Michelle Bradley and Enoch Starnes recently authored an article for Captive International titled “Loss Development Factors: A Primer for Captives”. In it, they summarize the basic attributes of loss development factors, discuss their impact on retained risk, and respond to common questions regarding their use. While the SIGMA team has written in the past about […]

Fifteen years ago, Tim Coomer created “An Actuarial Advantage” with the goal of educating his fellow insurance colleagues on actuarial concepts and methodology. With well over 100,000 copies of the book now in circulation, we are excited to publish a new edition marking the 15th Anniversary of its initial release. Even in light of the […]

Over ten years ago, Tim Coomer developed the “Cone of Uncertainty” graphic and wrote a corresponding article on the decisions surrounding risk assumption and retention levels. When Tim heard about concepts that SIGMA’s clients struggled to comprehend, he would often prepare a “one pager” to add to our educational resource library. The “Cone of Uncertainty” […]

When to Use a Pure Loss Rating Matrix When insureds are considering how to fund estimated liabilities for a future period, they will often use a loss projection and confidence interval to determine adequate funding. For company XYZ, Inc. projected workers compensation losses for the 2023 policy year can be seen below. XYZ. Inc.2023 Aggregate […]

At the end of 2021, we offered guidance on preparing for a year-end actuarial analysis. June is now here, and many companies are considering a mid-year actuarial report for retained liabilities and prospective loss projections.  Quarterly or semi-annual actuarial reports can help eliminate year-end surprises and manage overall financial reporting. This may be particularly helpful […]

Calculating a benchmark loss projection for workers compensation requires two key pieces of data:  loss costs and payroll, each broken down by state and class code.  While payroll amounts are typically available to companies from internal sources, loss cost information must be gathered externally. Currently, thirty-four states around the US engage NCCI as their advisory […]

November is here, and the time is quickly approaching for most companies to complete their annual actuarial report for retained liabilities. As you begin preparing for your company’s year-end 2021 analysis, review the list of tips below to help ensure this process is smooth and effective. Do you need reserve analysis numbers in early January? […]

Most companies and their consulting actuaries complete an actuarial analysis annually at minimum in order to assist in determining booked reserves for outstanding losses & LAE in their year-end financial statements. As the estimates are revised year to year, management may seek to isolate and review specific items attributing to any changes in these reserves. […]

A workers compensation loss analysis can be utilized in a number of ways depending on the situation and needs of the user. Reserve certification, satisfaction of self-insurance requirements, negotiation of security requirements and letters of credit, insurance budgeting, and determining the reasonability of quoted insurance costs are all common uses. Loss development serves as the […]

Actuaries will use multiple actuarial methods to determine the estimated ultimate losses when completing an actuarial analysis of unpaid claim liabilities. The Bornhuetter-Ferguson (B-F) method and the development methods (also known as chain ladder methods) are two of the most popular claims reserving methods. In this blog post, we will take a look at the […]