Trusting Your Sources and Knowing Your Risks

IASA e-learning webinars are aimed at providing viewers with informative content and insights, and are a great way to earn free CPE credits! As a new IASA volunteer on the e-learning committee, I had the opportunity to watch a few of the recent webinars and am excited to share my perspective as a viewer.

In my client services-based role at Clearwater Analytics, I need to have my finger on the pulse of the insurance investment accounting industry. My team gets questions every day about what we’re seeing in the marketplace, how insurers are handling industry-prevalent challenges, what’s upcoming in the world of investment accounting and reporting, and most importantly, how it could impact our clients. For these reasons, the IASA e-learning Economic Outlook Webinar was especially interesting for me. It included valuable information related to those very subjects and addressed questions that represent a similar cross-section of topics I regularly discuss with our insurance clients.

Although this webinar truly had a wealth of information. I’ve narrowed it down to a few key takeaways that made a strong impression on me. But anyone interested in the world economy and how it relates to insurers’ investments, this webinar is worth watching in full.

Takeaway #1: Find a source you trust to provide updated information

This economic climate is ever-changing, and keeping track of those changes is a full-time job in itself. Relying on a trusted investment adviser, resource, or solution provider is key to staying on top of industry changes.

Takeaway #2: Know your exposures and risks

This seems like a basic first step, but insurers should look outside the box to find ways to really understand what they might not know about exposure and risk. This webinar alone discussed short-term, long-term, international factors, and policy-based risk – there are many different types of risk, and each type has its own loopholes to consider. Constant vigilance is only a slight exaggeration when it comes to exposure and risk, especially in the current economic landscape.

Takeaway #3: Pay special attention to commodities and the rise of the U.S. dollar

This webinar did a great job of investigating the macro economy, and especially focused on the strong growth in the U.S. versus the struggling Russia, Eurozone, and Brazil economies, and the slowing of China’s and Germany’s economy. This has led to a decrease in U.S. exports, but as mentioned in takeaway #1, the economy is always changing. These dynamics make paying attention to the worldwide view especially important.

IASA webinars like this one are a great starting point for conversations within your team, with your peers, and with your investment accounting and reporting provider. They also provide an always valuable CPE credit and are a great resource for a broad view of our complex economy today.

This article is slightly edited from it’s original version, which appeared in the IASA E-Interpreter. Reprinted with permission.