Chief Actuaries’ and Senior Life Actuaries’ Workshop

Intro/welcome from chair

Dom Veney, PWC

While techniques to model investment and mortality assumptions have developed considerably over the last 10 years, policyholder behaviour remains generally ‘undermodelled’ with many firms still depending on simple one-dimensional A/E techniques.  However, Solvency II requires firms to set assumptions with regard to homogeneous risk groups, and to allow for dynamic policyholder behaviour.  This session would examine the application of multifactor methods to analyse in-force policyholder behaviour in the context of such areas, using a range of real-life examples derived from recent work in the UK and elsewhere.

Matthew Edwards, Willis Towers Watson 

Model Risk: a Third line view

Internal Audit within Life Insurance companies faces the challenge of delivering assurance over the operation of the Solvency II Internal model  as well as assurance over model risk within wider pricing and reserving activities.  The session would present the approach to model risk taken by Group Internal Audit at Legal & General including audit’s risk assessment, staffing strategy and reporting.  The presentation would end with a discussion around how internal audit can best engage with the Actuarial function.

Tom Bryant, L&G

This session will cover:

- a high level commentary on recent national mortality experience trends,

- the rationale for changes to the Model, and

- the anticipated application and impact of the proposed Model.

Tim Gordon, CMI 

Henrietta Tait, PRA

Workshop A

A1: Risk Function effectiveness: Lessons learnt from review

Risk effectiveness assessments play a key role in shaping the development of risk functions and frameworks.  Though many risk functions have moved from designing Solvency II compliant risk frameworks to focus on embedding, the appetite for risk effectiveness assessments remains strong. Our presentation will enable us to share our experience of assessing risk effectiveness, in particular how to evidence embedding.

Eamon McGinnity, KPMG 

A2: How do mutual know they are operating in the interests of the membership? 

This breakout session reviews the issues around the governance of Mutuals, how they can monitor whether they are acting in their members' interests, and what "good governance" looks like in the sector.

Christopher Critchlow, OAC

This presentation will discuss the legal and regulatory implications of Brexit for UK insurers, and for EU and international insurers operating in the UK.  It will consider the various post-Brexit models that the UK might adopt, and the impact each would have on the future application of EU regulation.  Particular topics will include passporting, Solvency II approvals and equivalence, and methods of moving business between jurisdictions.

Steven McEwan, Hogan Lovells

How we work: Social intelligence for Senior Actuaries 

As financial services professionals we (rightly) spend a lot of time learning about the technical aspects of our roles. This session is aimed less at the 'what' we do, and more at the 'how' we do it, based on the premise that the 'how' we do things is hugely important.

Aimed at people who haven’t studied the subject in detail before, the session will cover a range of areas including an introduction to the subject, a model for self-awareness, effective listening and move on to how to approach difficult conversations in an empathetic manner.

Michelle Lister and Peter Heffernan, PWC

TAS Consultations Update

The FRC will be finalising responses to the consultation on the specific TASs in preparation for planned publication at the end of December. Ann will share some of the feedback during the consultation and discuss possible changes to the TASs.

Ann Muldoon, FRC 

Professional Skills:

Skillset review for practicing certificate holders

Roger Dix, Wesleyan and Christine McConnell, IFoA

Wider Implications of Implementing Solvency II

Malcolm Slee, Chair of the Professional Content Development Working  Group and Christine McConnell, IFoA