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and answers regarding the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on P/C financial reporting.(Note: This document has been superceded by a second edition, published in January 2021.)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.

The Committee on Property and Liability Financial Reporting submitted comments on the CAS/SOA proposed new form for P/C Appointed Actuaries to report their continuing education activities.

The Casualty Practice Council submitted comments to the Actuarial Standards Board regarding a proposed new ASOP on rate-filing by property/casualty insurers.

As part of its continuing public policy research program providing objective and independent information based on actuarial analysis, the American Academy of Actuaries today introduced the first model and results of the Actuaries Climate Risk Index (ACRI), which provides results associating dollar estimates of property losses in the United States with changes in extreme weather.

The Academy has long been the most reliable and credible source of objective, independent, and nonpartisan information about actuarial matters that can and do affect public policy decisions in the U.S. We are now releasing the ACRI to provide that objective and independent analysis to assist in answering the question: Are the extreme weather conditions that result from a changing climate producing increased property losses?

The findings contained in version 1.0 of the ACRI are the culmination of years of research. We are presenting them now in the spirit of objective, transparent scientific inquiry and statistical rigor. Read the report.

The Extreme Events and Property Lines Committee responded to the NAIC's Catastrophe Risk Subgroup's request for additional information about wildfires. 

The P/C Extreme Events and Property Lines Committee presented a report on the Academy’s issue paper Wildfire: Lessons Learned from the 2017-2018 California Events to the NAIC’s P/C RBC Catastrophe Risk Subgroup. They also updated the NAIC on the Actuaries Climate Index.

The Casualty Practice Council sent comment letters to the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services and to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs encouraging long-term extension of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act.

The P/C Extreme Events and Property Lines Committee has released an updated monograph on the National Flood Insurance Program. Building on the 2017 document prepared by the Flood Insurance Work Group, the paper includes data from the 2017 and 2018 hurricane seasons.

The Academy’s Committee on Property and Liability Financial Reporting (COPLFR) sent a comment letter to the NAIC’s Casualty Actuarial and Statistical Task Force Actuarial Opinion Working Group (AOWG) on the Regulatory Guidance on Property and Casualty Statutory Statements of Actuarial Opinion, Actuarial Opinion Summaries, and Actuarial Reports for the Year 2019, which was issued on Aug. 30. COPLFR also sent a second comment letter to the AOWG on the Sept. 17 revision of the guidance document.

Academy President Shawna Ackerman submitted comments to the NAIC's Blanks Working Group, regarding proposed changes in required qualifications for casualty actuaries filing statements of actuarial opinion.