tatil Life and Beverly Keeton, Ameritas
Communications	Eric Kitowski, RGA Re
IFRS/LDTI Regulatory (new initiative in 2023)	Tina Mashhadian, Q-PERIOR

This year, RAPA is refreshing our vision and mission statements. While our values remain the same as they have always been, we have refined our vision and mission, while preserving the intent of our founders.

2023 Meetings

Planning is well underway for our virtual spring meeting and our in-person annual conference Oct. 15 to 17 at the beautiful Virgin hotel, in Nashville, Tennessee, home of the Grand Ole Opry! We have our theme, which will be unveiled soon, and some exciting topics and industry experts lined up to share their knowledge with both members and potential members.

We hope to reconnect with all our colleagues and create some new connections in Nashville!

Get in Touch

I’m thrilled to be a part of this long-standing industry association, am eager to lead RAPA’s Board and support initiative leads to continue to deliver relevant and valuable content for members.

I hope that my passion, and the passion of others in our community for RAPA inspires others to join us!

If you have an idea for a partnership, an initiative, or want to get involved, please contact us at info@reinsadmin.org.

You can learn more at our website at www.reinsadmin.org. We will be sharing links to video segments from the 2022 conference, including speakers and attendee testimonials, on our members’ page. You can also request to join our LinkedIn group to have access to additional content here: RAPA: Reinsurance Administration Professional Association.

See you in Nashville!

Statements of fact and opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and are not necessarily those of the Society of Actuaries, the newsletter editors, or the respective authors’ employers.

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Jill Dupuis, FLMI, ARA, ACS, is the vice president, Operations, Retro at Pacific Life Re and the chair of RAPA. She can be contacted at jill.dupuis@pacificlifere.com.