Marshall Flashcards
what are risk margins intended to do?
Marshall et al.
provide an extra bit of cushion above the central estimate (i.e. mean)
what are less sophisticated approaches to determining CoVs?
Marshall et al.
- ignore individual characteristics of valuation portfolio
- based on “model” portfolios
what are more sophisticated methods to determining CoVs?
Marshall et al.
-combine quantitative analysis (i.e. stochastic modeling) with qualitative analysis of sources of uncertainty not captured quantitatively
what is the most common approach to populating the correlation matrix?
(Marshall et al.)
- relies heavily on actuarial judgment
- key risks believed to cause correlation between valuation portfolios are categorized as high, medium, or low
- each category is assigned a correlation coefficient value
why do quantitative approaches to populating the correlation matrix tend to be the exception?
(Marshall et al.)
-most techniques require a significant amount of data, time, and cost to produce credible and intuitive results
what two distributions are most commonly selected for risk margin analysis?
(Marshall et al.)
- lognormal
- normal (especially at lower probabilities of adequacy where it can generate a higher risk margin than logN)
what does bolt-on approach refer to?
Marshall et al.
- any approach that does not involve a single unified distribution of the entire distribution of possible future claim costs
- ie: separate analyses to develop a central estimate of insurance liabilities and estimate risk margins
why is it impossible to develop a purely quantitative model for representing the range of possible future claim cost outcomes?
(Marshall et al.)
- judgment is essential to assessing insurance liabilities and risk margins
- well-fitting models only reflect past sources of uncertainty
what is a claims portfolio?
Marshall et al.
- aggregate portfolio for which risk margins must be estimated
ex: XYZ Insurance
what are valuation classes?
Marshall et al.
- portfolios that are considered individually as part of the risk margin analysis
ex: Property vs. Auto
what is a claim group?
Marshall et al.
a group of claims with common risk characteristics
at the highest level, what are two sources of uncertainty?
Marshall et al.
systemic risk
independent risk
what does systemic risk represent?
Marshall et al.
risks that are common across valuation classes or claim groups
what are the two sources of systemic risk?
Marshall et al.
- internal systemic risk
- external systemic risk
what is internal systemic risk?
Marshall et al.
risks internal to the insurance liability valuation/modeling process
what are 3 examples of internal systemic risk?
Marshall et al.
- model structure
- model parameterization
- data accuracy
what is internal systemic risk also referred to as?
Marshall et al.
model specification risk
what is external systemic risk?
Marshall et al.
risks external to the insurance liability valuation/modeling process
what is an example of external systemic risk?
Marshall et al.
-future trends in claim cost outcomes (material costs, labor costs) that may cause actual experience to differ from what is expected based on the current environment and trends
what does independent risk represent?
Marshall et al.
-risks that occur due to the randomness inherent in the insurance process
what are two sources of independent risk?
Marshall et al.
- random component of parameter risk
- random component of process risk
what does the random component of parameter risk represent?
Marshall et al.
-extent to which the randomness associated with the insurance process affects the ability to select appropriate parameters in the valuation models
what does the random component of process risk represent?
Marshall et al.
pure effect of the randomness associated with the insurance process
what types of risk are traditional quantitative modeling techniques best suited for analyzing?
(Marshall et al.)
- independent risk
- historical external systemic risk
what types of risk do traditional methods fail to fully capture?
(Marshall et al.)
- internal systemic risk
- future external systemic risk
what considerations should go into splitting the claims portfolio into valuation classes?
(Marshall et al.)
- need to balance practical benefits of higher level allocation with insights from granular allocation
- retain as much consistency as possible between central estimate analysis and risk margin analysis
why might it be preferable to align valuation classes with the valuation portfolios analyzed for central estimate purposes?
(Marshall et al.)
- allows risk margin analysis to be conducted in the context of the central estimate analysis
- allows quantitative and qualitative analysis to be aligned with central estimate valuation
what are two reasons why it might not be possible to conduct quantitative analysis at the same granularity used for central estimate purposes?
(Marshall et al.)
- credibility concerns
- implementation costs
when it’s not possible to conduct quantitative analysis at the same granularity as central estimate purposes, what can we do?
(Marshall et al.)
-conduct quantitative analysis on aggregated valuation classes and allocate down to more granular classes
what is an example of a valuation class that typically requires further allocation into claim groups, and why?
(Marshall et al.)
home portfolio:
- dev patterns differ between cat and non-cat claims
- liability claims tend to behave differently from other home claims
what are three reasons why stochastic modeling techniques do NOT capture all sources of uncertainty?
(Marshall et al.)
- good models fit past data well -> tends to remove past episodes of external risk, leaving only random sources of uncertainty behind
- if past external risk is not removed completely - must consider if we expect these to continue into the future
- models normally don’t catch uncertainty arising from internal systemic risk
what are five modeling techniques?
Marshall et al.
- Mack
- Bootstrapping
- Stochastic CL
- GLM
- Bayesian
what is a useful supplement for any analysis of independent risk?
(Marshall et al.)
internal and external benchmarking
what are three sources of internal systemic risk?
Marshall et al.
- specification error
- parameter selection error
- data error
what is specification error?
Marshall et al.
error that arises because the model cannot perfectly model the insurance process
what is parameter selection error?
Marshall et al.
model cannot adequately measure all predictors of future claim costs or trends in these predictors
what is the difference between the parameter risk component of independent risk and the parameter selection error component of internal systemic risk?
(Marshall et al.)
- parameter selection error relates to actual selection of model parameters
- parameter risk relates to the proper parameterization of the selected predictors
what is data error?
Marshall et al.
- error that arises due to lack of credible data
- can also refer to an inadequate knowledge of the portfolio being analyzed, including pricing, underwriting, and claims management processes
describe an approach to analyzing internal systemic risk
Marshall et al.
- balanced scorecard is developed to objectively assess the model specification against a set of criteria
- for each source of internal systemic risk, risk indicators are developed and scored against the criteria
- scores are aggregated for each valuation class and mapped to a quantitative measure (CoV) of the variation arising from internal systemic risk
what subjective decisions must be made within the balanced scorecard approach to analyzing internal systemic risk?
(Marshall et al.)
- risk indicators
- measurement and scoring criteria
- weight given to each risk indicator
- CoVs that map to each score
what are risk categories within external systemic risk? (7)
Marshall et al.
- economic and social risks
- legislative, political, and claim inflation risks
- claim management process change risk
- expense risk
- event risk
- latent claim risk
- recovery risk
what are economic and social risks?
Marshall et al.
uncertainty associated with inflation, social trends, etc.
what are legislative, political, and claim inflation risks?
Marshall et al.
uncertainty associated with changes in the political landscape, shifts/trends in the level of claim settlements, etc.
what is claim management process change risk?
Marshall et al.
uncertainty associated with changes in claim reporting, payment, estimation, etc.
what is expense risk?
Marshall et al.
uncertainty associated with the cost of managing the run-off of the insurance liabilities or the cost of maintaining the unexpired risk until the date of loss
what is event risk?
Marshall et al.
uncertainty associated with claim costs arising from events (e.g. cats), either natural or man-made
what is latent claim risk?
Marshall et al.
uncertainty associated with claims that arise from sources that are not currently covered (e.g. asbestos)
what is recovery risk?
Marshall et al.
uncertainty associated with recoveries, either reinsurance or non-reinsurance
how do the valuation actuary and business unit management interact in the risk margin analysis?
(Marshall et al.)
- normally used to discuss all aspects of the portfolio management process
- discuss potential external systemic risks that may impact portfolio to inform both central estimate valuation AND identification and quantification of external systemic risk