“The response we had when we began advertising this event was enormous, it is clearly an issue that actuaries in the general insurance market care passionately about and are keen to inform themselves on” says Constance Longden, Senior Bolton Associates Consultant and organiser of the event. “The number of delegates attending has doubled since our first event last year, which is truly exciting and shows that we are providing something that the market is enjoying!”
The panel was chaired by Mohammad Khan of PWC, who gave a buoyant introduction to kick off proceedings. Talks began with a presentation by Bharat Raj and Sophie Weisenberger of Grant Thornton – who recently conducted a nationwide survey on capital modelling within insurance. They shared their findings with the delegates, focusing on the capital modelling processes, areas of model use and what platforms are being used in the market at the present. “Capital modelling has matured as a discipline. In today’s environment, a robust and reliable capital model is an indispensable tool for running an insurance business effectively.” says Bharat.
The Grant Thornton survey results formed a strong basis for the following panel discussion with Jonathan Broughton of RPC, Sunnie Luthra of IGI and Gareth Jones of Hiscox. Both IGI and Hiscox recently moved to Tyche – the software affiliated with RPC – so Sunnie and Gareth were able to give valuable insight in to the rationale behind a platform change and the pros and cons of taking on that challenge. They also share common ground having both worked in Igloo and Remetrica previously, so they were ideal panellists to discuss all three major platforms, which helped keep the Q&A session both balanced and lively.
“It was refreshing to see such an engaged audience.” says Sunnie, “A clear theme emerged out of the Q&A session that the next couple of years are going to be very interesting for capital modelling and software vendors don’t have much scope to be complacent.”
The evening went down a storm with delegates, who once again enjoyed the mix of intellectually stimulating conversation and the informal and fun setting. 'The Hot Topics session was well worth attending. The topics were relevant, interesting and sparked lots of discussions. Bolton Associates generously provided drinks and food and I had fun meeting new friends and old. Obviously chatting about capital models is highly engrossing!' says Huey Lim of AIG.
Sharing Huey’s sentiments, Dipan Shah, Interim Capital Modelling Manager at QBE commented “I have started to look forward to these events as they come along. They have found the right formula of providing an informal atmosphere to allow for networking whilst enhancing the educational experience - which makes for a win-win on a work night!”
The next Hot Topics event will take place in Spring 2018. For information on upcoming events or if there is a Hot Topic you would like to see covered, please get in touch with Constance Longden at constance@bolton-associates.co.uk
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