This session will provide an overall economic outlook of the property/casualty insurance industry. This session will include a high-level look at industry trends and disrupters. The always-popular Robert Hartwig, Ph.D., will provide important insights that will help you manage your company’s risk.

This webinar qualifies for one FMDC credit in the Operations & Insurance module under the course name Emerging Industry Trends.

Robert Hartwig, Ph.D.

Director, Center for Risk & Uncertainty Management
University of South Carolina

This session is intended to introduce those inexperienced in reinsurance to its basic concepts, enabling them to define the purpose of reinsurance, identify the different types of reinsurance commonly purchased, understand how the transactions are structured, understand how the relationships between the parties to the reinsurance agreement work, and determine the scope of coverages and basic calculation of cessions.

This webinar qualifies for one FMDC credit in the Operations & Insurance module under the course name Reinsurance.

Barbara Murray

Director
PwC Actuarial Services

Many insurers are proud of their relationships between their management and underwriters and their agents. However, as underwriting and distribution workforces age into retirement, carriers will no longer be able to rely on such relationships to alleviate gaps in their underwriting capabilities. This amplifies the need to ensure that underwriting strategies, operating models, and supporting processes/technology are tightly aligned. An insurer’s underwriting capabilities should be at a level of maturity appropriate to its strategy and governed in such a way that it can be sustained as the underwriting and distribution workforces change over time. In this session, attendees will learn how to keep underwriting processes consistent through the retirement storm.

Joe Calandro

Managing Director
PwC Insurance Advisory Services

Kevin Madigan

Director
PwC Insurance Advisory Services

This webinar will explore the emerging risks of resource scarcity and climate and weather events. The first half of the webinar will focus on the potential impact of rising sea levels on claims and how climate change could be exacerbating regional meteorological events. The second half of the webinar will focus on the potential effects of water scarcity on food production and power generation. Our speakers will then dive deeper into how resource scarcity may lead to civil unrest and a potential disruption of business operations and supply chains.

Targeted Audience: Management | Executives

David Geller

Emerging Issues Senior Analyst
Verisk Analytics

Christopher Sirota

Emerging Issues Product Development Lead
Verisk Analytics

The impact of wildfires will be felt for years as the events have created changes in legislation, regulation, and the ways in which insurers should view wildfire risk. This session will explore the reasons for the increased wildfire losses in 2017 and 2018 and the lessons the insurance industry should learn from the devastating events.

Douglas Dixon

Claims Expert, P&C Business Management Americas
Swiss Re

Marla Schwartz

Natural Catastrophe Specialist
Swiss Re

Anne Wilson

Senior Vice President & Property Expert
Swiss Re

Reinsurance 101 is recommended as a prerequisite for this session This session is intended to introduce those inexperienced in reinsurance to common treaty reinsurance terms and conditions that impact the interpretation of coverage. It will also cover common obstacles to identifying and securing the reinsurance asset. Upon completion of this session, participants will have working knowledge of the key treaty terms and conditions and know how they impact cessions and challenges in processing and collecting reinsurance.

Barbara Murray

Director
PwC Actuarial Services

While underwriting returns, expense efficiency, and asset management contribute to overall performance, winning companies tend to pull away from the pack based on their underwriting process. Intense competition and technological advancements have raised the bar on what constitutes an underwriting advantage. Companies will need to use technology and analytics to seamlessly and efficiently channel expertise from critical functions in making sound underwriting decisions. In this session, attendees will learn what techniques and tools are available and how to use them to get ahead in the ever-changing commercial lines market.

Joe Calandro

Managing Director
PwC Insurance Advisory Services

Timothy Landick

Partner
PwC Insurance Advisory Services

Francois Ramette

Partner
PwC Insurance Advisory Services

The automotive industry is facing the biggest upheavals in its history given the trends in electro mobility and autonomous driving. What can insureds do to minimize their risks, and what should insurers bear in mind when insuring these risks? This session will give insight into the emerging automotive issues and showcase how insurers can account for increased car automation in their pricing approach by making use of data to better understand the risk.

Targeted Audience: Product Management | Senior Leaders

Roland Friedli

Vice President, Manager of Risk Engineering Service, Casualty
Swiss Re

Andrea Keller

Senior Strategy & Partnership Manager
Swiss Re

There’s no doubt about it, Artificial Intelligence is going to significantly change the way we underwrite. However, AI may sound obscure to many of us and without much practical application in today’s underwriting practices. Join this session to learn about the insurance industry’s journey to modernize its underwriting processes. Discover how using big data and AI together can help grow your book, reduce expense, minimize loss, and provide a modern, near real-time customer experience.

