The Casualty Practice Council submitted a comment letter on Colorado Senate Bill 21-169 which is aimed to protect consumers from unfair discrimination in insurance practices. The comments addressed potential concerns of the legislation’s impact on casualty insurance.

The Automobile Insurance Committee released an issue brief on automobile insurance considerations arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Senior Casualty Fellow Rich Gibson presented at the Midwest Actuarial Forum’s Virtual Spring Meeting Webinar, giving an overview of recent property/casualty public policy developments.

The Academy’s Property and Casualty Risk-Based Capital Committee issued a report to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ (NAIC) Property and Casualty Risk-Based Capital (E) Working Group in which it presents indicated Line of Business Underwriting  Risk Factors for the P&C RBC Formula.

The Academy made three presentations  to the NAIC’s Casualty Actuarial and Statistical (C) Task Force (CASTF) webinar as part of CASTF’s “Book Club” series to facilitate regulator training and the sharing of expertise on predictive analytics on the topic of race and insurance. Academy presenters were Dorothy Andrews, chairperson of the Data Science and Analytics Committee (DSAC); Roosevelt Mosley, DSAC member and member of the Casualty Practice Council’s (CPC) Racial Equity Task Force; and Lauren Cavanaugh, CPC vice president.

The Academy’s Cyber Risk Task Force sent a letter offering its assistance in relation to the challenges and opportunities present in the current system of regulating and overseeing responses to cyber breaches of personally identifiable information along with a copy of its report, Cyber Breach Reporting Requirements: An Analysis of Laws Across the United States, to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and the directors (or acting directors) of the Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes; the Federal Insurance Office; the Office of Domestic Finance; and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Senior Casualty Fellow Rich Gibson participated in a virtual panel discussion Monday at the National Conference of State Legislatures’ Executive Committee Task Force on insurance regarding business interruption coverage. Gibson provided a perspective on actuarial considerations important to the success of any future public or private program designed to support coverage.

The Committee on Property and Liability Financial Reporting (COPLFR) released the practice note, Statements of Actuarial Opinion on P/C Loss Reserves (2020), which includes discussion regarding changes in the NAIC Annual Statement Instructions—Property/Casualty (NAIC Annual Statement Instructions) regarding the Actuarial Opinion, the Actuarial Opinion Summary, and Actuarial Report, as well as  COVID-19 considerations.

The Casualty Practice Council filed comments on the Actuarial Standards Board exposure draft, Using Models Outside the Actuary's Expertise (Property and Casualty).

The Committee on Property and Liability Financial Reporting issued an updated and expanded set of questions and answers concerning the impact of COVID-19 on p/c financial reporting. This supercedes the first edition, published in June 2020.

The Academy's Cyber Risk Task Force responded to the U.S. Treasury Department's questions about the applicability of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) in cases of cyber-attacks that are aimed at targets outside the U.S. but cause insured losses in the U.S. The task force also noted the potential difficulty of meeting TRIA's requirement for an official finding that  the source of an attack was a non-governmental terrorist organization.

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.