On the May 2020 Pinnacle APEX Webinar, “The Importance of Data Management and Data Quality,” we addressed a critical business issue:  the costs of poor data, reasons for data management, and ways to improve how data is managed in an organization. The webinar also took a deep dive into methods to address the major challenge of missing data.

In 2020, the Minority High School Scholars Analytics Academy, or MHSSAA, will mark its 25th year. The time is right once again to pause and honor this program and all that it represents to the insurance industry, the actuarial profession and the students it serves. Through the MHSSAA, participating students from around the country learn about how insurance works, the requirements of the actuarial profession and the role of analytical skills in solving real-world business problems.  

While predictive analytics can provide significant benefits to insurance companies and customers, the rapid pace at which analytics is evolving and the relative complexity of some of the models used poses a significant challenge to state regulators who are charged with reviewing and approving such models. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) recognized this emerging issue and created the Casualty Actuarial and Statistical Task Force (CASTF), which has been charged with identifying best practices to guide state insurance departments in their review of predictive models for underlying rating plans. Over the course of the last year, the CASTF has released multiple drafts of the white paper “Regulatory Review of Predictive Models” for public comment. And comment the public has! Numerous letters have been submitted from trade associations, actuarial organizations, credit agencies, consumer groups and even insurance departments to provide their input on the lengthy white paper.

The Actuarial Standards Board (ASB) of the American Academy of Actuaries (AAA) recently announced the release of the new Actuarial Standard of Practice (ASOP) 56, entitled “Modeling.” This new standard will be applicable to actuaries governed by the AAA for modeling work performed on or after October 1, 2020.

In The State of Insurance Fraud Technology (2019), the most recent report published by the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud (CAIF) and the SAS Institute, nearly 75% of survey participants experienced a rise in fraudulent claims in the past three years. This represents a disturbing 11% increase since 2014. The survey was based on 84 primarily property and casualty insurers. None of the participating insurers indicated that fraud had decreased significantly during the same time frame. As a consequence of the rise in fraudulent claims, insurers are moving away from traditional formulaic business rules and red flags for identifying fraud. Instead, insurers are enriching their data analytics arsenals to include more sophisticated tools, methods and means to investigate fraud.