This session will provide an overall economic outlook of the property/casualty insurance industry. This session will include a high-level look at industry trends and disrupters. The always-popular Robert Hartwig, Ph.D., will provide important insights that will help you manage your company’s risk.

Robert Hartwig, Ph.D.

Director, Center for Risk & Uncertainty Management
University of South Carolina

This webinar will teach you what ransomware is, why ransomware is harmful and the best practices you can implement to avoid ransomware attacks.

Susan Doucette

Director, Program Underwriting
Tokio Marine HCC

This session will explore trends in auto insurance before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic by using data on auto exposures, driver age, miles driven, and driving and working habits. Attendees will learn how different rating plans, including usage-based models, handled the changes and how insurance professionals can better account for unexpected events going forward. It also discusses the hidden impacts COVID-19 will have on rate adequacy on the personal auto market. Given the reduced driving frequency, few people would have experienced their expected number of violations and/or accidents. The session will delve into the rating parameters, especially experience based parameters, to see the impact on personal auto adequacy and profitability.

Kimberley Ward, FCAS, MAAA, CPCU, ARe, ARM, AFIS

Vice President, Head of Pricing & Growth Analytics
Xceedance Inc.

Yiem Sunbhanich

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
TNEDICCA

Managing Personal Lines risks is always evolving and is not as simple as model builders suggest. Individuals continue to push the boundaries when it comes to activities that generate income, generate a bigger voice, or use technology to make life easier. Join us as we discuss the emerging exposures that most concern us in Personal Lines.

Joe Nolan

Manager, Risk Data & Analytics
WSRB

Bryan Stanwood

Chief Experience Officer and Vice President, Risk Data & Analytics
WSRB

The session will review the history and trends of cybersecurity insurance and describe/quantify the challenges in the line of business, including examples of companies that have suffered from ransomware. The presentation evaluates solutions for the challenge of rate-making for cyber coverages and increases the understanding of the hazards and exposures and controls to mitigate losses.

Michael Parcelli

Senior Vice President, Head of Global Solutioning & Business Process Consulting
Xceedance Inc.

Kimberley Ward, FCAS, MAAA, CPCU, ARe, ARM, AFIS

Vice President, Head of Pricing & Growth Analytics
Xceedance Inc.

So much of the focus in underwriting departments has been on moving teams into the age of low-touch underwriting. But are you getting all you can out of your underwriting staff? As technology, data, and analytics are incorporated into the underwriting process, opportunities exist to better position underwriters to influence agents and internal partners. This session will detail how to evaluate current underwriting practices, how to proactively improve processes, how to better partner with the sales team, and how to find balance between streamlining underwriting workflow, identifying evolving risks, and creating a holistic portfolio-management strategy.

Learning Objectives:

• Consider new processes/systems that could bring your underwriting teams to the next level in their ability to impact results (e.g., portfolio underwriting, using new data, increased renewal underwriting)
• Leveraging new and existing data sources to streamline your renewal process and agency management and create more proactive portfolio management strategies
• Identify the opportunities to integrate data for improved customer and agency partner satisfaction
• Review a case study in combining occupant and insurance value insights and learn how to incorporate these insights into underwriting and risk management processes

Matt Cabral

Senior Consultant, Insurance Product Management
TransUnion

Chad Combs

Vice President, Personal Lines Underwriting
Ohio Mutual Insurance Group

According to U.S. government agencies, agritourism (also known as “agritainment”) is approximately a billion-dollar annual market. This evolved farm business model offers multiple opportunities for human interaction and visitor engagement, which tend to attract more visitors and change the risk environment for farm operations. Farm operations are also employing new technologies designed to deliver greater yields and profits. With new attractions and technologies, new risks present themselves. This session will review the various challenges insurers may face in providing effective coverages for today’s Farms.

Jamie Peterson

Farm Product Developer
Verisk

William C. (Chuck) Schlager

Principal, Personal Property Product Development
ISO

This session will review the underwriting process, specifically regarding named insureds. It will detail underwriting considerations for named insureds and tools for underwriters. It will also discuss who should and shouldn't be listed as named insureds and review how those listed as named insureds can impact claims.

