Program
Tuesday, November 3
10:30–11:00 – Opening remarks
Moderator:
Michel Simard, CIA Executive Director
Speakers:
Michel St-Germain (FCIA), CIA President
Marc Tardif (FCIA), CIA Immediate Past President
Join us in kicking off virtual act20 – the CIA’s flagship event – reimagined. CIA President Michel St-Germain and CIA Immediate Past President Marc Tardif will open the conference before turning the stage over to award-winning
journalist, bestselling author, and returning CIA favourite – Dan Gardner.
11:00–12:00 – Plenary session
Session 1: Opening session with keynote, Dan Gardner – Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction Sponsored by PartnerRe
Interest: All
Moderator:
Michel Simard, CIA Executive Director
Keynote:
Dan Gardner, journalist, bestselling author
Dan tackles the questions of how we can improve our ability to forecast the future and manage risks to do better in business and life.
13:00–14:00 – Concurrent sessions
Session 2: Population aging, implications for asset values, pension plans, and social safety nets
Interest: Pension
Moderator:
Tulio Walles Mora (FCIA), Actuary, Eckler Ltd.
Speakers:
Doug Andrews (FCIA), Adjunct Professor, University of Waterloo
Steve Bonnar (FCIA), Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of Waterloo
Lori Curtis*, Professor, University of Waterloo
For over five years, the CIA, along with its partners including the Society of Actuaries and the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, has been funding research regarding population aging. A team of researchers from Canada and the UK has made good progress,
having produced several papers and generating exciting results. At this session, team members Doug Andrews, Steve Bonnar, and Lori Curtis – all from the University of Waterloo – will review highlights of their research and delve more deeply
into certain aspects having retirement-related application.
You will learn what connection there is between population structure and returns on asset classes such as equities, bonds, and infrastructure.
The team has applied its research to pension plans in Canada, the US, and the UK within an economic capital framework. See how asset allocation and changes to contribution rates affect risk management.
The research has been extended to women living in the alone stage of retirement. Understand the challenges faced by such women and consider opportunities for policy development and product innovation to support this growing demographic.
No prior knowledge of this subject matter is required, but information will be provided that is interesting to actuaries with different levels of experience. The session will touch on matters of interest across the life, health, pension, and investment
practice areas.
Session 3: Building and Assessing economic scenario generators
Interest: ERM
Moderator:
Kailan (Kevin) Shang (ACIA), Associate Director, Aon PathWise
Speakers:
Hal Pedersen* , Director, Actuarial Program, University of California, Santa Barbara
Gary Venter*, Columbia University
With the growing computational capability, stochastic analysis becomes a norm for many actuarial works, including pricing, reserving, and risk management. As a key component of stochastic analysis, economic scenario generation drives the distribution of financial results. With so many economic scenario models available, it is important to know how to choose them and validate generated economic scenarios.
The first part of this session will discuss building and testing interest-rate models with a P&C focus. A variety of testing methods will be discussed such as interest rate moments, volatility regression against interest rate level, and the relationships between yield spreads and the short rate.
The second part of this session will cover validation for more asset classes and extend from the real-world scenario generation to risk-neutral scenario generation.
By the end of this session, attendees will understand the methods that are available for generating and validating economic scenarios and be able to choose appropriate methods for different cases.
14:15–15:15 – Concurrent sessions
Session 4: Adopt, adapt, or avoid: international product designs and innovations and their applications in the Canadian market
Interest: Reinsurance
Moderator:
Benoit Miclette (FCIA), Actuarial Consultant, Miclette Actuarial Consulting Inc.
Speakers:
Benoit Miclette (FCIA)
Matthew Smith* Head of Divisional R&D, Pacific Life Re
With many resources in recent years being diverted to other emerging challenges, product development in the Canadian market has taken a backseat. It is now time to start thinking about new concepts! This session will examine some of the product designs and innovations seen in other markets and consider their relevance in today’s market. We will look at life and health products from different markets and examine what led to their successes and failures in the hope of inspiring the next good (great!) idea.
