2019 Breakout Sessions
Browse through our 2019 session topics. You have access to 4 of the 12 sessions on the conference day. We’ve made session selection a little easier by noting who may best benefit from the specific breakout. You can, however, select and attend the session of your choice.
Breakout #1 - IFRS 17: Key Technical Updates
10:00AM-11:00AM and 2:15PM-3:15PM
Late 2018 and early 2019 has seen a flurry of accounting, actuarial and regulatory developments and clarifications relating to the IFRS 17: Insurance Contracts standard, with the IASB's Transition Resource Group releasing a number of papers.
Join our expert panel for a discussion of the key items from the TRG, as well as the exposure draft that has been released by the International Association of Actuaries. The panel will also discuss OSFI's timelines for development of their capital standard and will give some insights as to questions being posed to the audit firms.
Session is best suited to:
Any delegate wishing to learn more about technical updates on the standard.
Moderator:
Owen Thomas
Partner, Insurance
PwC
Speaker:
Lesley Thomson,
Vice President, IFRS Actuarial Policy
Sun Life
Breakout #2 - IFRS 17: Senior Leaders' Reflections
11:20AM-12:20PM and 3:30PM-4:30PM
IFRS 17 is occupying a significant amount of time, requiring a lot of resources and costing a lot of money. This session aims to address wider implications of the new standard.
Our CFO/Business leaders’ panel will cover a number of perspectives, including the impact on insurance and reinsurance products, systems and KPIs, as well as interactions with Boards and other external stakeholders.
Moderator:
Janice Deganis
Partner, National Insurance Leader
Ernst & Young LLP
Speakers:
Linda Kerrigan
SVP, Corporate Actuarial
Great-West Life
Rebecca Rycroft
SVP & Chief Financial Officer
Munich Re, Canada (Life)
Jonathan Turner
SVP & Chief Financial Officer
Swiss Re Canada
Breakout #3 - When was your Last Reinsurance Contracts Check Up?
11:20AM-12:20PM and 2:15PM-3:15PM
In today's global economy, with constantly developing legislation and trade controls, ceding companies and reinsurers must keep themselves informed to assess potential risks and impact on their business operations. Likewise, both parties have an interest in ensuring their reinsurance treaty wordings are regularly assessed to see how they will respond to legislative and other developments.
Please join our session as we dive into this topic with particular focus on the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Sanctions clauses and Confidentiality provisions. An introductory review of each will be provided and we will discuss the impacts of current legislation/trade controls on reinsurance treaties from the perspective of both ceding company and reinsurer.
Session is best suited to:
All insurance industry representatives that are interested in this topic.
Moderator:
Natalie Culshaw
Vice President, Contracts
Swiss Re
Speakers:
Kay Song
Vice President and Senior Counsel, Regulatory and Reinsurance
Manulife
Peter Wedge
Senior Contracts Counsel
Swiss Re
Breakout #4 - The Great Divide. Partnering with InsurTechs to Transform Rather than Completely Disrupt
11:20AM-12:20PM and 3:30PM-4:30PM
The startup economy is here to stay and it’s disrupting the insurance sector. The trend toward partnering with InsurTechs is moving quickly from being a nice-to-have, to a necessity for carriers. Numerous startups are bringing new business models and improved customer experiences to the market. Are large traditional insurance enterprises truly prepared to advance their market strategies through InsurTech partnerships in an effective way in 2019 and beyond?
With their agile structures, streamlined operational costs, risk-taking mindsets and data-driven experience models, InsurTechs are proving to be better and faster at addressing customer needs. Often there is a great divide between these startups and the legacy practices and systems inherent in legacy institutions. What will it take to seamlessly integrate these entities into successful new agile business models?
In this session, Innovation Strategists from both Great-West Life and Sun Life will present practical considerations to address the current integration challenges posed by dramatic differences and factors that often impede transformational progress. Organizational culture, collaboration, outdated funding models combined with the need for agile experimentation and side-by-side partner pilots are some of these differences and factors.