Patrick Laws

President
Wisconsin Association of Mutual Insurance Companies

Insurers may face new risk exposures across the personal lines space as the legal regime around cannabis continues to evolve at the state level. Is recreational cannabis an opportunity for growth? Or is it a risk that exceeds your appetite? Join this session to learn how underwriters can flexibly address the growing marijuana market.

William C. (Chuck) Schlager

Principal, Personal Property Product Development
ISO

The times are a ‘changing. Insurers may face new risk exposures across the commercial lines space as the legal regime around cannabis continues to evolve at the state level. Is recreational cannabis an opportunity for growth? Or is it a risk that exceeds your appetite? What about CBD? Join this session to learn how underwriters can flexibly address the growing marijuana market.

Kat Ambrosino

Product Development Lead – Commercial Casualty
Verisk

Christopher Sirota

Emerging Issues Product Manager
Verisk

Hosted by Christen Kelly, this panel of agencies (TBD) will share valuable insights and expectations around commercial lines including what’s working well and what’s not working at all in the commercial lines process.

Kylie Hubbard

Director, Data and Lead Resources
INSURICA

Christen Kelley

Director of Marketing
IVANS Insurance Solutions

Kristine Lambert

Director, Project Management
Horton Group

Evaluating an organization's strategy, context, and capabilities provides insights about the amount of risk an organization is willing to take in commercial lines. The risk appetite framework can be used to develop commercial target markets. Join this session to learn how to research target markets, apply the risk appetite framework, and develop strategies to monitor and adjust to enhance success.

Lorie Graham, CPCU, ARe, ARM, AIAF, ALCM, ARP, ARC, AIM

Senior Vice President & Chief Risk Officer of Corporate Services
American Agricultural Insurance Company

Commercial catastrophe modeling – first introduced by Karen Clark – has been around for more than 30 years. For much of that time, cat modeling has focused on using history to predict the future. That is no longer enough for the insurance industry, especially given stakeholders’ increased focus on the impacts of climate change. This session will provide an overview of catastrophe modeling and dig into how climate change is impacting the current and future views of risk.

Michael Tine, CPCU, Are

Senior Director
Karen Clark & Company

Dan Ward

Director, Model Development
Karen Clark & Company

Mutual insurers are increasingly looking for ways to innovate, whether it’s through the back-office innovation, customer experience improvements, or big data deployment. When it comes to the customer experience, we have seen a growing number of insurance companies go beyond the policy, broadening their scopes of service. In doing so, they are looking for high-touch programs that generate regular, positive interactions with policyholders. These create positive engagement and help insurers differentiate their coverages. This session will look at how three mutuals have recently introduced these programs by leveraging insurtech services for increased policyholder engagement. The session will also identify how the product development and filing processes worked as well as the challenges they faced.

Grahame Cohen

Founder & CEO
Epoq Inc.

An insurance company’s risk appetite is established in the underwriting department. Property/casualty underwriters have survived the test of time by being agile in an ever-changing regulatory and technological environment. As the pace of change in both domains accelerates, the ability to survive and maintain a competitive position may rest on the ability to adapt to emerging technologies within the artificial intelligence and machine learning spaces. This session will address the impacts of AI and ML on insurance underwriting by examining the massive amounts of data being created and consumed by the carriers. This session will also address steps the industry should consider to proactively develop the right talent and technology infrastructure to effectively respond to changing market landscapes.

Ramya Sunad, CPCU, ARM-E

Property Underwriter
USAA

This session will look at trends in building costs, resulting increases in repair costs, lags in claim settlements, and increases in loss-of-use claims. It will also explore the process and credibility of predictions of insurance building cost models.

Skip Coan

Senior Vice President
e2Value

This session will provide information about how the changing work environment has impacted workers’ compensation. The session will discuss the exposures changes in this class of business. An Illinois-based workers’ compensation attorney who has worked with unusual cases will join this session to share real world, first-hand experience with attendees. Insights learned in this session can be applied to the management and underwriting of future contingent events.

Betsy Branagan, FCAS, MAAA

Vice President, Reserving and Claim Analytics
Xceedance Inc.

George F. Klauke, Jr.

Founding Member
Klauke Law Group, LLC

Michael Parcelli

Senior Vice President, Head of Global Solutioning and Business Process Consulting
Xceedance Inc.