Podcasts in this series:
- Episode 24: The journey to net zero - An insurer’s guide to navigating climate risks and opportunities
- Episode 23: Is your IFRS 17 programme surviving or thriving?
- Episode 22: IFRS 17 and the principles for Life
- Episode 21: What we learned from the 2020 Life Insurance Predictive Analytics Survey
- Episode 20: IFRS 17: deriving discount rates in imperfect markets
- Episode 19: The effects of socioeconomic status on mortality and morbidity
- Episode 18: Claims transformation: Unleashing the full potential of advanced analytics
- Episode 17: Insights on U.S. commercial insurance pricing trends
- Episode 16: Uniting Experts In Commercial Lines
- Episode 15: Analytical applications for commercial underwriting
- Episode 14: Impact of InsurTech on the life insurance industry
- Episode 13: Leveraging automation to improve P&C reserving processes
- Episode 12: Life insurance M&A and COVID-19
- Episode 11: So what is parametric insurance?
- Episode 10: Navigating the pension risk transfer landscape
- Episode 9: Key evolutions in technology and their impact on insurance
- Episode 8: COVID-19 adds some new twists to pricing protection products
- Episode 7: Preparing for emerging risks
- Episode 6: Business technology transformation
- Episode 5: The mortality impact of climate change
- Episode 4: Developments in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market
- Episode 3: Driving innovation in insurance
- Episode 2: The insurer 2030
- Episode 1: Reimagining the London insurance market in the post-pandemic world
Episode 24
The journey to net zero: an insurer’s guide to navigating climate risks and opportunities
In this episode
Carrie is joined by Yingzhen Chuang, Adhiraj Maitra and guest speaker Tim Antonelli, who discuss the contents of a recently published white paper: ‘The journey to net zero: an insurer’s guide to navigating climate risks and opportunities’. The paper, a collaboration between Willis Towers Watson and Wellington Management, is intended to be a pragmatic guide for (re)insurers as they steer their organisations on the journey to net zero.
About our guests
Yingzhen is Deputy Head of Catastrophe Analytics for Willis Re International. She leads strategy and service offering for territories outside North America, with a current focus on shaping Willis Re’s global climate change proposition.
Adhiraj is the global lead for climate change in the Insurance Consulting and Technology team. He is also a senior member of the risk and capital consulting team. At Willis Towers Watson he has been spearheading initiatives on climate change for insurers and reinsurers advising companies on ESG strategy, regulatory disclosures, assessment and quantification of risks. He has led various projects in regulatory, risk and capital management.
As an insurance multi-asset strategist at Wellington Management, Tim is responsible for identifying, sharing, and acting upon the major business trends affecting insurers globally and their investments across all asset classes. In this capacity, he is charged with synthesizing information on capital management and regulatory changes that drive insurers’ investment behaviors and decisions.
Episode 23
Is your IFRS 17 programme surviving or thriving?
In this episode
Vittorio is joined by Rosa Salas and Simon Kazmierowski, who discuss the key findings from Willis Towers Watson’s 2021 global IFRS 17 survey, examine how these findings vary around the world, and explore what the wider business implications are for insurers.
About our guests
Rosa is a Life Director in Iberia, who along with Simon Kazmierowski coordinates IFRS 17 Advisory activity in EMEA for the firm. She has significant financial reporting and M&A experience and in recent years has helped several insurers in Spain and Portugal with IFRS 17 implementations. Her work has included project planning, proof of concepts, solution design and implementation of our technology as IFRS 17 Solutions.
Simon is a Non-Life Director in Germany, who along with Rosa Salas coordinates IFRS 17 Advisory activity in EMEA for the firm. He has done a lot of work with P&C insurers on IFRS 17 implementations in the German-speaking in particular, focusing on methodology, cashflow generation and process integration. Over the last decade Simon has worked in the fields of reserve reviews, pricing and underwriting as well as risk management.
Episode 22
IFRS 17 and the principles for Life
In this episode
Vittorio is joined by Teresa Murphy and Andreas Schröder who will discuss why, with just 18 months to go until the effective date for IFRS 17, so many life insurers are still some way from having all their people, processes and technology chosen, trained and embedded; and what they should and can do in the time remaining?
About our guests
Teresa is Director in our Insurance Consulting and Technology business, leading the UK Life team on IFRS 17. She has a strong background in financial reporting, experience in delivering complex cross-location reporting projects and is currently leading an implementation for our IFRS 17 Solution for a large European insurance group.