Session 5: Stress testing in times of stressInterest: Corporate life, P&C, ERM
Moderator:
Dan Doyle (FCIA), Vice President and Appointed Actuary, Empire Life
Speakers:
Bruce Langstroth (FCIA), Canadian Actuarial Leader, Ernst & Young
Pierre Lepage (FCIA), Partner, KPMG LLP
Robert Berendsen (FCIA), Partner, Oliver Wyman
COVID-19 and the accompanying economic volatility creates challenges for actuaries performing stress testing in determining appropriate assumptions regarding future emergence of those conditions and appropriate stress scenarios that can and should be
applied to the organization in performing stress testing. The panel will discuss these challenges and offer perspectives on stress testing in times of stress and uncertainty.
Wednesday, November 4
10:30–11:30 – Concurrent sessions
Session 6: Latest developments in modelling segregated funds
Interest: Individual life
Moderator:
Rachel Yap (FCIA), Director, Sun Life
Speaker:
Kailan (Kevin) Shang (ACIA), Associate Director, Aon PathWise
Maggie Lin (FCIA), Associate Director, Aon
Rachel Yap
Segregated fund modelling is traditionally complex with demanding computing resources. Learn the latest developments in this area, and how some of these concerns are addressed with a real-life application.
Session 7: Text analytics in insurance claims: practical challenges and lessons learned
Interest: P&C
Moderator:
Steven Honcharik (FCIA), Manager, Analytics, The Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Company
Speaker:
Steven Honcharik (FCIA)
Yelena Kropivnitskaya*, Manager, Data Analytics, The Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Company
Insurers traditionally treat data-driven decisions as a primary objective for core insurance applications such as ratemaking and reserving. Traditional techniques rely mostly on aggregated, structured data, and often leverage purely statistical techniques.
Insurers utilize certain types of data, such as risk factors, losses, premiums, and exposures, rating factors, and rates.
We have vast quantities of valuable data, both internal and external, that has not been used previously because of its volume, variety, trustworthiness and/or rate of change. Some examples of non-traditional, unstructured data include free-form text notes,
documents, images, video files, and call centre conversations. Modern data science techniques can help insurers to maximize the use of non-traditional data sources to develop models that drive better business strategies and operational decisions.
This talk focuses on text analytics – a range of technologies for analyzing and processing semi-structured and unstructured text data. Different areas of text analytics are in different stages of maturity and some of them are accessible by practitioners
today, while other areas are only now emerging from academia into practice.
This talk demonstrates a set of text analytics methods of varying complexity. It also illustrates how these methods are not a substitute for an adjuster’s experience, but they can be applied to augment the claims process to improve claims operations.
The techniques are presented using real-world data and model examples.
11:45–12:45 – Concurrent sessions
Session 8: Machine learning in medicine: Should actuaries be paying attention?
Interest: Reinsurance
Moderator:
Rohit Thomas (FCIA), Vice-President, Life & Health, TD Insurance
Speakers:
June Quah (FCIA), Assistant Vice-President, Integrated Analytics, Munich Re
Dr. Tim Meagher*, Vice-President and Medical Director, Munich Re
Machine learning is widely touted as the next revolution in the practice of medicine. Is this true? Are physician-experts a threatened species? Will medical outcomes improve? Should life insurers be happy or apprehensive? Machine learning has arrived
in medicine, much like everywhere else, but it’s unclear whether it will become deeply embedded in the practice of medicine or remain on the fringe. Presumably, the result will be better medical care. Attend this session to learn more about
the potential ultimate effects on the life insurer. Will mortality improvement be affected? Will the risk selection paradigm change?
Session 9: Measuring exposure to cyber loss/the actuarial contribution to proving causation in cyber torts
Interest: AE
Moderator:
Craig Allen (FCIA), Consulting Actuary, Craig A. Allen, FCAS
Speakers:
Craig Allen (FCIA)
Michael Bean (FCIA)
We all know that cyber risk is a growing problem with potential losses in the billions. However, how should exposure to these losses be measured? By a company’s revenue? The size of its network? Something else? Attend this virtual
presentation to hear about recent research on this topic sponsored by the Casualty Actuarial Society.
At the other end of the insurance contract, discover how the assertion of legal remedies for negligence in the cyber area has been frustrated by the inability to prove causation of economic damage. The ex-ante paradigm proposed by lawyers is a means of
addressing this gap. Actuarial training is well suited to making the projections needed in the ex-ante paradigm.
