John Lim looks ahead to the 2017 Life Conference to be held in Birmingham, UK in November, in a year of great transformation
This year's Life Conference moves 300 miles south from Edinburgh to the UK's most populous city outside London, Birmingham, to be held at the International Convention Centre from 22-24 November 2017.
2017 is a year of transformation experienced on different levels, whether political, economic or regulatory. The political landscape has changed immensely since the Brexit referendum and the General Election this year.
Solvency II officially started on 1 January 2016 with insurers reporting their year-end 2016 financial numbers in 2017, and IFRS 17 was issued by the International Accounting Standards Board on 18 May 2017 with an effective date of 1 January 2021.
With the theme of change in mind, this year's Life Conference committee has designed a programme that reflects the wide variety of different developments in the life insurance sector which will no doubt invoke great discussion among delegates.
I am pleased to announce the following sessions, amongst others, will feature at this year's Life Conference:
Brexit/economics: Ed Jenkins, global head of wholesale credit and market risk, HSBC, offers his insight on the resulting impact on the economic climate.
IFRS17: The IFoA's cross-practice Financial Reporting Group will present on the IFRS17 requirements and provide wider views on what the new accounting standard means for the global insurance industry.
We are delighted to announce that Stephen Cooper, board member of the International Accounting Standards Board, will be sharing the stage with the IFoA Financial Reporting Group. Stephen will be speaking from personal experience on the process of drafting the requirements for IFRS17 and will take questions from the audience.
Solvency II: With the implementation of Solvency II, we will hear from speakers from the life insurance industry on a variety of Solvency II areas, such as reporting and disclosures, IMAP, transitional measures and investments.
There is also a wide range of workshop sessions relating to strategies to overcome a low-interest environment, genetics, claims and underwriting, the latest mortality developments and with-profits.
The sessions will look to have, not just a UK, but also European and wider international landscape. Delegates can also look forward to the always popular masterclasses and other soft skills workshops for their professional CPD.
Not to forget the eagerly anticipated after-dinner entertainment. With the overwhelming success of Rory Bremner and Dara O'Briain from the past two years, we have taken on board delegates' feedback and the committee is busy deliberating over who can deliver the greatest laughs this time. The evening comedian for this year's conference will be announced in due course.
We are also pleased to that The Slowdown Family, an alternative folk band, will be performing at the conference. Over the years, they have performed at various UK festivals and also shared the stage with Elbow, The Magic Numbers and Ray Davies of The Kinks.
They are currently working on a new album which will be available later this year. The band comes highly recommended so we hope that you will enjoy their music as much as we do.
With an enriching array of actuarial issues as well as the opportunity to network with fellow actuaries over the three-day period, I encourage everyone involved in the life insurance industry to register for the Life Conference 2017.
I look forward to seeing you there in November.
The full programme and information on how to register is available at: bit.ly/LifeConf2017
John Lim is chair of the IFoA Life Conference 2017