Andreas is a Senior Director and Global IFRS 17 Technology leader in our Insurance Consulting and Technology business. In addition he leads the EMEA financial modelling and reporting practice for life insurers. Andreas is a qualified actuary with more than 20 years industry experience.
Episode 21
What we learned from the 2020 Life Insurance Predictive Analytics Survey
In this episode
Carrie is joined by Alastair Black and Kim Steiner, who explore key findings and trends from Willis Towers Watson’s EMEA Life Predictive Analytics Survey and shed light on how these results compare to the U.S. market.
About our guests
Alastair is a Director based in London for Willis Towers Watson’s Insurance Consulting and Technology business.
Kim is a Senior Director in the Hartford office of Willis Towers Watson’s Insurance Consulting and Technology business and leads the analytics and experience analysis initiatives for the Americas Life Practice.
Episode 20
IFRS 17: deriving discount rates in imperfect markets
In this episode
Vittorio is joined by Kunj Behari Maheshwari to discuss construction of discount rates under IFRS 17 for imperfect markets with limited to no market data or with market data that is otherwise unreliable.
About our guest
Kunj Behari Maheshwari is the head of life insurance consulting within the Insurance Consulting and Technology division of Willis Towers Watson for India and Sri Lanka. He is the Chairperson of the Institute of Actuaries of India’s Advisory Group on IFRS 17.
Episode 19
The effects of socioeconomic status on mortality and morbidity
In this episode
Carrie is joined by Matthew Edwards and Richard Marshall, who explore recent trends in setting mortality assumptions and discuss how insurers are attempting to understand the impact of socioeconomic status on mortality.
About our guests
Matthew Edwards is a Director based in London, where he leads the demographic risk and analytics team for Willis Towers Watson’s Insurance Consulting and Technology business.
Richard Marshall is a Director in Willis Towers Watson’s Insurance Consulting and Technology business and leads the development of mortality and demographic risk models for our UK business.
Episode 18
Claims transformation: Unleashing the full potential of advanced analytics
In this episode
Vittorio is joined by Tom Helm and guest speakers Grace Hanson and Sascha Firle for a discussion on how analytics is going to transform claims outcomes over the next three to five years.
About our guests
Tom Helm leads Willis Towers Watson’s claims consulting practice for EMEA. He and his team drive innovation in claims using cutting-edge technology to help insurers gain competitive advantage, and use their claims expertise to develop solutions for pricing, underwriting and reserving teams.
Grace is the Chief Claims Officer at Hiscox. Prior to joining Hiscox, Grace led the global claims function at Allied World, and later served as Corporate Counsel and then Chief Claims Officer for the insurtech business, Homesite.
Sascha is the CEO for the consultancy firm, Voidmark. Prior to this role, Sascha was the Advanced Analytics Director for RSA's Nordic region, where he spent over a decade leading technical teams in the delivery of advanced analytic solutions.
Episode 17
Insights on U.S. commercial insurance pricing trends
In this episode
Jarrett is joined by Jeff Carlson and Yi Jing, who discuss how Willis Towers Watson monitors U.S. pricing trends via the Commercial Lines Insurance Pricing Survey. They explore how pricing has changed since the survey launched in 2005 and share observations on what’s driving it.
About our guests
Jeff is a Director and leads Willis Towers Watson's point of view initiative monitoring all major U.S. lines of P&C insurance and maintaining viewpoints on industry trends affecting financial results. He specializes in P&C reserving and consulting, serving as the appointed actuary for many companies over the years.
Yi is a Director and leads Willis Towers Watson’s Commercial Lines Insurance Pricing Survey within the Insurance Consulting and Technology practice. She specializes in P&C reserving, M&A due diligence, large account pricing, and capital modeling.
Episode 16
Uniting Experts In Commercial Lines
In this episode
Vittorio is joined by Tasha Pettet and Bijal Patel, who will explore how you ‘break the silos’ between underwriting, pricing, and portfolio managers, bringing these different experts in commercial lines operations together, to leverage each other's capabilities to improve overall business performance.
About our guests
Bijal Patel is an Associate Director within the Insurance Consulting and Technology practice. She is a Commercial Lines Pricing Actuary, working across consulting and technology on pricing, product, portfolio management and underwriting business problems and software development, applying her expertise on current and future challenges to help insurers gain competitive advantage.
Tasha is a Director in Willis Towers Watson's Insurance Consulting and Technology (ICT) practice. She specialises in commercial pricing and underwriting automation and is the product leader for Radar Workbench.
Episode 15
Analytical applications for commercial underwriting
In this episode
Jarrett is joined by Dave Ovenden and Tasha Pettet, who will discuss how commercial lines insurers can improve underwriting performance by digitally enabling the underwriting process and embracing analytics.