13:00–14:00 – Concurrent sessions
Session 10: The impact of COVID-19 on Canadian mortality – what we know now and what the future may hold
Interest: Pension
Moderator:
Kirill Semin (FCIA), Director, Structuring, Defined Benefit Solutions, Sun Life
Speaker:
Richard Brown (FCIA), Longevity Risk Consultant, Club Vita
Richard Brown from Club Vita will present what the latest
available data tell us about the impact COVID-19 has had on Canadian mortality in 2020. Richard will also explore how the pandemic may impact Canadian mortality in years to come based on Club Vita’s investigation into emerging research on the
potential long-term health implications of the pandemic.
Session 11: Practical considerations of variable annuity risk management under IFRS 17
Interest: ERM
Moderator:
Frank Reynolds (FCIA), President, Reynolds, Thorvardson
Speakers:
Peter McLaughlin Phillips *, President and CEO, PathWise Solutions Group, Aon
Sahibbir Sandhu*, Consultant, PathWise Solutions Group, Aon
IFRS 17 brings both challenges and opportunities for insurers to rethink risk management strategies for variable annuities. The session will discuss the practical considerations of variable annuity hedging under the IFRS 17 variable fee approach (VFA).
Using a case study, we will explore how different hedging strategies will impact the financial results of various guarantee features, how that will interact with the company’s own risk appetite – especially on earnings at risk –
and how these strategies will perform under a different economic environment. In addition, we will examine the transition impact of hedging on risk profile of the company.
By the end of this session, attendees will understand the general impact of hedging on financial results under the IFRS 17 VFA method, know the key considerations to select optimum risk management strategy based on guarantee features, economic conditions,
and the company’s own risk appetite, and assess the sources of earnings volatility under the IFRS 17 VFA method.
14:15–15:15 – Concurrent sessions
Session 12: Termination age in benefits
Interest: Group
Moderator:
Edward Kuo, Director, Sun Life
Speaker:
Christine Rossi (FCIA), Actuary, Eckler
Ellen Whelan (FCIA), Principal, Eckler Ltd.
- Age limitation of group benefits (health, dental, disability and life benefits)
- Current practices and actuarial analysis
- Summary of recent court cases and other litigation
- Steps for plan sponsors to address court concerns and limit risk exposure to legal challenges
Session 13: The impact of IFRS 17 on the role of the actuaryInterest: Corporate life, P&C
Moderator:
Lesley Thomson (FCIA), Vice-President, Actuary, Sun Life
Speakers:
Wallace Bridel (FCIA), Appointed Actuary and Senior Consultant, Munich Re
Trevor Howes (FCIA), Vice-President & Actuary, Moody's Analytics
Lesley Thomson (FCIA), Vice-President, Actuary, Sun Life
The CIA Designated Group on the Impact of IFRS 17 on the Role of the Appointed/Valuation Actuary will outline the essential changes to the Standards of Practice and other guidance that it is proposing. These changes are in order for Appointed/Valuation
Actuaries to continue to fulfill their statutory roles considering the implications of the significant changes to the valuation of policy liabilities of insurers under IFRS 17 and the additional impact on capital assessment and financial condition
testing duties. The panel will also discuss the timing of the planned exposure draft to reflect those changes, while seeking feedback from membership.
Thursday, November 12
10:30–11:15 – Plenary session
Session 14: Volunteer awards ceremony
Interest: All
Moderator:
Michel Simard, CIA Executive Director
Speaker:
Marc Tardif (FCIA), CIA Immediate Past President
Volunteers are the lifeblood of the CIA. Join us in celebrating their achievements.
11:30–12:45 – Plenary session
Session 15: Keynote speaker Anthony McLean – Inclusivity: Better Than Diversity and new Fellows ceremony
Interest: All
Moderator:
Michel Simard, CIA Executive Director
Keynote:
Anthony McLean, Leadership and mental health speaker
Anthony McLean delivers a powerful message about creating an inclusive climate in organizations. He argues that regardless of race, religion, socio-economic background, or sexual orientation, we all want to feel a sense of belonging at work. McLean challenges audience members to think critically about unconscious biases. The top talent we want to recruit and retain in our organizations will come from every conceivable background in the world. Are we open-minded enough to recognize talent when it looks different from us in age, ability, gender identity, or cultural expression?
Immediately following Anthony's keynote, we will recognize the recent Fellows of the CIA – virtual style.
