Chief Actuary, Americas

Chief Actuary, Americas

New York, NY I Stamford, CT I Hartford, CT

The successful candidate will report to Global Chief Actuary in Paris and will involve significant interaction with the Actuarial Financial Reporting team and key business partners globally. The role contemplates management of a team of Underwriting Unit Actuaries who specialize in specific lines of business within the North America Insurance business group. The candidate will be responsible for the evaluation of the reserves and the profitability of the North America Insurance business group, for the division AXA XL and for the Americas Region, through the reserves function and the continuous evaluation of the budget loss ratio. This includes reserving booking proposals, evaluation of underwriting actions and governance of the budget loss ratio selection process as well as comprehensive review of social, legal, and economic trends impacting ultimate loss costs.

The Chief Actuary, Americas is expected to become the Appointed Actuary and the Signing Actuary for all the US legal entities. This includes responsibility of signing the SAO (“Statement of Actuarial opinions”) for all US legal entities and any associated regulatory requirements including an extensive report to support the Signing Opinion.

DISCOVERyour opportunity

What will your essential responsibilities include?

• Valuation Analysis : completed twice a year for the Q2 and Q4 reserving analysis:Review and challenge the appropriateness of methodologies and assumptions selected by UW Unit Actuaries across all lines of business, and drive changes where this is considered appropriate.Ensure documentation is maintained in line with the AXA XL division reserving policy and actuarial standards of practice and fulfill any specific legal entity requirements. Maintain consistency of approach in the SPARTA environment with other business groups in accordance with internal valuation guidelines.Under the responsibility of the Global Chief Actuary, presentations of results and rationalization to internal stakeholders, to the division leadership team but not exhaustively the CEO, CFO and CRO, to the Americas Region Chief Executive, AXA Group and others as required. Present results to external stakeholders including Regulators, Reinsurers, and external consultants who serve as Appointed Actuary for US entities.
• Quarterly Financial Reporting :Management of quarterly Reserving analysis for Property, Casualty, and Professional lines businesses across the North America Business Group:Ensure all reporting deliverables are met by the team through the Quarter End Process to allow for full consultation with the business and risk management to meet financial reporting requirements.Review and challenge of all reserving recommendations made by the Underwriting Unit Actuaries. Provide oversight, challenge and review to Americas region reserves recommended by Global Lines and International UWU actuaries. Support the Deputy Head Actuaries in their consultation with underwriters and management regarding experience in the quarter, implications for financial reporting and recommendation for areas of consideration through the valuation analysis.Present quarterly Americas Region booking results to the Americas Region Chief Executive and Americas Region Leadership Team, Risk Management, External Consultants, Reinsurers, Regulators, and other stakeholders as required. Prioritize and drive process efficiencies for continuous improvement across the function.
• Appointed Actuary : Responsible for the being the designated Appointed Actuary and forming the Signing Opinion for the US legal entities. This includes the Statements of Actuarial opinion, Actuarial Summaries and the final yearly Report to support the appointed actuary signing opinion. In addition to the US opinion, the Chief Actuary, Americas is also responsible for coordinating the Canadian signing opinion with our Consulting partner.
• Business Planning :The Actuarial Financial Reporting team is responsible for the base year loss ratios and roll-forward assumptions for the segment operating plan. This role will oversee and challenge analysis from both Pricing and Reserving Actuaries in rationalizing plan assumptions and outputs. You will evaluate efficacy of bottom-up recommendations from the regional actuarial team alongside top-down views from Central Reserving to inform your final selections, subject to review and signoff from Global Chief Actuary. You will manage the ongoing evaluation of current year loss ratios, interacting with the relevant Pricing Actuaries, Underwriters to assess differing views as necessary.
• Legal Entity Support :AXA XL utilizes many different legal entities to write business.You will be expected to contribute to Legal entity assessments and support the rationalization of legal entity changes and impacts in respect of the North America business.This includes participation in various legal entity committees such as the Risk Committee for US entities, the CRCH model committee, and others as necessary.
• Special Projects :Alongside your business and Legal entity responsibilities, you may also lead or become involved in special projects intended to contribute to the development of the Actuarial Financial Reporting team globally. This could involve development of processes or exhibits or focused investigations regarding new methodologies or assumptions potentially impacting the reserving analysis for all lines.
• Team Leadership – The Chief Actuary, Americas is a member of the Actuarial LT chaired by the Global Chief Actuary, and gathering the regional Chief Actuaries and the corporate Chief Actuary functions
• The Chief Actuary, Americas is expected to lead their teams, and work with the other regional and central Chief Actuaries in London, Dublin and India to manage workloads and address challenges and opportunities across the Segment. You will have direct line management of a team of Underwriting Unit Actuaries and Analysts on shore. This includes performance reviews and support for their personal development through coaching and on the job training.

