During this year’s Pinnacle University (Pinnacle U) event, we presented an overview of parametric insurance. Unlike traditional insurance coverage, parametric insurance is not an indemnification product. Instead, it determines a benefit payable in advance of the policy purchase by estimating the loss as accurately as possible, subject to certain conditions being satisfied. The cost of the policy is based on a pre-determined trigger. Examples might include maximum sustained wind speed for hurricane coverage or earthquake magnitude as measured by the Richter scale.

At the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS) Spring Meeting, I had the pleasure of moderating a session entitled, What You Don't Know about Wildfires… Can Cost You. The topic drew a lot of interest, as 2017 was the most destructive and costly wildfire season ever recorded in the United States. The devastating wildfires affecting Northern California in October and Southern California in December claimed 43 lives and caused an estimated nearly $12 billion of insured losses. While California claimed the majority of 2017 wildfire losses, only about 13% of the total U.S. acres burned were in California. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, less densely-populated Montana and Nevada saw an even greater amount of burn. In total, wildfires scorched nearly double the 2016 area.

On March 18th a transportation network company’s (TNC) self-driving car hit and killed a woman in Arizona. This crash brings up insurance questions similar to those generated by the December 31, 2013 fatal accident that first brought the issue of ridesharing and insurance into the spotlight. Transportation network companies wanted personal insurers to cover the exposure, but insurance industry trade groups believed commercial insurance should apply from app on to app off. This led insurance trade groups, insurers and TNCs to develop a compromise model bill. Since then, 48 states and the District of Columbia  have enacted TNC legislation. It also prompted insurers to create new products for TNC drivers.

Following major hurricane losses, the insurance industry responded on several levels. It built sophisticated models to better predict and mitigate resulting losses. It actively supported regulations and building codes to ensure more durable building materials and processes. It created windstorm pools to share the cost of essentially uninsurable risks in the eyes of the private market, to name just a few changes.

A Pinnacle client recently inquired about a paper regarding an approach to estimating the maximum premium appropriate for a captive insurance company. The author sought to determine a ceiling on the premium a company might pay for insurance by treating insurance as a put option and applying a popular financial tool, the Black-Scholes model.