About our guests
Dave leads Willis Towers Watson’s Pricing, Product, Claims and Underwriting practice within Insurance Consulting and Technology (ICT).
Tasha is a Director in Willis Towers Watson's Insurance Consulting and Technology (ICT) practice. She specialises in commercial pricing and underwriting automation and is the product leader for Radar Workbench.
Episode 14
Impact of InsurTech on the life insurance industry
In this episode
Carrie is joined by Magdalena Ramada to explore InsurTech for life insurance, current industry trends and ways that traditional insurance companies can integrate new innovations.
About our guest
Magdalena is the EMEA InsurTech Innovation Leader for the Insurance Consulting and Technology business, leading the firm’s insurance-focused R&D efforts around InsurTech and blockchain technology. She has more than 20 years of experience in R&D and international consulting. She currently focuses on innovation and strategic consulting for the Insurance Industry.
Episode 13
Leveraging automation to improve P&C reserving processes
In this episode
Jarrett is joined by Jamie Mackay, who will explore how reserving teams can use automation to improve processes. Jamie discusses what they should automate and how to get started and identifies some challenges to overcome.
About our guest
Jamie is a Director in Willis Towers Watson’s Insurance Consulting and Technology (ICT) practice. He leads Willis Towers Watson’s reserving proposition in the Americas.
Episode 12
Life insurance M&A and COVID-19
In this episode
Carrie is joined by Nick Komissarov, who will explore M&A market trends and what impact COVID-19 has had on deals. Nick will also discuss how the low interest rate environment is impacting transactions and what companies should do if they’re considering M&A.
About our guest
Nick is a Senior Director in Willis Towers Watson’s Insurance Consulting and Technology (ICT) practice. He is the ICT Life M&A Leader for North America.
Episode 11
So what is parametric insurance?
In this episode
Sina is joined by Dr Simon Young to discuss what parametric insurance is, how it works alongside traditional indemnity insurance, and how it may evolve and grow in the commercial and personal lines space.
About our guest
Simon is a Senior Director in Willis Towers Watson’s Climate and Resilience Hub, focused on projects and programmes around the world to support building of resilience to climate risk and natural disasters. Prior to joining Willis Towers Watson, Simon was CEO of Caribbean Risk Managers, the facility supervisors for the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility, and the founding CEO of the African Risk Capacity’s insurance arm.
Episode 10
Navigating the pension risk transfer landscape
In this episode
Carrie is joined by Karen Grote, who will discuss the pension risk transfer market — what it is, current activity levels and why deals are on the rise.
About our guest
Karen is a Senior Director in Willis Towers Watson’s Insurance Consulting and Technology (ICT) practice. She leads ICT's pension risk transfer (PRT) work, assisting clients on all aspects, including entering the PRT marketplace, assessing competitiveness and financial modeling.
Episode 9
Key evolutions in technology and their impact on insurance
In this episode
Simon is joined by Magdalena Ramada and Duncan Anderson, who discuss the latest trends, developments and evolutions in technology; consider the impacts of this on insurers; and identify what some of the new opportunities arising for the industry are.
About our guests
Magdalena is the EMEA InsurTech Innovation Leader for the Insurance Consulting and Technology business, leading the firm’s insurance-focused R&D efforts around insurtech and blockchain technology. She has more than 20 years of experience in R&D and international consulting. She currently focuses on innovation and strategic consulting for the Insurance Industry.
Duncan is the Global Leader of the Insurance Technology team, which is responsible for developing, implementing and supporting specialist analytical and enterprise software solutions that are licensed by some 1,000 insurance companies globally. He has worked for Willis Towers Watson for over 30 years, predominately specialising in personal lines pricing analytics and related software.
About our host
Simon is a Marketing Director in the Insurance Consulting and Technology business, leading a small team responsible for developing and implement multi-channel marketing campaigns for the business in EMEA and globally. Simon has more than 30 years’ experience as a professional services marketer.
Episode 8
COVID-19 adds some new twists to pricing protection products
In this episode
Carrie is joined by Alastair Black and Matthew Edwards, who will discuss the challenges that companies face when pricing and issuing products during the pandemic as well as the increased interest in protection products.
About our guests
Alastair is a Director based in London for Willis Towers Watson’s Insurance Consulting and Technology business.
Matthew is a Director based in London, where he leads the demographic risk and analytics team for Willis Towers Watson’s Insurance Consulting and Technology business.
