Actuaries Institute Podcast

Angela Tatarow interviews self described 'actuary without border' and runner up of the Institute's Weapons of Mass Deduction video competition Queenie Chow.Queenie discusses her career path, experiences working abroad, why she's passionate about being part of the institutes Diversity and Inclusion working Group and what inspired her to create her entry for the Weapons of Mass Deduction competition. Queenie also touches on her niche role in microinsurance.SHOW NOTESActuaries Without Borderswww.actuaries.asn.au/Library/Events/YAP/2016/AWBQueenieChow.pdfWeapons of Mass Deductionhttps://actuaries.asn.au/microsites/actuaries-in-data-analytics/video-competitionWorld Health Organisation - Global Health Observatory data https://www.who.int/gho/database/en/Australia's public datahttps://search.data.gov.au/Google Trendshttps://trends.google.com/trends/?geoDiversity and Inclusion Working Group (DIWG)https://actuaries.asn.au/about-us/governance/committees/all-committees/members?ID=ZNjqeCg7c0U%3d

Ignatius Li interviews Dr. Raymond Yeow on his experiences and career as an actuary turned doctor.Show NotesFuture of Health Seminarhttps://actuaries.asn.au/microsites/future-of-health-seminar-2018Health Practice Committeehttps://actuaries.asn.au/practice-area/healthMaking Medicare: The Politics of Universal Health Care in AustraliaAuthored by Anne-Marie Boxall and James Gillespiehttp://www.publish.csiro.au/AH/pdf/AHv38n1_BR1Davidson's Principles and Practice of Medicine: 12th editionhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2159046/Davidson's Principles and Practice of Medicine: 23rd editionhttps://www.elsevierhealth.com.au/davidsons-principles-and-practice-of-medicine-9780702070280.htmlThe PatientAuthored by Mohamed H Khadrahttp://www.urology.net.au/the-patient-book.htmlTerminal DeclineAuthored by Mohamed H Khadrahttp://www.urology.net.au/terminal-decline-book.htmlAustralia's Health 2016https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/australias-health-2016/contents/summary

John McLenaghan (Public Policy Advisor Advisor at the Actuaries Institute) sits down with Andrew Brown, a consulting actuary and Council member to discuss his new paper, 'Building Adaptive Capacity - Individuals, Groups & Society' as part of the Institute's Dialogue thought leadership series.John and Andrew discuss;- How and why culture can come from the top- Factors that cause venerable public and private institutions to fall from grace- How boards and management can really transform culture in large organisations with tens of thousands of employees- International organisations with large spans of control and how cultural barriers can embed shared values- Generational factors to consider when attempting to make organisations more adaptive- The role regulators play in changing board cultures- How long should it take to change banking culture?Visit the public policy and media section of our website for more thought leadership papershttps://actuaries.asn.au/public-policy-and-mediaFollow the Actuaries Institute on our social channels:↳ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/792645/↳ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Actuaries-Institute/183337668450632↳ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ActuariesInst↳ Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/ActuariesInst↳ Spreaker: https://www.spreaker.com/user/actinstSubscribe to our YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=ActuariesInstitute

