2018 RAPA Conference – Thank you

Thank you to all who attended the 2018 Annual RAPA Conference at the Omni Royal Orleans.

We welcomed our attendees at Sunday’s welcoming reception in the beautiful garden. Aligned with our theme, we formed teams and challenged teams to create a list of as many innovations as possible that have evolved in the world. The winning team thought of more than 40 innovations and were awarded some stylish ‘New Orlins’ beads. From self-driving cars, to Siri and Alexa now being part of our lives, it’s exciting to wonder what future innovations will evolve.

On Monday 10/22, our full agenda included:

  • The RAPA Chair, Eddie Martinez, provided introductory remarks, including:
    • Treasury update
      • As of 9/30, RAPA is ahead of financial targets
    • RAPA recognition and committee roles transitioning
      • The Treasury role is transitioning from Garfield McIntyre (Munich) to Jon DeCarlo (Partner Re), as approved by the RAPA Board. At next year’s conference the nomination committee will submit a new slate of officers for vote, including the Treasury role.
    • Thank you to all our sponsors that have helped RAPA exceed expectations this year
    • A top 10 list of New Orleans facts was shared with attendees

Presentations

  • Swiss Re’s Ashley Broering opened our presentations with the topic “An Introduction to Artificial Intelligence”, sharing on machine learning technologies, deep learning, branches of AI, and perspective for how the AI landscape may impact processes and analytics in insurance verticals of Sales, Underwriting, and Risk Management
  • TAI’s Tom Freitas, along with panelists Andrea Holly (Munich Re) and Candy Tolentino (Pacific Life) presented a discussion on “Claims: Reviewing the Current Ecosystem & Identifying Priorities for Improvement”. The presentation drew in lots of attendee participation that shared various experiences and context on day-to-day administration and pain points that will drive further conversation and solution gathering in the future.
  • Brian Millman and Amy Raymond from MIB discussed “Total Line / Jumbo – Is There a Problem to be Solved”. Leveraging the ReSHIP study and examples, MIB tackled discussion on an industry pain point of identifying potential ‘unknown’ jumbo cases, and how partnership amongst counterparties has become more and more the norm to assist in the outcome to determine if a case is truly jumbo, and what remediation steps to take.

The afternoon RAPA Round Tables included:

  • A culture deep dive discussion by Nick Durie(RGAx) “Do Old dogs need to learn new tricks or Do New dogs need to learn old tricks”. A wide-open view and discussion amongst Millenials, Generation X’s, Boomers, in the work place.
  • A hands-on collaborative “Design Thinking Sprint” exercise by Mitch O’campo and Kelle Bub. Team work, strategy, negotiation were all vital components highlighted in this competitive exercise
  • An insightful look into the what, why and how of “Accelerated Underwriting” by Stephen Cooley (Partner Re) and Lisa Seeman (Munich Re). Big data, tools, and analytics all play into what is becoming more and more the norm for the administration of AU policies.

The 10/23 Tuesday agenda included:

  • Marc Guiere, President and CEO of Munich Re, enlightened us on his view of the “Transformation & Innovation” landscape. The future will go even faster! Are we prepared to take advantage? Will we be agile to move quickly from idea to implementation?
  • RAPA Committees provided updates:
    • Education Initiative – Dalia Khoury (Optimum Re) provided the committee update, notably working towards webinars being added to the website. After 7 years as Chair of the Education Committee, Dalia communicated the role will be transitioning to Garfield McInytre (Munich Re).
    • Risk Initiative – Lynn Martone (Swiss Re) and Amelia Figueiras(Prudential) provided committee update on the Risk and Audit subgroups. After 5 years with RAPA and 2 years serving as Chair of the committee, Lynn is transitioning the role to co-chairs. The Risk initiative will now be co-chaired by Amelia, and new co-chairs Carolyn MacPherson (Swiss Re), and Janice Lawrence (Pacific Life Re).
    • Data Initiative – After serving 2 years as chair of the committee, Rhonda Nielsen-Jackson (Hannover Re) announced the chair role transitioning to Dean Santos (Munich Re). Dean then provided an update on future focus items.
    • Post Level Term Initiative – Brittany Jones (Logiq3) provided an update on the completion of the PLT initiative. This marks the end of this initiative committee.
    • Innovation Initiative – Mitch O’Campo (Cookhouse Lab) and Ellen Fedorowicz (Jackson National Life) provided an update on the innovation committees inaugural year.

The RAPA Board would like to thank Dalia, Lynn, Garfield and Rhonda for their contributions and long term commitment to RAPA’s mission and initiatives.

Committees subsequently broke into their respective groups for discussion and planning, and we adjourned the Annual Conference.

We look forward to seeing you next year for another wonderful conference at the Mansion on Forsyth Park, in Savannah Georgia.

Sincerely,

Eddie Martinez

RAPA Chair