Episode 7
Preparing for emerging risks
In this episode
Sina is joined by Stefanie Schriek and André Gerling who will be discussing emerging risks: what they are; the role insurance plays; how the risk management function should deal with getting to know the unknown; managing liabilities; and dealing with an accumulation of extreme risks.
About our guests
Stefanie is the deputy head of Willis Towers Watson’s insurance consulting and software business in the DACH region and has been with the firm (including legacy organisations) for more than 15 years. She specialises in non-life actuarial consultancy with a focus on risk modelling and risk management.
André is an Executive Director at Willis Re, based in the Munich office. He has worked on both the actuarial and the broking side and currently heads the analytics and service-offering teams for Nordics, German-speaking Countries, Holland, CEE and Turkey.
Episode 6
Business technology transformation
In this episode
Jarrett is joined by Joe Milicia and Tom Beasley who explore how insurers are deploying automation to meet rapidly increasing future business needs, reduce errors, simplify processes and drive down costs. They also discuss some key lessons learnt from their experience of running large scale automation and transformation projects.
About our guests
Joe is a Senior Director and the Global Product Leader for Business Process Excellence which includes our automation and governance technology, Unify, and our data solution, DataValidator. In this role he helps clients achieve more efficient and more effective business processes. Joe has a strong background in P&C claims reserving for U.S. and Bermuda based captives, insurers, and reinsurers, as well as extensive experience leading P&C due diligence engagements.
Tom is a Director in the UK Insurance Consulting and Technology practice, and the Technical Product Lead for the DataValidator software solution. He runs the firm’s internal Business Process Automation Centre of Excellence, as well as leading a number of teams globally in implementing best in class automation and technical solutions for our clients.
Episode 5
The mortality impact of climate change
In this episode
Vittorio is joined by Richard Marshall and Keziah Baskerville-Muscutt to explore the liability-side impact of climate change, focusing on the effects on UK life insurers.
About our guests
Richard is a Director in Willis Towers Watson’s Insurance Consulting and Technology business and leads the development of mortality and demographic risk models for our UK business.
Keziah is a Risk Analyst in Willis Towers Watson’s Insurance Consulting and Technology business who works mainly with UK Life Insurers.
Episode 4
Developments in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market
In this episode
Sina is joined by Matthew Ball and Bill Dubinsky, who will draw on results from Willis Towers Watson's 2020 Global ILS Survey to discuss the current state of the ILS market and how they see it changing over the next few years.
About our guests
Matthew Ball is the ILS consulting leader for Willis Towers Watson’s Insurance Consulting and Technology business as well as the Bermuda office leader. He’s been in the insurance industry for more than 20 years and is an actuary by trade.
Bill Dubinsky is Managing Director and Head of ILS at Willis Re Securities. Prior to Willis Towers Watson, Bill worked at Swiss Re Capital Markets, Merrill Lynch and Aon Capital Markets. Bill has a background in law.
Episode 3
Driving innovation in insurance
In this episode
Vittorio is joined by Chris Halliday to discuss the importance of ongoing innovation for insurers and the insurance industry.
About our guest
Chris Halliday is a Director in Willis Towers Watson’s insurance consulting and technology team for whom he directs consulting research and development in EMEA, and leads P&C practices in Southwest Europe. Chris specialises in actuarial and data science consultancy and delivers projects in the UK and across EMEA from his home in the UK.
Episode 2
The insurer 2030
In this episode
Sina is joined by Alice Underwood to explore how the nature of insurance, insurance customers and the insurance industry might evolve over the next 10 years.
About our guest
Alice Underwood is the Global Leader of Willis Towers Watson’s Insurance Consulting and Technology business. Prior to that, she led the Analytics team for Willis Re North America for more than 11 years. Alice is a mathematician by trade.
Episode 1
Reimagining the London insurance market in the post-pandemic world
In this episode
Sina is joined by Richard Clarkson and George Zarkadakis to discuss the key lessons learned from the lockdown experience for insurers and their employees, what the post-pandemic ‘new normal’ might be, and how business leaders should re-design work in order to thrive in the ‘new normal’.
About our guests
Richard Clarkson is Head of London Market Consulting at Willis Towers Watson. He’s a lawyer by trade, but spent most of his work life in operations and business development. One area of his expertise is around advising on the set-up of new trading and operating models and the required structures, processes and skills.
George Zarkadakis is the Director of Willis Towers Watson’s Digital Incubator and leader of the Future of Work Strategy Advisory Services for Great Britain and Western Europe. George advises companies on business transformation in the context of robotic process automation, artificial intelligence and robotics.
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