114-A
A Study of Insurer Risk Strategy

Friday, April 4, 2014: 8:00 a.m.
Marriott Ballroom Salon 1 (Washington Marriott Wardman Park)
Plural Rationality theory from anthropology suggests that there are four different risk attitudes that will be found driving risk related decisions.  This paper will describe risk management strategies that are consistent with those risk attitudes and presents a study of the practices of 8 insurers where the approach to several of their major risks are compared to these predicted strategies.  The tentative conclusion is that insurers use these four strategies and vary their use for each major category of risk and that future work may be able to show that their choice of strategy ties back to their view of each risk as predicted by the authors interpretation of the Plural Rationality theory to insurance company’s risk management.
Presentation 2
Charles Thayer, Senior Vice President, Willis Re
Presentation 3
Alice Underwood, Executive Vice President, Willis Re