You will report to the Global Chief Actuary primarily with a second reporting line to the CEO, Americas.

SHARE your talent

We’re looking for someone who has these abilities and skills:

• Robust Technical Skills : Extensive relevant experience within the non-life insurance industry, with a significant focus on reserving. A track record which demonstrates a leadership capability, as well as the ability to ensure timely delivery under pressure is critical. Appropriate technical knowledge to facilitate review, challenge and governance of the Actuarial function opinions and the Reserves analysis.
• Planning & Organization : An ability to manage multiple conflicting tasks and outputs.Able to plan long term deliverables and ensure tasks are planned and completed accordingly and that any delays or complications are communicated early and resolved appropriately
• Managemen t: Capability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines across a large team to ensure timely and effective delivery. Is able to navigate ambiguity effectively.
• Leadership : Can identify, grow and nurture talent within the team, including building a robust succession plan and creating career development opportunities for all colleagues.Ability to create a vision for the team around goals and expectations and motivate the team to innovate and enhance processes and analyses.
• Business Knowledge : A clear understanding of the firms’ business model: its balance sheet and capital including exposure to risk. Appropriate knowledge of the characteristics and risks associated with the lines of business written within the Business Groups and across the entities. Market Knowledge: Knowledge of trends and practices within the insurance industry, supported by knowledge of current economic conditions and the threats that these might pose to business.Able to translate actuarial output into business value, ensuring various customers, including legal entity boards; able to understand the practical implications of our analyses.Holds actuarial decisions vis-à-vis operational teams
• Outstanding Communication : Excellent verbal and written communication, collaboration and presentation skills. Must have the ability to communicate even negative or difficult messages in a constructive and effective manner at all levels. Relevant experience of presenting and communicating ultimate claims movements and trends to underwriters.
• One AXA Mindset : Expected to ensure consistency between the division, the Americas region and the legal actuarial views. Is comfortable to challenge and be challenged.
• Strategic Thinking and Tactical Implementation : Ability to invent, design and build solutions.
• Intimate knowledge of SPARTA, the AXA XL reserving system, is critical to success in this role. Complete understanding of Solvency II, IFRS 4, and IFRS 17 are also necessary as we align our process to AXA Group.
• Regulatory Knowledge : Knowledge of all regulatory requirements and demands to ensure that they are efficiently achieved.Knowledge of the Solvency II regulatory regime, including risk knowledge to include insurance risk (underwriting, reserving and catastrophe risk), market risk and operational risk, based upon understanding of insurance industry practices and processes.Experience of risk capital and liability (claims cost reserving/provisioning) assessments, and the internal models that the firm has developed to determine economic and regulatory capital requirements.

• Stakeholder Management : Clear communication and collaboration through outstanding business relationships ensuring that all Stakeholders are aware of issues, uncertainties and outcomes that could affect their decision making.

FIND your future

AXA XL, the P&C and specialty risk division of AXA, is known for solving complex risks. For mid-sized companies, multinationals and even some inspirational individuals we don’t just provide re/insurance, we reinvent it.

How? By combining a comprehensive and efficient capital platform, data-driven insights, leading technology, and the best talent in an agile and inclusive workspace, empowered to deliver top client service across all our lines of business − property, casualty, professional, financial lines and specialty.

With an innovative and flexible approach to risk solutions, we partner with those who move the world forward.

Inclusion & Diversity