Additionally, Dustin Yoder from Sureify will provide his perspective as an insurtech entrepreneur and his focus on making insurance better for both customer and company.
The journey towards successful innovative transformation does not have to be completely disruptive.
Session is best suited to:
Beginner-intermediate - open to all participants interested in innovation
Moderator:
Joanne Bradley
Vice President, Client Liaison
Hannover Re
Speakers:
Anna Foat - Read About Anna
Director - Global Digital Transformation
Sun Life
Scott Marnoch - Read About Scott
Global Innovation Leader | InsurTech Strategies
Great West Life
Dustin Yoder
CEO
Sureify
Breakout #5 - Big Data, Advanced Analytics, and Data Privacy
10:00AM-11:00AM and 2:15PM-3:15PM
Advanced Data Analytics are a common theme in insurance and reinsurance by now, and most of these techniques rely on large amounts of often very personal data to make predictions on individual risks. Recent shifts in regulation (GDPR in Europe) and public opinion have made everyone more aware of the apparent dangers of big data and the value of privacy. In this session we will bring together different viewpoints on data privacy issues and discuss concrete examples of how privacy-friendly data practices allow you to balance individual privacy and still apply analytics techniques.
Session is best suited to:
Anyone using personal data for analytics purposes.
Moderator:
Alexis Iglauer
Head of Analytics & Technology
PartnerRe
Speakers:
Puneet Bakshi
VP & Chief Transformation Officer
Munich Re, US (Life)
Tom Fletcher
VP for Analytics, North America
PartnerRe
Stan Ivankovic
Director of Business Development, Insurance, Travel & Loyalty
Environics Analytics
Breakout #6 - Managing Inforce Business In The Ever-Changing Environment
10:00AM-11:00AM and 3:30PM-4:30PM
Insurance products, both life and variable annuity, have a long duration of liability and guarantee and the economic, regulatory, and technology landscape will change from when the business was first sold. With the evolution of the world around the products, it is important for insurers to manage their inforce business actively, ensuring they continue to meet the needs of the customer, and while fitting within the risk profile to the company.
Learn from the industry experts and business leaders how to preserve and grow profitable business, as well as actions to be taken for management of inforce business.
Moderator:
Rachel Yap
Director, Variable Annuity Pricing & Initiatives
Sun Life Financial
Speakers:
Naveed Irshad
Head of North American Legacy Business
Manulife
Albert Tiw
EVP & Chief Business Development Officer
Hannover Re
Breakout #7 - Accelerated Underwriting: Looking Into The Future Through a U.S. Lens
10:00AM-11:00AM and 11:20AM-12:20PM
As Canadian companies continue to explore accelerated underwriting programs, we look to the experts in the U.S. to gain insights on how U.S. companies have navigated through the new underwriting paradigm. We will hear from the perspectives of an underwriter and an actuary on how accelerated underwriting programs have evolved over the past few years from the onset of no fluids underwriting. Taking us through how the U.S. market has changed, assumptions made, and lessons learned.
This session is best suited to:
Underwriters, actuaries, and anyone else interested in the shift to accelerated underwriting.
Moderator:
Rachel Zhang
Director, Individual Reinsurance Solutions
Munich Re, Canada (Life)
Speakers:
Chris Fioritto - Read About Chris
2nd VP & Marketing Actuary, Individual Life Pricing
Munich Re, US (Life)
Neal Halder - Read About Neal
AVP & Chief Underwriter, Individual Life New Business & Underwriting
Principal
Breakout #8 - Underwriting Modernization: Pharmacogenetics
2:15PM-3:15Pm and 3:30PM-4:30PM
The talk focuses on clinical genetics, ethics and new technology adoption with a recent focus on risks, limitations and benefits of pharmacogenomics. Pharmacogenomics has an incredible potential to increase the effectiveness of treatment, reduce the risk of side effects and help increase efficiency of the health system and reduce costs. As with any new technology there are barriers to adoption, but many factors are increasing the utilization of pharmacogenomics across all demographics of the Canadian healthcare system.