Targeted Audience: IT Professionals | Actuarial Staff | Claims Professionals

Phil Alampi

Vice President of Marketing
DataCubes

Whether a company is a one-man shop or on the Fortune 500 list, it is not immune from today’s cyberthreats. Social engineering, cyber vandalism, ransomware, and many others have had devastating impacts on many businesses. This session will delve into the ever-changing cyberthreat landscape of our increasingly connected world. It will also look at the evolution of insurance products in the marketplace, which are changing as fast as the very threat vectors they seek to protect.

Sam Broomer

EVP, Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer
Berkley Re

The only constant is change. Keeping up to date with familiar hazards, let alone emerging risks, is daunting. Individual risks at a location level might not cause huge concerns but spread over an entire book can lead to company-killing loss experience. How can you stay ahead of this changing environment? This session will focus on the latest trends and emerging risks within the property/casualty insurance industry, as well as provide insights into how entities are tackling the problems. Key sources for keeping abreast of emerging risks and strategies will also be shared.

Targeted Audience: Product Management | Senior Leaders

Joe Nolan

Manager, Business Development
WSRB

Bryan Stanwood

Vice President of Business Development & COO
WSRB

From retaliation to #metoo, from “ban the box” to wage-and-hour disputes, employment practices issues affect every employer in one way or another. This session will look at several recent legal, social, and legislative movements in the employment practices liability space and the insurance market’s reaction to them. The session will also touch on risk management techniques insureds and carriers can use to mitigate exposure to current EPL claims trends.

Jeffrey Cron

Vice President & Solutions Leader
Berkley Re Solutions

Pete Corrigan

Vice President
Berkley Re

Robin Taylor Symons

Esquire
Gordon & Rees Scully Mansukhani LLP

Cyber risks have moved beyond the business world and are now invading our personal lives as well. This session will discuss the risks and realities of personal lines cyber exposures. It will touch on the current risk landscape, the evolution of insurance products in the market, and the corresponding risk management tools. It will explore important topics such as cyberbullying, ransomware/extortion, social engineering, phishing, and virus and malware attacks.

Jeff Cron

Vice President & Solutions Leader
Berkley Re

Today’s farm is “not your grandfather’s farm.” Smart devices have had positive impacts on farming in terms of increasing productivity, understanding climate changes, and adapting to a farm’s environment. Furthermore, the business and family sides of farming have embraced the connected world. This session will look at the implications of the connected farm from a cyber-threat perspective. It will explore how ransomware, vandalism, social engineering, and cyberbullying could threaten the existence of someone’s agricultural livelihood.

This webinar qualifies for one FMDC credit in the Operations & Insurance module under the course name Emerging Risks.

Jeff Cron

Vice President & Solutions Leader
Berkley Re

Auto policies primarily cover vehicles designed for use on public roads, leaving a host of other types of motor vehicles that may or may not be covered by homeowner’s policies, including scooters, Segways, personal mobility vehicles, “Barbie cars,” and riding lawn mowers. This webinar examines these and other motorized vehicle exposures and reveals potentially serious coverage gaps that many consumers and insurance professionals may not be aware of.

Bill Wilson

Founder & CEO
InsuranceCommentary.com

Unintentional loss arising from faulty workmanship, the use of defective materials, and improper design can pose significant financial risks to reputable contracting insureds. Traditional insurance programs typically do not provide coverage for such exposures and, for various reasons, insureds too often fail to secure the coverage solutions available in the market to address these exposures. This session will provide an overview of the current contractor’s errors and omissions market, affirm the need for contractors E&O coverage, include a discussion of contractors E&O exposures, address the coverage commonly provided, and outline how the contractors E&O and commercial general liability coverages routinely interact.

Bill Turner

Vice President & Solutions Leader
Berkley Re

This session will provide background on the underwriting challenges of commercial auto and non-standard auto insurance. The presenters will describe factors that contribute to the declining profitability of both lines of business, review factors that contribute to loss severity and frequency in both lines of business, describe how regulation, legislation, and technology affect the profitability of CA and NSA, and describe how new technologies are or can be used by insureds, underwriters, and risk management and claims professionals to improve performance and user experiences.

Targeted Audience: Senior Executives | Actuarial Professionals | Marketing Teams

Nancy Zaharewicz

Manager
PwC Actuarial Services

Insurance marketers exist in a challenging and dynamic environment, seeking to strike the elusive balance between sales quotas and underwriting expectations.

Join this session to learn key findings of the recent LexisNexis study of insurance marketers, underwriters, and product managers from top personal lines carriers that will provide unique insights into the opportunities that exist for greater collaboration throughout the policy life cycle.