Tuan Ming and Elayne Grace discuss the rapid growth of online insurance in Asia and the Chinese appetite for product innovation and business opportunities in this area.This is the second instalment in our ‘Inside Asia’ podcast series which aims to explore the experiences of actuaries working in Asia or moving between the Australian and Asian markets.On 27 August 2018, Elayne Grace, CEO of the Actuaries Institute, and Tuan Ming, Head of ASEAN, China, HK and India Regions at Gen Re (for Life & Health), met in Sydney to discuss what some of the innovative Chinese insurance market players are up to.The Chinese appetite for new forms of online insurance – both among internet giants like Alibaba, and traditional insurance players ­– is generating many examples of innovation in the insurance industry.China is the world’s second largest insurance market and growing fast. As someone who’s been working in Asia for over 20 years, Tuan has witnessed how the Chinese market has changed. “It is just unimaginable, from a small market, [it’s] grown to become the second largest market in the world. I feel that it is a privilege to be part of the industry [that] contributed to the growth. And we are seeing that the industry is delivering the real insurance and protection insurance to the Chinese consumers,” said Tuan.Alibaba earned 168 billion yuan (or US 25 billion) in 24 hours of the ‘Double 11 shopping Festival’ in 2017. On the same day, over 600 million policies of Shipping return insurance were sold. This is a world record for number of transactions of a single product line in a single day.The first online-only insurance company launched in China in 2013 - Zhong An. Several others have opened since. Tuan described how such companies are leading the way in terms of product innovation and creating new business opportunities.“They are property and casualty insurance companies and can only sell and distribute their products online. That gave them the extra motivation to do well. They sell a lot of shipping insurance policies for the Chinese consumers who buy their products online. Some of the other products that are becoming popular are, mobile phone screen insurance protection and flight delay insurance is becoming very popular,” said Tuan“This first retrocession for Life & Health industry appeared in 2016 when Zhong An had a successful medical insurance product which we co-develop with them.”Shipping return insurance has been a major premium generator for Zhong An. In 2014 it contributed 77% of total premium, but two years later that decreased to 35%, due to market competition and the development of other product lines.The online insurance market – with its lack of regulation and structure also poses threats to consumer needs and to insurers. Ping An Group – a traditional insurance and financial powerhouse in Asia - has invested billions in FinTech and HealthTech. Last year, it announced the launch of:Ping An Life - an AI Customer Service to solve the problems of slow identification and slow claim process; andPing An Health – an “AI Doctor” that accumulates millions of online diagnoses data for use in online medical pre-diagnosis, triage and consultation.Ping An’s transformation to a technology-driven enterprise reflects that the core of insurance is not just the products, but more about the services to people.“Ping On is increasing the interaction with its customer. For example, the customer can use the app to access some basic medical information or even be buying some basic medical equipment online. It has also developed to a stage where some of the basic medical advice can be provided online as well. By that, Ping On is trying to position itself not only as an insurance company, but also as a health management partner of their consumers.”“Ping An also triggered other insurance company to innovate as well. The insurance industry [does not only] react to a disaster, an accident or sickness happening to a customer. It [wants to] become an industry [that asks] ‘how can we help our customers to live healthily?’. Some of the new products in China will incorporate some incentive for the policyholders to live healthy and get rewarded by doing so,” said Tuan. Alibaba is taking advantage of its deep understanding of its large online consumer database. Last year it offered one year’s free coverage of critical illness insurance - with no medical examination or waiting period. 13 million Alipay users reportedly activated the insurance within 20 days of its launch – simply with two clicks on a mobile app. An online community forum with experts has since been set up to help educate internet users (especially those new to insurance).“Alibaba was the first one to make the move. When the customers click and accept the insurance coverage, Alibaba have access to information on which statement of the customers are more interested in buying insurance cover. This gives them the ability to upsell the product,” explained Tuan.There is clearly appetite among Chinese consumers to embrace new online forms of insurance. Tencent joined the industry slightly later to take advantage of this market.WeChat has been used extensively by all the insurance companies to sell products online, however, Tencent, after setting up its own online broker in November 2017, has become very active in distributing medical insurance products and personal accident products to their huge base of WeChat customers.WeChat was developed by Tencent. It was first released in 2011, and by 2018 WeChat was one of the world's largest standalone mobile apps, with over 1 billion monthly active users (902 million daily active users).In China, you can’t live without WeChat, which is an equivalent of a WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter.“It also has other services, one of the most important one is a WeChat Pay, that allows commerce to flourish on the WeChat platform. For customers to buy insurance products, payment is no longer an issue - they can pay and receive claim payment easily on WeChat Pay,” said Tuan.The huge population in the China market allows the insurance industry to focus on different target segments and reach a group of consumers who are more interested in readily buying insurance cover.Instead of asking the consumer for their health information, insurers have a basic understanding of the consumer and are able to design and market the most suitable product to them. Some of these data insights have been applied to underwriting as well, but to a lesser extent. Data privacy is still a major issue in China. But that’s a topic for another podcast.Actuaries Institute members can subscribe to the “Inside Asia” E-Newsletter for regular updates on Australian and Asian actuarial news and views and to keep up to date with the latest ‘Inside Asia’ articles and podcasts from the Actuaries Institute.