13:00–14:00 – Concurrent sessions
Session 16: In-force optimization through customer engagement
Interest: Individual life
Moderator:
Blake Hill (FCIA), Vice-President, Life Insurance, Dacadoo
Speakers:
Matt Miller*, Assistant Vice-President, Lincoln Financial Group
Insurers are seeking to optimize their existing business value, with many seeing new value from the customer. At this session learn how insurers are engaging their customers to increase in-force value through such activities as product offers and exchanges,
and risk triage and reduction. The session will have a panel of speakers.
Session 17: Recent developments in climate change analysis
Interest: All
Moderator:
Gaetano Geretto (FCIA), Chair, CIA Climate Change and Sustainability Committee
Speakers:
André Choquet (FCIA), Incoming Chair, CIA Climate Change and Sustainability Committee
Maxime Delisle (FCIA), Research and Survey Development and Analysis Team Lead, CIA Climate Change and Sustainability Committee
Members of the CIA Climate Change and Sustainability Committee (CCSC) will update CIA members on recent developments in climate change analysis – notably, the results of this year’s survey on climate change analysis. In addition,
CCSC leadership will also review the recent collaboration with other actuarial associations, as well as the creation of draft guidance and scenarios on climate change to assist CIA members on evaluating the risks of climate change in their actuarial
work. Finally, an outline of the CCSC’s projects for 2021 will be shared with attendees.
14:15–15:30 – Concurrent sessions
Session 18: Automated underwriting
Interest: Group
Moderator:
Isabelle Bouchard (FCIA), Vice-President, Group Reinsurance, RGA Canada
Speaker:
Sean Gilday*, Vice-President, Strategic Partnership, RGAX
In this session, we will address the following questions regarding group automated underwriting:
- What could the future of automated group underwriting look like?
- Could we get to point of sale underwriting in group? Newly quoted vs. renewals?
- What can we learn from the US market?
- What should group carriers be thinking about?
- What’s an easy way to test new models?
Session 19: Part 1000 needs you! (Interactive forum)
Interest: All
Moderator:
Josephine Marks (FCIA), Principal, Eckler Ltd.
Speakers:
Josephine Marks (FCIA)
Chris Townsend (FCIA), Senior Director, OSFI
In this session, facilitators will explore Part 1000 of the Standards of Practice (SOP) to deepen our understanding of how they may apply to various areas of practice, while exploring some examples of how Part 1000 might apply under specific circumstances.
The session will be an interactive forum and make use of case studies to examine how Part 1000 may be interpreted in different ways by practitioners but remains deeply relevant to all actuaries. The session will include topics such as consideration of non-traditional engagements or how Part 1000 may assist an actuary in addressing situations in traditional practice areas that are not explicitly covered in the practice-specific sections of the Standards.
The session’s presenters will serve as facilitators, and they look forward to your active participation. Participants are encouraged to re-familiarize themselves with Part 1000 of the SOP prior to the session. Session attendance will be capped at 40 participants.
Session 43: Negative interest rates and the insurance industry
Interest: Life, Investment
Moderator:
Ben Marshall (FCIA), Staff Fellow, Canadian Membership, SOA
Speakers:
Mark E. Alberts*, President and Consulting Actuary, Alberts Actuarial Consulting
Abid Kazmi (FCIA), Senior Director, Investments Strategy, RBC Insurance
How prepared is your company for the possibility of negative interest rates? This session will provide a review of the recent research report “Negative Interest Rates and the Insurance Industry” by the Joint Risk Management Section of the CIA, SOA, and CAS. The report includes an empirical review of negative interest rates, a survey of literature related to negative interest rates, and a survey of practicing actuaries regarding modeling capability and enterprise risk management practices related to negative interest rates. Presenters will discuss the research findings and provide a Canadian practitioner’s perspective.
16:00–17:00 – Concurrent sessions
Session 20: Actuarial perspectives on flood and water risk
Interest: P&C
Moderator:
Jacqueline Friedland (FCIA), Senior Director, P&C Insurance Group, Insurance Supervision, OSFI
Speaker:
Rade Musulin*, Principal, Finity Consulting
Flood and water are a major source of risk not only for insurance organizations but also for national governments and supranational organizations. Several papers have been released in recent years on flood and water risk by actuarial bodies, including
the American Academy of Actuaries and the International Actuarial Association. This session will review these papers and identify key challenges in managing risk from these perils in light of climate change.
