Home Insurance Affordability and Socioeconomic Equity in a Changing Climate

Avant: Senior Pricing Actuary

Avant is seeking a Senior Pricing Actuary for an 18-month fixed-term contract to lead its pricing and portfolio management capability, working closely with the Head of Pricing and Advanced Analytics. The role involves leading an actuarial and analytics team, delivering technical analysis and strategic advice to support pricing, portfolio optimisation and sustainable growth, with a focus on the Medical Indemnity Division.

PG 199.03 Economic Valuations Exposure Draft (August 2026)

PG 199.03 Economic Valuations Exposure Draft (August 2026)

PG 8 AASB S2 Climate-Related Disclosures Exposure Draft

PG 199.03 Explanatory Memorandum (August 2026)

Response to APRA consultation on National Claims and Policies Database (NCPD) non-confidentiality determination and refreshed publication format

The Institute supports APRA's proposals for the NCPD non-confidentiality determination and refreshed publication format, including the move to downloadable spreadsheets and the addition of cyber insurance and management liability as separate product categories

2 CPD Points

Summit 2026: Disability Insurance at a Turning Point: How Can the Industry Best Support the Community with its Mental Health Challenges?

The life insurance sector stands at a critical juncture within The Great Recalibration - the broader economic and social reset redefining work, wellbeing, and financial security. Amid this transformation, worsening Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) experience and notwithstanding regulatory intervention, Income Protection insurance remains a challenge for the industry. Worsening claims experience has been driven largely by mental health conditions, which has emerged as one of the industry’s most pressing challenges. Beyond its immediate consumer and insurer financial impact, this trend reflects deeper shifts in workforce dynamics, societal expectations, and the role of insurers in supporting long-term resilience. In Australia, mental health now constitutes around one-third of TPD payouts, with insurers disbursing over AUD 2.2 billion in mental health TPD claims in 2024 - nearly double the amount seen five years earlier1 . Further, TPD claim rates for individuals in their 30s attributed to mental health have surged approximately 732 % since 20141 . This trend has significant implications across the insurance value chain - from pricing, underwriting, and claims management to capital and reinsurance strategies. The worsening experience not only impacts profitability and sustainability but also highlights the need for coordinated action across insurers and insurance sectors, reinsurers, regulators, and broader societal stakeholders. This paper examines the underlying drivers of the deterioration in TPD experience, with a particular focus on the rise of mental health-related claims and explores the systemic implications for the life insurance industry. It calls for an industry-wide conversation – one that moves beyond cost management to reimagining how users and distributors of insurance, insurers, reinsurers, and policymakers can collectively respond to the mental health challenge through innovation, partnership, and a renewed focus on societal value.

2 CPD Points

Summit 2026: Plenary 5 - Recalibrating Insurability: Navigating the Future of Life Protection

The boundaries of insurability are shifting across life insurance. Rising claims costs, changing underwriting paradigms and evolving customer expectations are forcing reassessment of what sustainable protection looks like and how it should be delivered. Through a series of lightning talks, this session tackles the vexed question of insurability in both group and retail products. What adjustments are needed to ensure protection remains viable and valuable for Australians who need it? Industry leaders will deliver insights on the forces reshaping insurability and the practical responses required.

1 CPD Point

Summit 2026: Plenary 5 - Recalibrating Insurability: Navigating the Future of Life Protection - Gerard Kerr

The boundaries of insurability are shifting across life insurance. Rising claims costs, changing underwriting paradigms and evolving customer expectations are forcing reassessment of what sustainable protection looks like and how it should be delivered. Through a series of lightning talks, this session tackles the vexed question of insurability in both group and retail products. What adjustments are needed to ensure protection remains viable and valuable for Australians who need it? Industry leaders will deliver insights on the forces reshaping insurability and the practical responses required.

1 CPD Point

Summit 2026: Plenary 5 - Recalibrating Insurability: Navigating the Future of Life Protection - Drew Macrae

The boundaries of insurability are shifting across life insurance. Rising claims costs, changing underwriting paradigms and evolving customer expectations are forcing reassessment of what sustainable protection looks like and how it should be delivered. Through a series of lightning talks, this session tackles the vexed question of insurability in both group and retail products. What adjustments are needed to ensure protection remains viable and valuable for Australians who need it? Industry leaders will deliver insights on the forces reshaping insurability and the practical responses required.

2 CPD Points

Summit 2026: Plenary 4 - Wisdom Through Change: Lessons from actuaries who've recalibrated

Disruption demands the ability to rethink, reset and act. Hear from accomplished actuaries, Greg Schneider and Nicolette Rubinsztein AM, who have faced defining moments, tough calls, unexpected failures and breakthroughs that reshaped their thinking. They will share the lessons, mindset shifts and practical actions that turned setbacks into stepping stones for their careers. You will leave with stories that can be translated into lessons for today and ways to build resilience and reframe setbacks, to turn challenges into growth. More speakers announced soon.

1 CPD Point

Summit 2026: Plenary 3 - Built to Pivot: Delivering Commercial Value Through Agile Innovation

Gain insights from speaker Karan Anand, Chief Strategy Officer and Managing Director Australia at Hnry. Rapidly changing consumer expectations and economic transformation demand actuarial insight that anticipates and then moves ahead of the speed of change — designing solutions rapidly, testing ideas fearlessly and communicating impact clearly to executive teams. How do we bring startup agility into actuarial practice while maintaining rigour? Karan shares frameworks from building and scaling innovative businesses. Through real examples of commercial innovation, you'll learn how to run lean experiments, focus resources on what's material and build business cases that resonate with leadership.

1 CPD Point

Summit 2026: Disability Insurance at a Turning Point: How Can the Industry Best Support the Community with its Mental Health Challenges?