Janelle Jenkins

Marketing Manager
LexisNexis Risk Solutions

Sandeep Kharidhi

Product Management Leader
LexisNexis Risk Solutions

Distracted drivers injure more than 1,000 Americans every day. Consumers, insurers, and original equipment manufacturers are increasingly aware of the epidemic but lack adequate tools to combat it. This session will share the latest findings on the impact phone use has on distracted driving risk and how nudging self-awareness can be used to improve engagement and safety – and the bottom line. It will also explore the psychological factors that make distracted driving so difficult to change and will other cover driving behaviors to paint a picture of the true risk of a driver.

Targeted Audience: Senior Underwriting Staff | R&D Staff | Marketing Teams

Katie DeGraaf

Director
Arity

Kyle Schmitt

Senior Data Science Consultant
Arity

Commercial auto hasn’t been profitable in years; however, it can become a strong performer. It’s time to ditch a strict reliance on the traditional commercial auto approach and implement a new strategy that gives you greater and more accurate insights on individual drivers and the businesses they represent. Attend this session to learn how using better data and analytics can revolutionize commercial auto risk assessment and improve overall profitability.

Mathew Stordy

Director of Commercial Insurance
LexisNexis Risk Solutions

There is no question, risks are getting more complex and the time frame in which organizations must respond to those risks is compressing. If you’re not prepared, emerging risks can interrupt or destroy your organization’s strategy. Organizations must build resilience and prepare to respond to the opportunities that these risks bring. To accomplish this, it is important to explore these risks as they unfold and develop a proactive strategy to respond.

This presentation describes emerging technological risks that property/casualty insurance underwriters should consider such as artificial intelligence; digitalization of insurance; Blockchain; telematics; IoT devices; and silent cyber exposures. Learn how you can evaluate these emerging risks to develop proactive strategies by applying a simple framework.

Lorie Graham

Chief Risk Officer & Senior Manager of Insurance Services
American Agricultural Insurance Company

Making up 80 percent of our economy and growing, the service economy brings about unique and growing challenges and opportunities for the insurance industry. This session will look at independent contractors, the growing allied health field, and the booming gig economy. It will explore the service economy through the lens of liability exposures, specifically professional liability, and discuss some common solutions the industry has created and is creating to address the changing landscape.

Christopher Ellis

Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer
Berkley Re

Once thought uninsurable, the private flood market now represents a largely untapped opportunity at a time when many in the industry are facing profitability challenges. Hear about the technological advancements that have turned the tide on the industry's thinking on flood and find out why flood is a peril that can now be written with confidence. This presentation will be available as part of both the Underwriting and Claims series.

Targeted Audience: Management | Products Departments | Claims Professionals

Matt Junge

Head of Property Solutions, U.S. & Canada
Swiss Re

Emerging technologies are reshaping many industry sectors, and personal lines is no exception. A wide variety of technologies, including artificial intelligence, new user-interface technologies, drones, the internet of things, and autonomous vehicles, have implications for insurers. It is a challenge for insurers to sift through the developments in all these technologies and understand how they affect customers, risks, and operations. During this session, Mark Breading, partner with Strategy Meets Action, will share SMA’s research on emerging tech in personal lines. He will discuss what insurers are planning, which technologies executives believe will have the most impact, and how to prioritize investments and incorporate new activities into business strategies.

Mark Breading

Partner
Strategy Meets Action

A significant amount of financial and human capital is expended to underwrite new and renewal policies. Depending on a specific company’s processes, investments are made without realizing commensurate returns. This session will discuss how to apply predictive analytics to underwriting processes to ensure policy underwriting expenditures generate the highest possible gains.

Roosevelt C. Mosley

Principal & Consulting Actuary
Pinnacle Actuarial Resources

Greg Frankowiak

Senior Consulting Actuary
Pinnacle Actuarial Resources

As new technologies aimed at increasing efficiencies and functionality within the insurance industry are introduced, many contain sophisticated controls or mechanisms that increase the complexity and vulnerability to equipment breakdown. To best provide a potential or existing insured with the right equipment breakdown and property coverages, insurers must be able to identify potential pitfalls and create solutions to them on the basis of their customers’ level of risk complexity. In this session, attendees will be introduced to three emerging issues relative to underwriting equipment breakdown coverage across a broad cross-section of industries and services. This presentation will be available as part of both the Underwriting and Claims series.

