In August 2020, AAIS introduced its new Risk Awareness Service (RAS), a digital resource center tracking catastrophic risk and providing risk information in real time. At the inaugural AAIS Pulse Newsmagazine, AAIS VP Data and Actuarial Services Phil LeGrone described the Risk Awareness Service, its goals, and the value it can provide insurance carriers and the customers they serve. He also welcomed Jeff Waters, a Senior Product Manager at Risk Management Solutions (RMS), the leading modeling firms, to add his perspective on emerging modeling approaches and tools.

If you ask anyone working in insurance how they got into the field, they'll tell you two things: that they didn't grow up wanting to be in insurance and that they "fell into it."          

Insurance is not a new industry. Insurers have been offering coverage to United States businesses since the Declaration of Independence. But the role of advisory organizations within the U.S. insurance industry has evolved over time…and at AAIS, we’re evolving with it.

From neighborhoods and schools to clubs and teams, communities are important. Communities come in many forms, and nearly everyone is a part of at least one. When our Members join AAIS, they are welcomed into a mutually beneficial community of practice, all focused on transparency, collaboration, and cooperation.

After evaluating your organizational structure and asking essential questions about the need to establish a more remote workforce, it’s time to think about the big question… How are you going to effectively hire, attract, onboard and keep people in this remote environment? According to Sharon Emek, Ph.D., CIC, and founder and CEO of Work At Home Vintage Experts (WAHVE), once your hiring strategy and recruiting process is in place, you’ll want to turn to applicant selection, interviews, and onboarding.

The COVID-19 pandemic has left profound impacts on businesses worldwide, forcing many organizations to pivot to remote work. COVID-19 has taught companies that good, efficient work can be done from anywhere, and that talent identification shouldn’t be confined to geographic locations. As the pandemic continues, some organizations have struggled with how to hire and onboard top talent remotely.

Design Thinking is a practical and creative approach to problem solving, used in industries and organizations searching for new, customer-centric ways to enhance the customer experience. Design Thinking aims to better understand consumers' needs and formulate an innovative solution for them. When utilized properly, this framework allows organizations to create faster, more profitable innovations at a more efficient rate. At AAIS, Design Thinking helps formulate innovative insurance solutions, such as the openIDL distributed ledger technology for regulatory reporting in 2018.

COVID-19 has caused an abundance of challenges for businesses everywhere. With protective restrictions, unessential businesses were forced to send employees home and, in many cases, shut down due to the threat of the rapidly spreading virus. These businesses deemed "unessential," however, are essential to the livelihoods of many, leaving businesses in a state of panic. How were they to continue business when they couldn't remain open? Many businesses that could feasibly function as a remote workforce have attempted the transition, and as COVID-19's threats persist, many schools have made the decision as well.

Recently, Dowling and Partners’ Gary Ransom spoke to AAIS CEO and President Ed Kelly during the Virtual Main Event, discussing how COVID-19 will touch nearly every aspect of the insurance ecosystem. The impact is pervasive. In fact, according to Mr. Ransom, the COVID-19 pandemic is on track to become the largest insurance event in history, according to one industry expert.

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by Carrier Management Magazine on August 19, 2019.

I started my career as the first network administrator at the University of California, Davis. Part of my job was to help build the Bay Area Regional Research network, one of 10 National Science Foundation networks that, in 1986, became what we call the Internet today.