Session 21: COVID-19 Series – #1 COVID-19 model
Interest: All
Moderator:
Michael W. Hughes (FCIA), Vice-President & Marketing Actuary General Re
Daniel Meier*, Life & Health R&D Manager, Swiss Re Institute
Louis Rossouw*, Head of Research & Analytics, UK, Canada, Australia, and South Africa, Gen Re
Manuel Villegas Caballero*, Senior Risk Modeller, Swiss Re
COVID-19 carries additional risk for mortality and morbidity. The ability to model this, or any, pandemic is important to understanding the impact on the general and insured populations. In this session, our speakers will cover pandemic modelling from a risk management perspective, including additional insights that COVID-19 provides for pandemic risk models.
The speakers will then discuss specific models used for COVID-19 analytics including researching and monitoring the reproduction number of SARS-CoV-2 in various countries around the world. Further, the session will share insights into the COVID-19 impact to mortality from the development of full models for South African and Canadian populations.
Friday, November 13
10:30–11:30 – Concurrent sessions
Session 22: Financial underwriting
Interest: Individual life
Moderator:
Laura Anders (FCIA), Assistant Vice-President & Actuary, Manulife
Speakers:
Karen Cutler*, Head of Underwriting & Claims, Chief Underwriter, Manulife
Norm Leblond*, Vice- President, Chief Underwriter and Claims Risk Officer, Sun Life
Jeremy Li Foa Wing (FCIA), Assistant Vice-President, Product Actuarial, Foresters Financial
Financial underwriting in today’s environment can be very complex, with sales strategies and product structures that challenge traditional insurance protection needs. This session will discuss financial underwriting practices and how they are impacted
by the industry’s product offerings, with a focus on the challenges of increasing death benefit and investment-driven products. Norm Leblond and Karen Cutler will provide an underwriter’s point of view on the challenges faced in today’s
environment, and Jeremy Wing will provide an actuary’s view on how financial underwriting practices can impact product profitability and risk.
Session 23: Regularization in linear models
Interest: P&C
Moderator:
Dane Grand-Maison (ACIA), Consulting Actuary, Eckler
Speakers:
Brian Fannin*, Research Actuary, CAS
Joshua Newkirk*, Actuary, Homesite Insurance
One of the most fundamental decisions an analyst must make is whether to include a predictor in their model. This can be handled using stepwise regression, but the resulting model will include the full impact of any parameter which remains, potentially
leading to a model with low bias, but high variance. Regularization techniques penalize models with high complexity. This obviates the need for a binary decision about which parameters will remain. Moreover, the simpler models which result will often
perform better on out-of-sample data.
This talk will tackle regularization methods like lasso and ridge regression from the ground up, exploring their implementation and interpretation.
11:45–12:45 – Concurrent sessions
Session 24: Suicide trends and claims best practices
Interest: Reinsurance
Moderator:
Natansh Dave (ACIA), Assistant Vice-President, Group Reinsurance Solutions, Munich Re
Speakers:
Colin William Sproat (FCIA), Assistant Vice-President, Munich Re
Michael Orr*, Senior Account Manager – Claims, Munich RE
Suicide is the 9th leading cause of death in the Canadian population and one of the few reasons life claims are denied but there is limited information about suicide in the insured population.
The presenters will reveal the drivers behind suicide and how suicide trends in the Canadian general population translate into those in the insured population.
This topic is discussed from an actuarial and claims perspective and will include analysis of how suicide rates vary, the suicide clause, review and adjudication of medical assistance in dying (MAiD) claims, as well as claims best practices.
At the conclusion of this session, attendees will understand how suicide rates differ between the general and insured populations, how suicide rates vary, ways suicide claims are adjudicated (including MAiD), and how the suicide exclusion clause works in insurance contracts.
Session 25: The CIA’s public statements on pharmacare and risk classification
Interest: All
Moderator:
Bernard Morency (FCIA), Chair, CIA Public Affairs Council
Speakers:
Rob Brown (FCIA), Co-Champion, Single Topic Task Force on Pharmacare
John Dark (FCIA), Co-Champion, Single Topic Task Force on Pharmacare
Emile Elefteriadis (FCIA), Co-Champion, Single Topic Task Force on Risk Classification
Matthew Buchalter (FCIA), Co-Champion, Single Topic Task Force on Risk Classification
Join the co-champions of the single topic task forces (STTFs) on pharmacare and risk classification to discuss the current drafts of their public statements. This interactive session will let members share their thoughts and ask questions to help the
STTFs inform, refine, and finalize these statements.
