Some Project Ideas for Katie School of Insurance and Financial Services
Graduate Project Scholarship
Accounting
- What differences in Statutory Accounting Practices and the new International Accounting Guidelines make comparison of insurers across international borders more difficult?
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How can firms account for risk-linked securities when (unlike reinsurance) these instruments may not fully indemnify a company for its actual loss (because of basis risk)? Also how does the Financial Accounting Board’s new set of guidelines on SPRVs (which could adversely affect the use of bonds) affect interest in other forms of risk-linked securities such as options?
Economics
- What are the economic consequences of having no
insurance coverage for mold-related damage? What are the economic consequences
of mold on society? Even without insurance, mold damage has an economic impact
on mortgage institutions (from owners defaulting on loans), real estate
developers and the construction industry (who are getting sued and who can’t
get loans), and consumers (who can’t sell there homes and get loans for new
ones).
- What is the impact of an estimated $200 billion
in asbestos liability claims on economic development? What risk-financing
mechanism is needed to balance the rights of victims, the interests of
consumers, and the interests of commercial entities for asbestos and other
unknown environmental liability claims?
Enterprise Risk Management
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How can insurers identify and evaluate reputation (brand) risk?
- How can insurers identify and evaluate technology risk?
- How can insurers identify and evaluate human capital risk?
- How can insurers identify and evaluate leadership risk?
- What is the current state of practice among insurers regarding risk assessment and risk control measures used with employment practices liability insurance (EPLI) policies? What are the best practices in EPL risk assessment and control (like HRM policies)?
- How do the psychological risk and character profiles of executives affect EPL claims?
- How do characteristics of corporate culture affect EPL claims?
Financial Market
- Why has financial convergence stalled? What are the obstacles to financial convergence and how are firms overcoming them?
Fraud
- How do state anti-insurance fraud laws deter insurance fraud? Which state laws are most effective in deterring insurance fraud?
Human Resources
- What are best practices for attracting and retaining employees in insurance and financial services industries and how do these practices affect organizational performance?
- What are college students’ perceptions of the insurance industry relative to other industries in terms of careers, salary, reputation, etc? How does this perception affect the industy’s ability to compete for talent?
- The insurance and financial service industry is dealing with the trend of reclassifying employees from exempt salaried employees to non-exempt hourly workers. How does a company calculate the financial consequences of such a move? How will workers and the talent pool view these hourly jobs in relation to career progression?
- How can insurers identify and evaluate human capital risk?
- How can insurers identify and evaluate leadership risk?
- What is the current state of practice among insurers regarding risk assessment and risk control measures used with EPLI policies? What are the best practices in risk assessment and control (like HRM policies)?
- How do the risk and character profiles of executives affect EPL claims? How does corporate culture affect EPL claims?
Insurance-Securitization
- How can CAT bonds problems be overcome to make them more viable risk transfer mechanisms? How should treatment of CAT bonds be included in risk-based capital formula? How can regulators account (give credit for) for risk-linked securities when (unlike reinsurance) they may not fully indemnify a company for its actual losses (because of basis risk)?
- How does the Financial Accounting Board new set of guidelines on SPRVs (which could adversely affect the use of bonds) affect interest in other forms of risk-linked securities such as options?
- Would a tradable equity security with a payoff that depends on the issuing insurer’s underlying loss ratio perform better for predictable lines such as automobile and homeowners or for less predictable lines such as commercial property? What would the benefits of such a proposed security be to an issuing insurer (in terms of basis risk)? What application would this have to terrorism insurance pools? Using such a security, what would simulated payoffs have been based on loss ratios of terrorism insurance pools across the world?
International
- How do information privacy laws affecting insurers vary by country? How do these laws affect foreign investment into markets and affect the ability of foreign companies to compete with domestic companies? Do domestic companies have an advantage when foreign companies can’t cheaply and easily gather information?
- What differences in Statutory Accounting Practices and the new International Accounting Guidelines make comparison of insurers difficult?
Learning and Development
- What are best practices in learning and development for the insurance industry? How can ROI be calculated on training activities?
- How can distance learning and computer (web) based training be improved to teach higher level critical thinking skills for industry professionals?
