Understanding the Performance of an Insurance Company: An Introduction

Due to the inversion of the production cycle, the insurance business is very different from other traditional industries. Understanding, measuring and managing the performance of insurance companies is difficult due to the specific risks insurance companies must cover. It is therefore essential that you, as employee of the insurance sector, understand how your company is functioning, how its activity is measured via the balance sheet and the P&L, what are the main regulations influencing this measure, which indicators are used to assess the performance and what levers can improve this performance.

The aim of this workshop is to

• Present the functioning of an insurance company and the insurance and financial products it manages
• Explain how to read and understand the different elements of an insurance balance sheet and P&L
• Compute performance indicators used in different regulatory frameworks (Local GAAP, Solvency 2)
• Understand the impact of pricing & portfolio management, risk mitigation (reinsurance) and ALM on the performance

We will cover life as well as non-life insurance. Health insurance will not be specifically covered.

This training is an introduction to main concepts and is therefore particularly suited for participants, coming potentially from different departments (product development, risk management, finance, accounting but also underwriting, claims management or IT), wanting to develop a broader view on how their work can influence the performance. It is also well suited for newcomers or people wanting to refresh their minds on these concepts.

This introduction training is not designed for people wanting to build a deep expertise on the presented topics.

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.

The seminar will alternate between methodological concepts, practical examples and case studies in order to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the techniques presented.

The instructor-led sessions will take place online over four days between 9:00 and 12:30.

The participants will be requested to look at 14 e-learning capsules (of around 30 minutes each):

• Functioning of the company (main economic principles, insurance premium, main insurance and financial products)
  
• How to measure and manage the performance of an insurance company
  
• Focus on non-life and life products
  

The e-learning capsules contain pedagogical presentations of the concepts with examples. They can be followed by the participants whenever they want between the web sessions, as pre-requisites.

The participants will perform the case studies in Excel.

Examples in e-learning capsules and case studies will be based on our experience with Belgian companies but are not specific to Belgium and are rather applicable to most European countries.

Aurélie Miller (Reacfin)
Aurélie Miller is a director at Reacfin who heads our Center of Excellence for Life, Health & Pension. Mrs. Miller holds a Master of Business Engineer (Magna Cum Laude) from the Solvay Business School of the University of Brussels and a Master in Actuarial Science (Magna Cum Laude) from the University of Louvain. In 2006, she won thesis price of the Institute of Actuaries in Belgium (“IA|BE”). In 2007 Aurélie was finalist of the SCOR Award 2007 for best research work in actuarial science. She worked as a PhD student in actuarial science at the University of Louvain and as an assistant in Mathematics at the University of Brussels. Before joining Reacfin, Aurélie worked for 4 years as head of Non-Life Assets & Liabilities Modeling and Risk Management for Generali in Belgium. As such she was responsible for the development of a Non-Life ALM model and for the Solvency II project (economic capital calculation, value calculation, validations activities). She was also involved in other projects such as the improvement of the Life ALM tool and in the creation of a business plan for online sales.
Aurélie is a certified member of the Institute of Actuaries in Belgium (IA|BE).

Catherine Chatelain (Reacfin)
Catherine is a Senior Consultant within the Risk & Finance Center of Excellence at Reacfin. She holds a Bachelor in Mathematical Sciences (magna cum laude) and a Master in Actuarial Sciences (magna cum laude). Catherine joined Reacfin in September 2016, right after her studies. She had the opportunity to be involved in several projects including SCR computation processes, Economic Scenario Generators and strategic asset allocation studies. She also gained experience in other actuarial topics related to life and pension products by working on cash flow modelling, valuation of liabilities or on the implementation of the IFRS17 standard. She co-writes the regulatory watch published every month by Reacfin, which monitors and summarises the key developments in insurance-related and financial regulations in the European Union. Catherine is a qualified actuary of the Institute of Actuaries in Belgium (IA|BE).

Natacha Brouhns (Reacfin)
Mrs. Natacha Brouhns is a Managing Partner of Reacfin. She holds multiple degrees including a PhD. in Actuarial Science, MSc Actuarial Science (Magna Cum Laude), MSc. Electro-technical Civil Engineer (Magna Cum Laude), Postgraduate in Statistics (Summa Cum Laude) as well as a degree in Philosophy. Natacha is author of several publications in actuarial science both for Life and Non-Life topics. Natacha has gained deep experience in Life and Non-Life insurance industry as a modeler and validator. She has developed several ALM models for Life insurance companies and has therefore mastery as much on the liability side as on the asset side of the balance sheet. She is coordinating all learning activities at Reacfin. Natacha is a certified member of the Institute of Actuaries in Belgium (IA|BE).

Julien Mendes (Reacfin)
Julien Antunes Mendes is a senior manager at Reacfin. Julien holds a Master’s Degree in Actuarial Sciences as well as a Master’s Degree in Engineering in Applied Mathematics from the University of Louvain (UCLouvain).  After an internship at AG Insurance where he was active in the Employee Benefits sector, he joined Reacfin in 2011. He has been involved in several projects as in ALM studies and Life Insurance modeling, leak proof testing, Health Insurance capital requirements calculation, worker’s compensation insurance, DFA model validation... He is also an expert in mortality modeling and has supported several pricing missions in life insurance.

Geoffrey Feraut (Reacfin)
Geoffrey Feraut is a senior consultant at Reacfin. He joined Reacfin in March 2020 after four years at Cigna Europe Risk Management Team.
During his time with Cigna, Geoffrey built a good experience on Solvency II Pillar 1 and developed his technical skills in R. As a Reacfin consultant, he had the opportunity to value his Solvency II experience through a general support mission (Best Estimate and SCR calculation on a quarterly basis) as well as a support for the IMAP of an internal Non-Life reinsurance entity. Geoffrey is also involved on projects related to IFRS17.
Geoffrey holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Physics as well as a Master’s Degree in Actuarial Sciences from the University of Louvain (UCLouvain).