13:00–14:00 – Concurrent sessions
Session 26: Opioid Crisis
Interest: Individual Life
Moderator:
Kristopher Kerwin (FCIA), Director & Actuary, Capital & Financing, CN Valuation, RGA Life Reinsurance Company of Canada
Speakers:
Nick Kocisak*, Senior Actuarial Assistant, RGA USA
Vincent Prange*, Assistant Actuary, RGA
Maryam Shapland*, Vice-President and Medical Director, RGA
An increase in opioid misuse has contributed to a rise in overdose mortality, gaining the attention of the media, Hollywood, and legislators. In this session, a panel of three speakers will discuss different facets of this crisis. Vince Prange will discuss the Opioid Mortality Trends. Then, Nick Kocisak will present a prescription drug analysis. Finally, Maryam Shapland will show a Medical Perspective and the impact of COVID on opioid use/misuse.
Session 27: Enterprise risk management and emerging risks
Interest: ERM
Moderator:
Pierre Lepage (FCIA), Partner, KPMG
Speakers:
Pierre Lepage (FCIA)
Liam McFarlane (FCIA), Chief Risk and Actuarial Officer, Economical Insurance Company
Lloyd Milani (FCIA), Executive Vice-President and Chief Risk Officer, North America (Life), Munich Re
In this session, two authors who wrote recent papers on emerging risks will share their thoughts on the effects of the legalization of cannabis on the life insurance industry and on building an effective ERM response team during a pandemic, respectively. Finally, this session will provide an overview of recent activities of the CIA’s Enterprise Risk Management Practice Committee to develop guidance material and to promote actuaries in ERM roles.
14:15–15:15 – Concurrent sessions
Session 28: Tidal forces shaping Canadian drug spending
Interest: Group
Moderator:
Allen Furlong (FCIA), Associate Vice-President, HUB International
Speaker:
William Chung*, Senior Vice-President, Payor Partnerships and Business Development., Shoppers Drug Mart
The Canadian healthcare landscape is undergoing a significant transformation. Both public and private payors remain fiscally challenged. Although innovative medicines have made significant contributions to enable Canadians to live more healthy and productive lives, the cost of these medications have been under the microscope, with payors developing different strategies to manage this spending.
Session 29: IFRS 17 – Challenges for actuaries in future audits
Interest: Corporate life
Moderator:
Alison Rose (FCIA), Partner, KPMG
Speaker:
Maximilian Boermann*, Aktuar DAV, KPMG
An early view on challenges for actuaries in future IFRS 17 audits and lessons learned from 2016 German initial Solvency II audits.
Tuesday, November 17
10:30–11:30 – Concurrent sessions
Session 30: Medical science at a crossroads: The impact of COVID-19 and other medical advances on mortality and morbidity outcomes – now and in the future
Interest: Individual life
Moderator:
Justin Scott (FCIA), Canada Life
Speaker:
Daniel Zimmerman, MD*, Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Director, Reinsurance Group of America, Inc. (RGA)
Dr. Zimmerman will present a broad array of recent medical and technological advancements and discuss their potential impacts on mortality and morbidity outcomes in the near and long term. Additionally, he will also work to put this all into the context
of a COVID-19 world and how the current pandemic influences and drives additional innovation.
Session 31: AI in the insurance industry
Interest: P&C
Moderator:
Dane Grand-Maison (ACIA), Consulting Actuary, Eckler
Speaker:
Charles Dugas*, Associate Partner, Ernst & Young
In the last decade, AI has made important progress, mainly driven by progress in computational power, availability of important sources of data, and advances in AI algorithms. In particular, the success of deep learning has allowed us to reach much higher
performance in numerous fields including speech recognition, natural language processing, computer vision, and time series forecasting. In this presentation, we will look at these new capabilities and how they impact the different segments of the
insurance value chain. We will also consider the impact of AI on the actuary's work and role.
11:45–12:45 – Concurrent sessions
Session 32: What are you smoking? Potential impacts from marijuana and vaping
Interest: Reinsurance
Moderator: Patrick Charbonneau (FCIA), Director, Travel Insurance, Optimum Reassurance Inc.
Speakers:
Brad Heltemes*, Vice-President and Medical Director R&D, Munich Re Life, US
Both e-cigarettes and marijuana have become more popular throughout Canada in recent years. This session will discuss the trends in use, the medical issues, and the potential underwriting and mortality impact of vaping and of cannabis use.
