The economic view on a company has become more and more important over the last couple of years. Many job opportunities arose for actuaries with the increasing need for economic valuation of assets and liabilities and value-based management. Executives use the concept of economic capital to enhance the management of their company.

Therefore, the European Actuarial Academy offers the worlds’ leading Business Simulation Game for the insurance industry that covers various aspects of risk and capital management in a volatile business environment. To give participants a holistic view of their companies, this virtual programme will focus on both sides of the balance sheet.

Risk needs to either be mitigated or supported by capital. All risk management solutions have a cost. You need to have a clear method of assessing the costs and benefits of each possible risk management approach and choose the combination that best meets your objectives. Being a sponsor of this programme, Swiss Re is highly experienced in working with insurers around the world to help through this assessment and to enable their clients to optimise capital efficiency.

The course, led by the executive coaches Ina Noll from Swiss Re and Prof. Dr. Tobias Thomas, will be based on an interactive management simulation developed by TOPSIM and Swiss Re. For altogether five half-days, you will take the challenging role of an executive board, managing an insurance company under the existing Solvency II regime.

Course learning goals (after attending all sessions)
• Establish a corporate strategy and construct a business plan to implement that strategy
• Analyse the business portfolio and develop an underwriting plan to maximise underwriting profitability
• Construct an investment portfolio that balances risk and return and forms a coherent asset liability matching approach
• Develop a solvency framework which recognises the different risk drivers within an insurance company and use this to set and manage risk constraints
• Evaluate different capacity options and implement a capital management plan to optimise capital efficiency
• Explain the contribution reinsurance plays within an effective capital management strategy and how it compares with alternative capital sources.
• Work within a team to develop an effective decision-making process that enables you to analyse results, identify key areas to address and construct effective action plans

Organised by the EAA – European Actuarial Academy GmbH in cooperation with Swiss Re and TOPSIM.

The EAA Forum is suited for all actuaries, actuarial trainees, risk-managers, all professionals who work on economic valuation or work within further Solvency II tasks.

Participants should have a basic understanding of economic valuation, economic capital, and the Solvency II framework.

Seats are limited to allow for active exchange amongst participants.

Before the EAA Forum all participants will receive a manual for pre-reading on the Business Simulation Game. The simulation will be played in a virtual setting .You will have access to all relevated material prior the training.

Technical requirements
Please check with your IT department if your firewall and computer settings support web session participation (the programme Zoom will be used for this online training). Please also make sure that you are joining the web session with a stable internet connection.

On 31 March 2021, 10:00-10:30 CEST, there will be a technical test session offered to all registered participants.

The EAA Forum will start with an introduction to the business simulation. Groups of up to five Board Members will then run their own company with decisions on strategy and operations to be taken on a yearly basis. After each year of simulation a detailed analysis and discussion of the companies’ performance and the effects of Solvency II on risk and capital management will be conducted by the instructors. Finally, after four simulated business years, a look back will decide which company took the most successful strategy!

The language of the web session will be English.

Ina Noll
Ina Noll joined the Swiss Re Institute in November 2017. In her role as Senior Business Development Manager, she designs and arranges conferences and client events, executive programmes and facilitates innovation sprints and client workshops. She is a certified business facilitator/moderator and online trainer. Since 2015, Ina moderates and leads Insurance Management Simulation workshops for Swiss Re Institute around the world. She was also involved in the redesign of the IMS software and course program. In her previous role at Swiss Re, Ina was the subject matter expert for Finance Training globally at Swiss Re Academy from 2010 to 2012. Her responsibilities included the global Finance training portfolio, developing new course offerings for employees and graduates, and managing various projects. From 2001 to 2010, Ina held different roles in Project Management and Business Engineering at SIX Swiss Exchange, and the Australian Stock Exchange. Within the Structured Products area, her main tasks were to develop a warrants online course and other educational courses. Trained in Banking and Finance, Ina worked from 1988 to 2000 at Dresdner Bank AG, covering a range of responsibilities like fixed income sales, equity derivative product development, and options and futures trading. Ina Noll holds a Master of Banking and Finance (Diplom-Betriebswirtin) from Frankfurt School of Finance & Management.

Tobias Thomas
Tobias Thomas is professor at the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University/Germany and the head of the Department of IT-Consulting & Sales. Prior to that, he held a leadership position at a German bank and was the Managing Director at TATA Interactive Systems, a consulting company belonging to the well-known Indian TATA Group. He was responsible for the acquisition, conception and implementation of various global digital innovation strategies and business training concepts (including TOPSIM management simulations) for multiple industries worldwide. In particular, Tobias was responsible for the conception and implementation of the world’s first Solvency II business simulation in which more than 2,000 actuaries and board members around the world have already participated. Tobias has facilitated over 350 innovation, management and leadership sessions worldwide and has been working with companies such as Allianz, AXA, BASF, Deutsche Telekom, Groupama, Hewlett Packard, PartnerRe, SAP, Signal Iduna, Vorwerk and Swiss Re. He also lectures in MBA programs and programs for International Strategic Management, Accounting, Controlling and Finance at renowned universities in Europe.