Introduction to Insurance Finance

There is often a mystique and some fear about insurance finance, financial education is often viewed with reluctance and this core knowledge can be mistakenly overlooked (or avoided) until relatively late in a career. Consequently, levels of financial literacy can often be low in both operational/underwriting and business support roles.

With the regulatory emphasis on prudential management, capital adequacy and with the impetus of Solvency II, financial competence is on the agenda. The Solvency II focus on risk based capital management is prompting a stronger and widespread desire for every part of the business to “understand the numbers”. Anyone in a management or technical role should understand why, how and where their actions can have a financial impact.

Beyond the pure “compliance” with Solvency II there are progressive benefits for any insurer from its people right across the business being able to understand where the numbers come from, the ultimate measures of business success and how their own function contributes.

This one day course is an introduction to the dynamics, language and processes of business and insurance finance. It explains the jargon, demonstrates how the basics still apply to insurance but highlights where it is unique from other industries, and how this is reflected in the financial reporting. It provides a solid foundation for further development of financial understanding.

The course is delivered for groups of delegates on behalf of employers at client premises or external venues arranged for organisations anywhere in the UK.

Please note that it is not offered as an open course for individual delegate bookings.

Course Objectives

By the end of the workshop, you will be able to:

• identify the financial characteristics that make insurance distinct from other industries
• describe the insurance cash flow cycle, and the main dependencies
• explain main accounting rules and how they are applied to measurement and reporting
• describe the key terms – the language of insurance finance
• understand the estimation and dependencies of claims costs
• explain the financial treatment of premium and claims provisions
• navigate the technical account, profit and loss and balance sheet
• appreciate the requirement for solvency and capital adequacy

Workshop Content

• Insurance working capital cycle
• key accounting labels, concepts and rules
• the financial characteristics of insurance
• the mechanics of premium: written/earned, gross/net, unearned premium reserves
• acquisition costs and operational expenses
• the mechanics of claims: paid, outstanding and IBNR, prior year development
• the treatment of reinsurance
• investment considerations: types of assets and asset liability matching
• funded v accrual annual accounts
• constructing the P&L (technical and non-technical account) and interpreting the balance sheet
• liquidity, solvency and capital adequacy
• dissecting the Solvency II balance sheet.

Insurance is an industry notorious for people working in specialist silos, especially when it comes to finance. This course is for all insurance practitioners who would benefit from understanding the bigger picture of insurance finance.

Participants need have no existing financial knowledge and receive a set of stand-alone notes, which are designed to both support the course and become a permanent reference tool.