The life insurance sector stands at a critical juncture within The Great Recalibration - the broader economic and social reset redefining work, wellbeing, and financial security. Amid this transformation, worsening Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) experience and notwithstanding regulatory intervention, Income Protection insurance remains a challenge for the industry. Worsening claims experience has been driven largely by mental health conditions, which has emerged as one of the industry’s most pressing challenges. Beyond its immediate consumer and insurer financial impact, this trend reflects deeper shifts in workforce dynamics, societal expectations, and the role of insurers in supporting long-term resilience. In Australia, mental health now constitutes around one-third of TPD payouts, with insurers disbursing over AUD 2.2 billion in mental health TPD claims in 2024 - nearly double the amount seen five years earlier1 . Further, TPD claim rates for individuals in their 30s attributed to mental health have surged approximately 732 % since 20141 . This trend has significant implications across the insurance value chain - from pricing, underwriting, and claims management to capital and reinsurance strategies. The worsening experience not only impacts profitability and sustainability but also highlights the need for coordinated action across insurers and insurance sectors, reinsurers, regulators, and broader societal stakeholders. This paper examines the underlying drivers of the deterioration in TPD experience, with a particular focus on the rise of mental health-related claims and explores the systemic implications for the life insurance industry. It calls for an industry-wide conversation – one that moves beyond cost management to reimagining how users and distributors of insurance, insurers, reinsurers, and policymakers can collectively respond to the mental health challenge through innovation, partnership, and a renewed focus on societal value.

1 CPD Point

Summit 2026: The Dynamic Future of Weather Catastrophe Management: The Impact of Temporal Intelligence on General Insurance Markets

"Catastrophe risk makes up approximately 50% of the risk in the Australian general insurance property market and is currently managed via some of the world’s largest reinsurance programs. Imagine a future where: • In the coming season, the chance of a major catastrophe event and subsequent events, is well known. • Portfolios and risk appetites can be shaped on-the-fly in response to regular forecast updates • The price of insurance varies week to month like airline tickets. What does that mean for our customers? For the stability of our insurance market? For reinsurance markets? Over the past 15 years, the emergence of detailed spatial perils data has fundamentally reshaped the general insurance market’s approach to risk-based pricing for weather-related perils, driving significant shifts in affordability and the need for government intervention. Advancements in seasonal weather forecasting, combined with emerging temporal capabilities in catastrophe models, are opening up new opportunities to transform how catastrophe risk is managed. These innovations enable dynamic assessments of catastrophe allowances, capital requirements, and reinsurance needs on a seasonal basis, with potential implications for how these factors are reflected in pricing strategies. The introduction of the next generation of high-definition catastrophe models to the Australian market enables granular pricing across the board, shifting the competitive focus among insurers. Rather than relying on a superior temporally averaged View of Risk, the emphasis is now moving toward a dynamic, seasonally responsive View of Risk. Further, strict and impractical perils definitions are breaking down as closely coupled perils event sets emerge, allowing better representation of losses across storm, flood and other weather events. We explore several use cases for temporal catastrophe risk management, including seasonal forecasting, peril correlations, and policy-level seasonal loss correlations. We examine the implications for dynamic capital management and highlight emerging considerations for regulators, reinsurance strategies, and the pricing of reinstatements. Finally, we consider potential outcomes for consumer pricing behaviour to support a value-based dialogue on the future direction of the industry."

1 CPD Point

Summit 2026: Cyber Shadows: Shaping Scenarios to Strengthening Strategy

Cyber risk is recognised by many as the top global risk in 2025, with data breaches, ransomware attacks, and system compromises posing significant threats to all organisations and customers. But despite their growing frequency and severity, quantifying their financial and operational impact remains a major challenge. Scenario testing is a foundational tool – not only required for insurers’ capital adequacy assessments, but also to help all organisations visualise and prepare for their key risks. However, most insurers lack a robust methodology for cyber scenarios, often relying on subjective estimates without clear justification or consideration of the potential key exposures and costs. Through the perspectives and experience of both capital management experts and cyber risk experts, this session will explore: • Analysis and learnings from recent major cyber events and their implications for capital, business continuity, and future best practices in cyber risk management. • Cyber risk quantification and how it relates to cyber risk exposure quantification, investment prioritisation, insurance coverage, and the business’ operational resilience. • The range of maturity of how cyber scenarios are currently done by industry, including examples of better practice. • A comprehensive framework for considering different cyber disruption scenarios for likely future cyber incidents. Join us to understand how to evolve your understanding and approach to managing cyber risks."

1 CPD Point

Summit 2026: From Seed to Safety: Phenology Driven Weather Index Insurance

Agricultural production is increasingly exposed to climate change, placing growing pressure on existing risk-transfer mechanisms to provide adequate protection against yield losses. Weather Index Insurance (WII) has emerged as a promising alternative by linking payouts to objective climate indicators rather than on-farm loss assessments. However, a fundamental limitation persists: temporal basis risk. When weather indices are measured over fixed or aggregated time windows, they often fail to align with the evolving physiological needs of crops, weakening the connection between index outcomes and realised losses and ultimately undermining product credibility and uptake. In this presentation we will introduce a hybrid WII framework that leverages machine learning to align index design and payouts with the dynamic progression of crop growth stages. The growing season is partitioned into key phenological stages whose timing is determined dynamically by using a stacked ensemble model, allowing weather indices to reflect stage-specific climate sensitivities. As an additional benefit, a staggered payout structure enables early-season compensation in response to plant mortality, providing farmers with liquidity to support replanting. This early access to benefits improves recovery prospects, preserves yield potential, and reduces the reliance on government subsidies, reinforcing farm-level resilience. By combining machine-learning-derived indices with biologically aligned triggers, the proposed framework strengthens the role of index insurance as a viable instrument for agricultural climate resilience.