Moderator:
Damien Lapointe Nguyen
Director, New Products, Pricing
RGA
Speaker:
Christopher Trevors - Read About Christopher
Director of Genetic Health Solutions
Dynacare
Breakout #9 - Artificial Intelligence for Re/Insurance Administration
11:20AM-12:20PM and 3:30PM-4:30PM
Artificial Intelligence has evolved at a rapid pace and so has its application to insurance and reinsurance administration and claims. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Robotics have experienced tremendous progress. Join us to learn about the technology, its applications, as well as a demonstration of how the technology actually works.
See how:
- OCR can be used to compare the data captured from the treaty against the reinsurance administration system quickly and easily
Robotics can eliminate cumbersome processes by pulling and aggregating information from multiple sources (such as legacy systems). Administer business, pay insurance claims, and so much more.
Session is best suited to:
Anyone interested in gaining a better understanding of leading technology and how it’s transforming the re/insurance business.
Moderator:
Greg LaRochelle
Director, Reinsurance
RBC Insurance
Speakers:
Brittainy Jones
Director, Reinsurance Consulting
TAI
Mathieu Rebeiro
Director, Automation
RBC
Breakout #10 - Fraud Trends & Innovative Techniques to Uncover Patterns
10:00AM-11:00AM and 2:15PM-3:15PM
Applying various techniques to managing Claims is critical to a re/insurance company’s success. In this session we will look at the cost of fraud along with emerging trends as well as innovations in identifying potential fraud cases.
- The cost of fraud is significant in our industry and on the rise. Certain professions, geographies, and types of claims have a higher propensity for fraud.
Promptly identifying fraudulent claims, transactions, individuals, and networks can significantly reduce fraud and abuse. Discover how the power of your data can be used to uncover patterns, evaluate/adjudicate claims, and ultimately make decisions faster.
Session is best suited to:
Claims, Underwriting, Medical Professionals, Business Analyst, Administrators, Data Analyst/Scientist
Moderator:
Stephen Goldstein
Vice-President, Client Experience Lead
RGAx
Speaker(s):
Kevin Glasgow
2nd Vice President, Claims
Munich Re, US (Life)
Gary Saarenvirta
Founder & CEO
DAISY Intelligence
Breakout #11 - Blockchain Revolution - has the time for the Insurance industry finally come?
10:00AM-11:00AM and 3:30PM-4:30PM
The hype of cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin and Ethereum in 2017 and early 2018 has brought Blockchain to everyone’s lips. Many millionaires were made overnight. But what about Blockchain disruption in insurance? Everyone wants to experiment and make it mainstream – but can it be applied with success?
The panelists will provide an overview of Blockchain and go into a number of insurance use cases that were collaboratively identified (including a developed prototype) by Canadian insurers and reinsurers at Cookhouse Labs.
This session is best suited to:
Those interested in learning about Blockchain and its applicability in Insurance (more focused on Life than P&C).
Moderator:
Manisha Dias - Read About Manisha
Director & Actuary, Business Development
SCOR
Speaker:
Helen Duzhou - Read about Helen
Consultant, Financial Services
Oliver Wyman, New York
Sven Roehl - Read about Sven
Co-founder
Cookhouse Lab
Breakout #12 - Advances in Medicine: Sifting through the Hype and the Hubris
11:20AM-12:20PM and 2:15PM-3:15PM
Insurers must keep abreast of medical progress, as improvements in diagnosis, disease management and mortality can have a profound impact on both risk assessment and pricing. Reliance on the lay press for an understanding of medical advances is hazardous; p values or confidence intervals don’t sell newspapers, but hype does. This lecture will review the advances that have caught public attention and will provide a highly opinionated analysis of their value and promise. Amongst other topics, it will briefly examine the impact of artificial intelligence, wearables and cancer genomics.
This session is best suited to:
Underwriters and Actuaries
Moderator:
Brigitte Mallozzi
AVP, Underwriting
Hannover Re
Speaker:
Dr Tim Meagher
Vice President & Medical Director
Munich Re, Canada (Life)
