In property and casualty insurance, the provisions for payment obligations from losses that have occurred but have not yet been settled usually constitute the largest item on the liabilities side of a property and casualty insurer’s balance sheet. For this reason, the determination and evaluation of these technical provisions, which are also called loss reserves, is of considerable economic importance for every property and casualty insurer. Therefore, the application of actuarial methods of loss reserving is indispensable.

Under Solvency II, the reserving risk becomes one of the mayor drivers for solvency capital requirement in property and casualty insurance and therefore an adequate assessment of loss reserves and the underlying risk is a crucial issue not only under risk management aspects but also under a supervisory point of view.

This seminar on loss reserving will start with the basic aspects of actuarial loss reserving. Besides a broad introduction to traditional methods, it also deals with more recent ones and a discussion of certain problems occurring in actuarial practice, like inflation, scarce data, large claims, slow loss development, the use of market statistics, the need for simulation techniques, and last but not least, the task of calculating best estimates and ranges of future losses.

Organised by the EAA – European Actuarial Academy GmbH.

This seminar is developed for non-life actuaries in property and casualty insurance but also for other persons working in the area of reserving i.e. as controllers, supervisors or auditors. A basic knowledge of non-life reserving techniques is necessary.

In advance of the seminar, participants are encouraged to address actual problems and send cases based on concrete practical questions, which can be dealt with in the course. A deadline for this part is at least six weeks before the seminar takes place.

Attendees are encouraged to bring a laptop computer with Microsoft Excel installed.

The aim of this seminar is to provide participants with a deeper understanding of loss reserving methods and their application issues, which will be useful for the daily work in particular for those who are involved or responsible for loss reserving.

The seminar will alternate between the presentation of methodological concepts for loss reserving, practical examples and some exercises and case studies in order to deepen the understanding of the different methods and their relevance in practical applications.

Agnieszka Izabella Bergel
Agnieszka Izabella Bergel is assistant professor at ISEG, University of Lisbon. She teaches in the master program of Actuarial Science which has an accreditation from the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. Recently she presented a course in loss reserving to students in Angola. Agnieszka holds a PhD in Actuarial Science from the University of Lisbon. Author of several scientific papers, supervisor of students and frequent speaker at actuarial and mathematical conferences. She is a full member of the Portuguese and the Polish Institutes of Actuaries. She is also active in international actuarial research and is currently serving on the ASTIN Board of the International Actuarial Association.

Michiel van der Wardt
Michiel van der Wardt is a senior actuary and risk manager, with more than 25 years working experience. As free lance actuarial risk manager, Michiel is providing actuarial and risk management services to insurance and reinsurance companies in Europe. Prior to his consulting work Michiel has been working as Principal insurance Risk Officer at ING, involved in compiling and challenging reserve adequacy analyses for all ING Non-Life insurance entities worldwide.
During his time with ING, Michiel also acted as Chief insurance Risk Officer and Chief Actuary for ING Mexico for 2 years, in which period he has been involved in solving serious reserve adequacy issues.
Furthermore, he enjoys coaching actuarial analysts-to-be with their intermediate thesis, and also is examinator for the Dutch Institute of Actuaries. In addition, Michiel is vice chair of ASTIN Board of the IAA and was chairman of the organising committee for the ASTIN colloquium in The Hague in 2013.