Kevin Perry

Vice President – Underwriting
Travelers BoilerRe

Leveraging analytics in the underwriting process is a necessary tool and is not only table stakes for organizations but can also be a key differentiator. However, leveraging doesn’t always require the best analytical models to be successful; a key success factor requires an ability to execute on the insights from those analytics across various organizational dimensions. This session will discuss the broad nature of being successful in deploying analytics.

Targeted Audience: Management | Senior Leaders | Actuarial Staff

Brian Bingham

Managing Director
Deloitte

You've just settled a market conduct investigation expecting that these issues were behind you, when you were notified of a class action addressing the same alleged violations. Conversely, the class action is over, but your sigh of relief is disrupted when the regulator comes calling asking questions. Unfortunately, market conduct examinations and class action litigation are often managed in isolation, without considering the implications of one versus the other. Regulatory action creates material class action exposure and, conversely, class action exposures creates material regulatory risk. Join this session to hear from experienced insurance class action lawyers and insurance market conduct practitioners on how to protect your company.

Todd Noteboom

Partner
Stinson Leonard Street

Pete Thrane

Partner
Stinson Leonard Street

Internet of Things is quickly becoming an important tool to mitigate the frequency and severity of property/casualty insurance perils, especially those causing extensive damage and business interruption. Sensor technology and smart devices are being leveraged to identify potential threats and risks that can cause business interruption and claims. But how can insurers harness the power of IoT, especially if they are unfamiliar with the technology? This session will show types of IoT hardware, software, and smart devices designed specifically to help mitigate risk. The presenter will also discuss how claims data can be used to identify and pinpoint specific groups within an insured’s book of business that have a higher risk factor. Attendees will learn how different types of IoT programs provide different results, and the factors insureds should consider when choosing a program. This presentation will be available as part of both the Underwriting and Claims series.

Targeted Audience: Loss Prevention Staff | Claims Professionals | R&D Staff | Marketing Teams

Robin Luo

Vice President, Risk Consulting
The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company

From farming to aerospace, every business today uses technology integral to business operations. The rapidly emerging proliferation of technology, the use of social media, and the interconnectivity of technology create new exposures for business. What are the potential risks/liabilities as these and other technology trends continue to emerge and evolve? How will these trends shape businesses’ expectations for commercial insurance coverages and their insurance relationships? This session explores emerging technologies and the legal risks and opportunities they present for insurance companies in commercial lines to consider. This session will be available as part of both the Underwriting and Claims Series.

Alan Wernick

Attorney
Wernick & Associates, LTD.

The proliferation of technology, the use of social media, and the interconnectivity of technology create new exposures for the average homeowner. What are the potential liabilities and legal risks for homeowners as these technology trends continue to emerge and develop? How will these trends shape customers’ expectations for personal insurance and their insurance relationship? This session will provide insights regarding the important questions surrounding emerging technology trends and personal liability.

Alan Wernick

Attorney
Wernick & Associates, LTD.

Today’s modern economy is driven by businesses that are increasingly reliant on evolving technology. Technology trends such as miniaturization, portability, the internet of things, and cloud computing are creating different, costly, and complicated new risks for business owners. This presentation will explore these trends and the impacts on equipment breakdown exposures on all types and sizes of businesses, including retail, service, and manufacturing. Equipment loss examples involving these technologies and industries will be shared. This presentation will also look at how the insurance marketplace has recently begun to embrace these exposures by offering new coverage solutions. This presentation will be available as part of both the Underwriting and Claims series.

Targeted Audience: Product Development Departments | Claims Professionals | Loss Prevention Managers

Corey Dunbar

Assistant Vice President of the Treaty Division
The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company

Businesses of all sizes in every industry are growing more aware and more concerned about cyber risks. Dealing with viruses that shut down systems or employees being duped into paying fraudulent invoices via sophisticated email scams are troubling organizations from coast to coast. On another front, the #MeToo movement is raising awareness and concerns about harassment at work among employees and employers in every sector. This session will discuss how employment practices liability insurance can help address these issues.

Melvin Osswald

Vice President of Underwriting
Tokyo Marine HCC

For the 200-plus writers of commercial auto in the U.S., the combined ratio remained flat in 2018 at an unsustainable 111. Ten percent of all carriers write slightly more than one-third of the net premium dollars ($11.6B), with an aggregate CR of 98.1. Historically smaller carriers outperformed in commercial auto, so what’s going on? These carriers aren’t achieving this volume with specialty underwriting. The answers appear to be in their ability to leverage agent and broker expertise for improved selection. This session will dig into several books of business and explain why frequency and severity aren’t moving despite the agents’ belief they are sending us the best business.

Chris Carver

Vice President of Insurance Services
SpeedGauge, Inc.