Tuan Ming, Head of ASEAN, China, HK and India Regions at Gen Re (for Life & Health), travels extensively for work and he joins Elayne on the inaugural ‘Inside Asia’ to discuss life, career and advice for actuaries.This is the first instalment in our ‘Inside Asia’ podcast series which aims to explore the experiences of actuaries working in Asia or moving between the Australian and Asian markets. The second instalment on the booming online insurance market in China is here.What do you do in your current role and what does it involve in terms of travelling between Asia and Australia?I manage the Life and Health reinsurance business of Gen Re across China, HK, South East Asia countries and India. I travel extensively to all these countries and it is my first trip back to Sydney in 12 years’ time. So I do not travel to Australia extensively. I cover half of the world’s population. There are a lot of emerging markets in these areas, I get the opportunity to see new things and what is happening in different markets.The China market is unique - unique in its language, culture, regulatory environment, and approach to innovation. How does it differ to Australia in terms of these things?The Reinsurance industry has grown significantly over the last 20 years, the market has grown into a total value of over 300 billion CNY in 2016. One of the changes over the years has been that consumer awareness of insurance needs has increased significantly. The Chinese consumer probably did not know much about insurance products 15 years ago. Nowadays, they know the need for protections, long term saving and investment. Moreover, they are more willing to try, buy and to experience insurance services and products. The industry has been growing to about 20% over the last 20 years. It is currently the second largest market in the world and insurance penetration remains very low. I could imagine that the market will grow into the largest insurance market in the world in the future. The current growth is happening in the era where technology is already very advanced. There is a lot more pressure and motivation to create innovative products and services for the consumers. Therefore, the insurance industry is determined to advance in their operation, underwriting and customer service. They are developing new products to cover different needs. Some of them may not be seen as insurance products, but there will be insurance elements in it.For example, in the general insurance industry, shipping return insurance has been one of the products becoming very popular. The Chinese consumers like to buy online and they would have to pay for the cost for the shipping to return the product if they don’t like the products. Now, they could buy the policy which last for a few days for a very small premium amount. The insurance company will cover the cost of sending the product back.What about the Life and Health Insurance industry? It is also growing very quickly as well. The Health care industry in China is just started to develop now. The insurance industry is slowly finding its foothold to offer the insurance protection to the consumers and they can afford the ever-increasing health care cost.Can you share with us a bit about your personal story of first coming to Australia and how you became an Actuary?I am from Malaysia, which is always in a friendly relationship with Australia. I came to do my Year 12 when my parent decided to send me to here to study University. I learned about the Actuarial professional in Year 12 from my English teacher, who encouraged me to consider this profession. As I like Maths, I decided to give it a try and went to Melbourne University for the Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Actuarial Studies.What would be your advice to help Actuaries wanting to make a move to China be better equipped?The employment for foreigners in China is not an easy process. If you are thinking about going to Asia, Singapore and Hong Kong are the two more obvious choices. If you are keen to participate and move to the China market, the best path is through the consulting companies. China does have a huge supply of actuaries and actuarial students. In my early days in Shanghai, the Chinese insurance companies used to recruit from overseas for experienced people. With many Fellows and Associates and a huge supply of talents locally, foreign actuaries will have to prove the type of skillsets, knowledge and experience that they can bring into the insurance industry. For this reason, these opportunities are more limited to the senior positions in China.To be able to speak and write Chinese is important, not crucial. More importantly, it is the readiness to see how things can work and be done differently and recognise the cultural differences.[You need] to have an open mind and the willingness to contribute by sharing your own experience.How does insurance differ in Australia compared to Asia generally speaking?There are significant differences, many Asia countries still sell the traditional whole of life endowment products, with interest rate guarantee and mortality and mobility rates guarantee, whereas such products are extinct in Australia. In fact, these pose challenges for the Institute to make the education relevant for these Asian based actuaries. If they want to find out how to do reserving and risk management for endowment product with significant guarantee, the Institute will have to provide such education so that what they learn is relevant.What do you predict for the actuarial profession in the China market over the next 10 years? What challenges do actuaries ace to remain relevant?The profession in China is still at a developing stage, almost all members are involved in insurance industry: Life, Health and General Insurance. There are more opportunities now however, for actuaries to move into different practice areas. For the traditional areas of insurance, we are facing the competition from Data Scientist and Analysts. This is an area which we need to continue to equip and upgrade our skills to be able to compete effectively.In China, there are more young actuaries attracted to such new areas. This is another challenge for the profession: how to keep them, so they see how they can contribute to the profession and how the professional body can contribute to their self-development for the long term.How can we as the Actuaries Institute in Australia better collaborate with Asian actuarial associations?Australia has a very close relationship with many Asia countries, there are many Asian students come to Australia to study. This is the greatest asset: to keep the relationship going and to encourage them to continue to pursue the Australian qualification. Many of them have built a lot of goodwill when they studied in Australia. We can make our profession relevant to them for their development and recognition, so that they are willing to continue to be our members. Many Asian counties have their own professional bodies, but those bodies do not have all the skills or resources to provide the Education. The Institute can play a greater role in helping the Universities and professional bodies in Asia, especially in the emerging market to develop their actuarial profession.