Session 33: Coping with COVID-19
Interest: General business and professionalism
Moderator:
Frank Grossman (FCIA), Principal, Linden Grove Group
Speakers:
Dr. Shimi Kang*,Physician, researcher and neuroscience expert
The proportion of single person households in Canada has quadrupled since 1951, and now comprises more than 4 million Canadians. Layer on the various and shifting COVID-19 protocols, plus the tremendous rise in the number of people working from home (if still employed at all), and you have the makings of a general mental health crisis – in addition to the pandemic’s deathly toll. There’s more to coping with pandemic uncertainty than baking sourdough bread or binge-watching episodes of Downton Abbey. Join us to learn more about adaptability, mental health and well-being issues for both individuals and organizations during this plague year.
13:00–14:00 – Concurrent sessions
Session 34: Balance between pension affordability and benefit security
Interest: Pension
Moderator:
Stephen Cheng (FCIA), Consulting Actuary, Westcoast Actuaries Inc.
Speakers:
Leah Fichter*, Chair of CAPSA, Deputy Superintendent of Pensions for Saskatchewan, Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority of Saskatchewan
Michel St-Germain (FCIA), CIA President
How can pension regulators and other pension plan stakeholders achieve a good delicate balance between pension affordability and benefit security? In this session, the speakers will present their views and share their insights from the regulatory and
actuarial perspectives in an open forum format discussion.
Session 35: The future cost of long-term care
Interest: ERM
Moderator:
Chris Fievoli (FCIA), CIA Staff Actuary, Communications and Public Affairs
Speakers:
Michael Nicin*, Executive Director, National Institute on Ageing
Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald (FCIA), Director of Financial Security Research, National Institute on Ageing, Ryerson University, and resident scholar, Eckler
As attention turns to Canada’s baby boomers moving into retirement, public policy debates focusing on income security and primary health care neglect a significant strain that will emerge as a result of Canada’s aging population: providing
long-term care to seniors.
This presentation reports on a recent project that builds on Statistics Canada’s population microsimulation model to project the future costs of long-term care to both the public purse as well as the personal burdens for Canadian seniors and their
families. The presentation will also explore some of the key concerns among experts regarding the future of long-term care in Canada, with regards to a more recent ERM-based analysis.
By quantifying the economic costs and personal impact that Canada can expect on its current path, this work is intended to promote informed and targeted discussions among governments, long-term care providers, and individual Canadians on this pressing
national concern.
14:15–15:15 – Concurrent sessions
Session 36: Group waiver and group LTD claims trends and innovations
Interest: Group
Moderator:
Peter Muirhead (FCIA), Consulting Actuary, PBI Actuarial Consultants Ltd.
Speakers:
Denis Garand (FCIA), President, Denis Garand and Associates
Mark Friederich*, Vice-President and Senior Actuary Data Commercialization, RGA, USA
In this session, Denis Garand will provide a brief overview of the recently published CIA group waiver study. Mark Friederich will then discuss innovative predictive analytics applications on group life and disability blocks. The session will
give examples of using predictive modelling to further segment group life and disability experience.
Session 37: IFRS 17 evolving guidance
Interest: Corporate Life
Moderator:
Marie-Andrée Boucher (FCIA), Principal, Eckler Ltd.
Speakers:
Steve Bocking (FCIA), Vice-President, Individual Financial Management, Canada Life
Marie-Andrée Boucher (FCIA)
Stéephanie Fadous (FCIA), Head of IFRS 17 Implementation, Manulife
In this session, the CIA’s Committee on Life Insurance Financial Reporting (CLIFR) provides a general update on its activities in addition to providing updates on its IFRS 17 subcommittees.
Wednesday, November 18
10:30–11:30 – Concurrent sessions
Session 38: How could an Advanced Life Deferred Annuity (ALDA) benefit Canadian retirees?
Interest: Pension
Moderator:
Kirill Semin (FCIA), Director, Structuring, Defined Benefit Solutions, RGAX
Speaker:
Rui Zhou (ACIA), Senior Lecturer, University of Melbourne
Learn about this academic study based on Canada-specific assumptions, which examines how an Advanced Life Deferred Annuity (ALDA) can help individuals plan their retirement income and what factors might influence their decision to purchase an ALDA.
