Academy volunteers presented at the National Council of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL) Annual Meeting during the Special Committee on Race in Insurance Underwriting’s session. Dorothy Andrews, chairperson of the Data Science and Analytics Committee, presented on behalf of the committee and provided an update on its ongoing work relevant to NCOIL’s examination of these issues. Casualty Vice President Lauren Cavanaugh presented on behalf of the Casualty Practice Council, and Mary Bahna-Nolan presented on the issue from a life perspective.
( )Lauren Cavanaugh, VP-Casualty, submitted written comments to the U.S. House Financial Services Committee regarding proposed legislation to provide federal government backing for coverage of future pandemic events under Business Interruption insurance.
( )Academy Casualty Vice President Lauren Cavanaugh addressed the NAIC’s Special Committee on Race and Insurance, speaking to her prepared comments previously submitted, which covered actuarial guidance, disparate impact, and data quality. She recommended consideration of independent organizations to examine and certify third-party data for hidden biases, accuracy, and relevance. She also described for commissioners and regulators several actuarial standards of practice (ASOPs) relevant to actuarial practice in areas being looked at by the special committee.
( )The Academy’s Casualty Practice Council (CPC) and Committee on Property and Liability Financial Reporting (COPLFR) presented an update on CPC and COPLFR activity to the NAIC’s Casualty Actuarial and Statistical Task Force (CASTF), including pandemic risk insurance, workers’ compensation, automobile insurance, and cyber risk, and gave a preview of December’s Seminar on Effective P/C Loss Reserve Opinions.
( )States have moved to develop their own laws given there is a lack of federal regulation of notice requirements to consumers in the event of cyber breaches. The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic comparison of the existing regulations with respect to data breaches involving personally identifiable information across the states. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) Insurance Data Security Model Law is also examined.
( )The Academy has released a new Essential Elements paper: “Wildfire Risk in the United States.” The paper discusses where and when wildfires occur, the rising property/casualty costs from wildfire damage, the importance of wildfire modeling, and ways to address wildfire risk. Essential Elements, a series of concise and informative papers developed by the Academy, is designed to provide a quick and easy-to-understand overview of key public policy issues of interest to Academy members, policymakers, and the general public.
( )The Extreme Events and Property Lines Committee has updated its monograph on the National Flood Insurance Program and related issues, including new data from the 2019 hurricane season.
( )The Committee on Property and Liability Financial Reporting has issued a new public policy paper, An Overview for P/C Insurers' Audit Committees: Effective Use of Actuarial Loss Reserve Expertise. This document replaces an earlier publication on the same subject.
( )The Committee on Property and Liability Financial Reporting has submitted comments to the NAIC's Actuarial Opinion Working Group, suggesting changes to the wording in the Financial Examiners Handbook.
( )The Academy's senior casualty fellow Rich Gibson submitted comments on the latest draft of the NAIC's proposed white paper on Regulatory Review of Predictive Models.
( )The Workers' Compensation Committee released an issue brief discussing the recent actions of state governments, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, to expand their presumption laws to include additional diseases/injuries experienced during employment, but also to whom the presumptions apply.
( )The Casualty Practice Council commented on H.R. 7011, a proposal to facilitate expansion of Business Interruption insurance to include future pandemic events.
( )The Workers’ Compensation Committee released an issue brief, Presumptive Benefits in Workers’ Compensation: Emerging Issues Before and After COVID-19, which covers what workers’ compensation presumption of benefits means, how laws vary by state, what occupations are covered by presumptions, what injuries or diseases are classified as presumptive, who is eligible, how claims can be rebuttable by the employers, what are the cost elements of workers’ compensation presumptions, and other cost considerations.
( )The Committee on Property and Liability Financial Reporting has issued a set of questions and answers regarding the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on P/C financial reporting.(Note: This document has been superceded by a second edition, published in January 2021.)
( )The Cyber Risk Task Force sent comments to the Government Accountability Office regarding cyber-attacks and the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act.
( )Academy Senior Casualty Fellow Rich Gibson remotely presented an overview and updates on the Actuaries Climate Index and the Actuaries Climate Risk Index at the Casualty Actuarial Society’s Virtual Spring Meeting.
( )The Casualty Practice Council sent a comment letter to the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee on a proposed Pandemic Risk Reinsurance Program. Read the Academy news release.
( )The Committee on Property and Liability Financial Reporting submitted comments to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners Blanks Working Group, regarding proposed instructions for the 2020 P&C Statement of Actuarial Opinion.
( )On May 11, 2020, Steve Jackson, the Academy’s Assistant Director for Research, presented on the Actuaries Climate Risk Index (ACRI) to the Actuarial Colloquium, a virtual conference sponsored by the International Actuarial Association and the French Institute of Actuaries. The ACRI is derived from a model of the statistical relationship between the weather components of the Actuaries Climate Index (ACI) and property damage caused by severe weather. The ACRI distinguishes the losses due to changes in weather from the larger set of losses due to increases in risk exposure. The resulting ACRI for the United States totals $24 billion during the post-reference period, 1991–2016, equal to approximately 5% of weather-related losses during that period.
( )The American Academy of Actuaries submitted a letter to members of the Blanks Working Group regarding their proposal on the certification of continuing education (“CE”) compliance by “Appointed Actuaries” who sign statements of actuarial opinion for property and casualty insurers.
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