In this edition of CEO Angles, AAIS President and CEO Ed Kelly speaks with Keith Wolfe, President of US Property & Casualty at Swiss Re and an AAIS board member, about lessons learned during the pandemic, the increasing value of data, the need to start looking at climate change, the troubling cyber risk trend, and the hot topic of social inflation.

Mr. Wolfe says he’s pleased to see that the industry has discovered remote working to be a real possibility during the COVID-19 pandemic, but raises concerns… “about talent and retention,” Mr. Wolfe said. “The junior talent – those with less than five years of experience in the industry – are the ones I’m probably most worried about because they’ve never really experienced … the true culture of a company that they’ve been a part of,” while working from home.

According to Swiss Re, “climate change poses the biggest long-term risk to the global economy.” Mr. Wolfe says there is a very real need to accept that climate change has created a systemic shift in how the industry accounts for certain exposures like wildfire or flood.

Mr. Kelly mentioned how openIDL can help insurers manage data more effectively, while maintaining data privacy and security. Mr. Wolfe added that Swiss Re is focused on getting access to data that provides better insights into actual risks versus proxy assumptions based on data we’ve been using for decades.

On other emerging risks, Mr. Wolfe talks about the exponential growth of cyber risk, the need to reassess it on an almost daily basis, and for more government support. He also touched on the ongoing concern of ‘social inflation’ and the impact of costly and frequent litigation on the marketplace.

Watch our previous CEO Angles with NAMIC President and CEO Neil Alldredge.

For more information on the topics discussed in this edition of CEO Angles, contact your AAIS Engagement Manager.