Session 39: COVID-19 SERIES – # 2 Underwriting post COVID-19
Interest: All
Moderator: Edward Swerhone (FCIA), Vice- President, Business Development, Life & Health, Canada, PartnerRe
Speakers:
Monica Clink* , Vice-President Claims, Optimum Life Reinsurance
Edward Swerhone (FCIA),
Paulo Pinho*, Chief Medical Officer, Optimum Life Reinsurance
In this session, we will see with the effect of COVID-19, the pricing impact in Canada and Asia on the medical selection such as fluid and acceleration tests, and on product characteristics, such as exclusions and the pre-existing condition. The changes seen in Canada was a move to a contactless sale – the agent could not get into the clients’ house, the nurse could not get in for the paramed. The rise of electronic applications, the use of data to determine safe cases where the need for fluids could be waived, the expansion of the amounts that this is applicable to.
Dr. Paulo Pinho and Monica Clink will then discuss expectations and experiences of claims in the COVID-19 era, examining how excess deaths and data accuracy alter claims adjudication. The session will go on to explore risk factors, acute mortality and mortality associated with concomitant illness like influenza as well as long- term population health implications to the COVID-19 pandemic.
11:45–12:45 – Concurrent sessions
Session 40: Updates on CIA research activities, mortality improvement updates, and the retirement risk survey
Interest: All
Speakers:
François Cloutier (FCIA), Vice- President, Actuarial and Products Development, SSQ Insurance / La Capitale
Anna Doudina (FCIA), Assistant Vice-President, Canadian Actuarial Pricing, Sun Life
Jill Harper (FCIA), Director, Sr Programming Leader & Actuary, Moody's Analytics
Kelly Zhan (FCIA) Director, Longevity, Defined Benefit Solutions, Sun Life
This session will provide an update on recent CIA research council activities. It will also highlight two recent research projects. The first project highlighted is about mortality improvement (MI). This discussion will include insights on current and future MI considerations including the availability of new data, methodologies and frameworks for modelling MI, and the impacts on MI from specific drivers. Highlights from the recent survey of Canadians on the risks associated with retirement as well as the effects from COVID-19 on retirement plans will also be shared.
Session 41: COVID-19 SERIES – # 3 Economic and behavioral impactsInterest: All
Moderator:
Jean-François Lafond (FCIA), Vice-President Business Development, SCOR
Speakers: Aisling Bradfield* , Head of Behavioural Science, SCOR
Adele Groyer*, Regional Chief Actuary, Gen Re
Behavioural Science is gaining interest in the insurance industry and more and more insurance carriers are taking advantage of Behavioural Science to shape their products and processes. During this session, we will show the variation in the impact of this COVID pandemic by socio-economic status by using data from various health and statistics organizations in the UK and scan available data from various countries to infer whether these effects are similar across countries. We look back at previous pandemics to assess if and how they can have lasting impacts on our behaviors and will look at how some of the behavioral patterns adopted during this pandemic might influence the way we sell insurance and interact with clients in the future.
13:00–14:00 – Plenary session
Session 42: Closing plenary session: Keynote speaker Alex Benay – The new digital reality – Megatrends and your future outlook
Interest: All
Moderator:
Michel St-Germain (FCIA), CIA President
Keynote:
Alex Benay, Partner, Digital and Government Solutions, KPMG
In the era of ever-evolving
digital technologies and buzzwords around AI, the cloud, blockchain, and nanotech, getting a clear understanding of this new landscape and what it means for your organization can seem like an impossible proposition. A lack of understanding of the impending
change can erode public trust and prove crippling to your organization. As one of the rare executives experienced in leading both enterprise software and government organizations, Alex Benay is uniquely positioned to offer technological guidance for organizations
across sectors.
In this customized presentation, Alex will explore some of the megatrends in this space, what they mean for business models, how to compete on the international stage and what it takes to win. He will challenge you to make the
cultural change required to enable a shift to better digital business models, policies, and laws. Audiences will leave empowered to conquer the digital challenges facing the future of their organization.
Key takeaways:
• How digital
is impacting the institutions who deal in public trust as a business model.
• How to cut through the hype in order to focus on real, concrete digital actions your institution should be most concerned about getting right.
• A roadmap
for where Canada and its businesses should be heading in the next few years.
*Schedule is subject to change. Updates will be made to the program page as they become available.