Tim Andrews (Principal at Finity Consulting) and Vanessa Beenders (Practice Excellence Advisor at the Actuaries Institute) met to discuss Tim's involvement in the creation of the Australian Actuaries Climate Index and why it's necessary for businesses and actuaries to utilise the data.Tim expands on how the Australian Actuaries Climate Index was created and why actuaries and wider industries should be utilising the index to inform their business decisions and inform their risk management framework including climate change policies.To see the index, please visit the site belowhttps://actuaries.asn.au/microsites/climate-index

Effective data scientists need to understand the workings of IT teams and identify the limits of truth in models, says Co-Founder and Chief Scientist at Ambiata.Tiberio was interviewed by Anthony Tockar on the Actuaries Institute’s podcast last month. This is the second episode from that conversation (the first explored the ethics of machine learning).If an actuary is working as a data scientist for a large organisation with millions of customers and complex internal IT legacy systems, being able to engage well with internal IT and data teams is critical. That means, as a first step, knowing their lingo.Data science combines both statistics and computer science. Actuaries are skilled in the former through their modelling and forecasting work, for the latter, they must upskill. As an actuary who transitioned into data science, Anthony said he spent most of his learning time on computer science. He highlights the importance of having a good handle on the underlying flow of data that informs the modelling.

Head of Actuarial and Analytics at World Nomads and Weapons of Mass Deduction judge Jacky Poon interviews Andrew Xu, Actuary at Finity Consulting, on his entry into the WOMD competition, focusing on Geospatial analysis and a career in data analytics.Andrew created an entry that incorporated animation, Google Maps street view and motion graphics to explain the importance of Geospatial analysis and how it is used by actuaries for geographical models. He is one of the Top 3 entrants along with Minh Phan and Queenie Chow who created their entries on CatBoost and open source data.Jacky and Andrew touch on the wider aspects of Geospatial analysis including it's changing application over the years to using different analysis methods including R which he learned form his current role at FinityJacky asks a range of question including;How are you feeling about the [competition winner] announcement?Tell me a bit about yourself?Tell me about your hobby [in video production]?How did you get into R for analysis?What other areas have you applied R in?What lead you to choose geospatial analysis as your topic?How would you begin to do geospatial analysis?Where do you see the edge for actuaries?What makes a great data analyst actuary?Andrew Xu will be participating at the 2018 Data Analytics Seminar where he will find out if he, Minh or Queenie will be crowned the winner of the Weapons of Mass Deduction competition. View the Program Snapshot here and get your tickets to attend tomorrow!

Angat Sandhu and Katherine Gobbi share their unique insights into claims management, it's place in the insurance value chain, future opportunities and key trends in the area.Katheirne Gobbi is Chief Executive Officer at EMLife, leading a team of life insurance claims specialists dedicated to making life easier for insurance partners and their customers with over 15 years experience in personal injury claims management and working with regulatory bodies. She met with Angat Sandhu on September 19 to discuss current issues in claims management, scrutiny of general insurance and what improvements are needed.Angat asks a range of question including; Can you share some thoughts on what are the most important trends you are seeing in claims management?What is most important from a customer’s perspective?There has been a fair bit of scrutiny on claims practices recently, what are some takeaways for the insurance industry?If there is one thing that will be different about claims management over the next 2-3 years, what do you think it will be?Do you see opportunities for Actuaries to play a greater role in improving claims management processes e.g. through better use of data analyticsKath acknowledges that more is needed to be done to continue a best approach method with increasing recovery time that factor in other psychological and diagnosis aspects.Subscribe to Actuaries Institute Podcast, wherever you get your podcasts.Follow the Actuaries Institute on social media;↳ Facebook↳ Twitter↳ LinkedIn↳ Instagram↳ Spreaker↳ YouTube

Download the MP3 file herehttps://api.spreaker.com/v2/episodes/15816934/download.mp3Dr Raymond Yeow and Dr Kevin Cheng discuss the future of health insurance including a focus on Dr Kevin's Osana care model and a sneak peek into his plenary session at the upcoming Future of Health Seminar.Register now!https://www.actuaries.asn.au/FOHS2018