Life/Health Insurance and Annuity Questions
- Who should have access to personal genetic information, and how should it be used? What risk-financing mechanism would be best for dealing with “high risk” individuals?
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How can annuity providers best deal with longevity risks (augmented life expectancies from new scientific technology)?
Legislative/Judicial/Regulation
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What are the pros and cons of federal chartering? Is it beneficial to smaller companies or larger ones? Is it more appropriate for life and health insurance or property and casualty lines?
- What is the most effective plan for dealing with underserved urban markets for homeowners? Market Assistance Programs? FAIR plans? Credit for assessments in FAIR Plans if insurers take on city insurers?
- Why are jury awards against commercial enterprises skyrocketing? Are there societal changes that would help explain this? Are there other related variables that can be used to help trend these increases such as increases in medical costs, shifts in demographics, increases in dissatisfaction with corporate CEOs, increasing disparity of wealth, increases in legalized gambling, etc?
- What is the relationship between specific nursing home care characteristics and litigation for nursing homes?
- How do various states laws affect the availability of malpractice insurance?
- How do differing state regulatory schemes affect the development of a competitive marketplace in insurance? Do states with less regulation have more competition and lower rates?
Management/Strategy
- Why are most the most profitable insurers, the smaller niche insurers? What are the characteristics of these firms that make them more profitable?
- What is the importance of geographic diversification and its relationship to profitability in the insurance industry?
- Given one specific type of claim (for example auto liability) what is the optimal amount of employee staffing to maximize employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, and profitability?
- What are the characteristics of organizational culture for firms in the insurance industry which have consistently ranked high in profitability and customer satisfaction?
- What are the best practices for mergers and acquisitions for insurers to achieve a profitable merged company? What are the due diligence standards for insurers?
- Based on published data on personal insurance buyer’s expectations and outcomes in terms of claims, customer satisfaction, loyalty, and future purchase intentions what relationships exist between company performance, satisfaction, and financial outcomes that could be useful in guiding strategy for industry managers?
Marketing/Quality
- How can insurers identify and evaluate reputation (brand) risk?
- What are financial services buyers’ expectations, vendor performance relevant to those expectations, and outcomes in terms of customer satisfaction, loyalty, and future purchase intentions?
- What are the positive and negative impacts/opportunities of technology (and/or other marketing consideration/attributes) in the marketing of insurance and financial services? How does this affect long-term relationship marketing considerations?
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Based on published data on personal insurance buyer’s expectations and outcomes in terms of claims, customer satisfaction, loyalty, and future purchase intentions what relationships exist between company performance, satisfaction, and financial outcomes that could be useful in guiding strategy for industry managers?
- How do sales agents deal with constant stream of information?
Property Insurance
- Why have homeowners losses consistently exceeded what was actuarially expected? Have homeowners transferred home maintenance to the insurers?
Sales
- How can the insurance industry sales force deal with large amounts of product and sales training materials while maintaining or enhancing its effectiveness? How does this affect 1) the sales performance of insurance agents, 2) theirturnover, and profitability?
Technology
- How can insurers identify and evaluate technology risk?
- What are the positive and negative impacts/opportunities of technology (and/or other marketing consideration/attributes) in the marketing of insurance and financial services? How does this affect long-term relationship marketing considerations?
- How can distance learning and computer (web) based training be improved to teach higher level critical thinking skills?
- How can the insurance industry sales force deal with large amounts of product and sales training materials while maintaining or enhancing its effectiveness? How does this affect 1) the sales performance of insurance agents, 2) turnover, and profitability?
Terrorism Insurance
- What is the appropriate role of government and private industry in providing terrorism reinsurance? Why should government be involved? What role do insurers have? What role do capital markets have?
- hat is appropriate model for financing risk of terrorism losses and why is it superior to other models? (Look at different plans such as pooling, FAIR PLAN , Windstorm (Beach) plan, National Flood Insurance Model, FAA Risk Retention Group plan, etc) Some researchers suggest that the best form is a pool which allows private market participation. If so, how would such a model work to pool and share terrorism losses (assessments, quota-shares, etc?) Who would participate and how?
- What is the appropriate reinsurance contract for government terrorism reinsurance?
