This session will provide an overall economic outlook of the property/casualty insurance industry and 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.

This session qualifies for one FMDC maintenance credit.

Robert Hartwig, Ph.D.

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

This session will explore the underwriting function, which provides the basis for the insurance contract. Underwriting ensures that risks are appropriately evaluated, rates are set at reasonable levels, and coverage is available as needed by the consuming public.

Elise Farnham

President
Illumine Consulting

We all know underwriters are bogged down with mundane manual tasks and technology has not kept pace with the evolving role of today’s modern underwriter, but underwriters deserve better. With the emergence of artificial intelligence, commercial property/casualty insurers have new tools at their fingertips to improve underwriter efficiency and performance to drive better business outcomes. Modern insurance organizations have learned they can outpace their competition by transforming their underwriting with AI underwriting and intelligent document automation. This session will share a whole new world of insights and efficiency for how underwriters can improve core processes to make them not only more efficient but armed with deeper insights.

Fanette Singer

Chief Marketing Officer
Convr

The underwriting and claim departments at major insurance carriers are quickly taking steps to understand the overall potential exposure, catch up with the science, and modify their underwriting processes accordingly. This session will explore the science, costs, exposure, tort liability, and coverage issues presented by forever chemicals.

Frank Demento

Senior Vice President – Claims Manager
TransRe

Wildfire keeps insurers awake at night, and not just those that write business in traditional wildfire areas. Now, you can expect fires almost anywhere. As personal lines underwriting has shifted to more automation, how can you manage the risk? As the same happens in commercial lines, can lessons be learned? What technology is available? What are some key drivers of surviving in this changing environment? Join this webinar to find out.

Joe Nolan

Manager of Risk Data and Analytics
Washington Surveying & Rating Bureau

Bryan Stanwood

Chief Experience Officer & Vice President of Risk Data and Analytics
Washington Surveying & Rating Bureau

Cyber liability is an exposure that most commercial insurers have accepted they have to address, but what about personal lines companies? This session will explain how cyber threat actors have turned their sights from businesses and corporations to everyday individuals. This session will provide an overview of the threats everyday people are facing from cyber criminals and how personal lines insurance companies can coordinate a variety of coverages and services to better protect their customers.

Nick Spano

US Product Leader
Beazley

Wade Wrobel

Major Account Executive, Cyber
TransUnion

Non-weather water risks are not only a leading source of insurance claims, they're also occurring more often. In 2023, some carriers saw a 20 percent or more increase in losses. Addressing the industry's gap in understanding and lack of property-level solutions, this session will unveil how artificial intelligence is powering the future of underwriting and rating for this pervasive risk.

Alex Kallos

Senior Product Manager
ZestyAI

This session will discuss why NAMIC members should consider environmental exposures and solutions for business owner’s policies and commercial package policies. While there are generally ISO-type limitations and exclusions, do these help agents and policyholders address such risks? The speakers will examine claims examples for contractors and fixed-site exposures. The session will also discuss sample coverage language in addition to services that can enhance solutions. Attendees will learn about emerging environmental issues and how they can adopt a solution.

Timothy D. Foy, MBA, CPCU, ARe

Underwriter Embedded Specialty Lines-Treaty
Beazley

Violence is becoming all too common in our society. Our industry can be a trusted source to help before and after events occur. This session will look at the staggering statistics of violence in America and the effects created for both commercial lines and personal lines customers. We’ll look at active shooter and the broader workplace violence coverage in commercial lines and review high-level coverages and services. And for personal lines, the market is finally bringing a solution to this space; we’ll look at what is in the market now.

Christopher B. Ellis

Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer
Berkley Re Solutions

Underwriters have focused on and made so much progress on becoming more efficient. But are they as impactful as they can be? There is an opportunity to mature the underwriting role from gatekeeping and defense to influencing and offense. This session will discuss clear, practical portfolio underwriting practices that could be just what your team needs to take the next step in becoming more impactful.

Chad Combs

Vice President Personal Lines Underwriting
Ohio Mutual Insurance Group

During this session, we will explore the nuanced shifts in the personal lines and commercial lines insurance sectors in the context of recent economic developments. For personal lines, we will analyze how economic fluctuations have influenced profitability, focusing on higher-than-usual loss costs and consumers’ evolving shopping behaviors. We'll examine the changes in risk factors such as severe accidents and demographic shifts and how these have affected consumer profiles and behaviors. On the commercial side, we will explore the implications of digital transformation and market dynamics on the industry's profitability. We will discuss how inflation and evolving pricing segmentation have impacted the commercial insurance market. This segment will also cover how insurers can leverage advanced modeling techniques and data, including credit data and driving history, to optimize risk assessment and create more effective rating plans. The session will use TransUnion's extensive data and analytics to provide actionable insights that can demonstrate how personal and commercial insurers can adapt to these market changes. The goal is to empower insurers to navigate the complexities of the current economic landscape and uncover opportunities for sustainable growth and improved profitability.

Patrick Foy

Senior Director, Strategic Planning
TransUnion

Discover the transformative potential of underwriting analytics in the insurance industry. This presentation explores how leveraging internal data enhances risk assessment, underwriting workflows, and ease of doing business. Learn about real-world case studies and how to embrace data-driven practices to empower underwriters by managing capacity and prioritizing work through initiatives such as straight-through processing and underwriting-rule analytics.

When a carrier decides to re-underwrite its book, leaders often want to shift focus to areas in which they have little experience. However, the lack of historical data in these areas makes it difficult for an insurer to outperform its competitors. This session will share ways to overcome this challenge, including the use of submission data and purchasing data and leveraging publicly available event data, such as crash data and fire reports, to gain insights into these new areas and fuel profitable growth.

Jessica Leong

CEO
Octagram Analytics

As electric vehicles, safety features, and technology become more popular, there are evolving considerations for insurers. This session will explore differences between insuring electric vehicles and gas vehicles; certain impacts of evolving automation and technology on safety and insurance coverage; and the continuing evolution in the auto insurance space.

Sandee Perfetto

Senior Director, Personal Lines Coverage Products
Verisk

Jared Smollik

Vice President of Personal Lines Core Products
Verisk

As robotic process automation and straight-through processing in underwriting continue to advance, the role of the underwriter is advancing with it. During this session, we will discuss how and why the role of an underwriter is changing, the technology that is enabling that change, and how these changes will directly impact the support underwriters will require from actuaries.