Optimising your financial strength rating
One Day course – London E1 – The Tower Hotel, Tower Bridge
Wednesday 10th October 2018
9am – 5pm
Introducing a new one-day course for non-life rated insurers and reinsurers and those considering getting rated.
- Does the rating process and decision seem like a black-box?
- Are you considering getting a rating but concerned that you do not fully understand what you are getting into?
- Do you feel you don’t really get the rating you deserve?
- Does the presentation you give the agency just reflect the agenda they send you?
- Do you feel that the rating agencies don’t properly understand your company?
- Does how the capital analysis “fits” with the rest of the ratings process and final outcome seem unclear?
- Are you unsure how best to ask questions of the agencies analysts or position a disagreement with them?
- Do you feel that too much management time is wasted trying to second guess what the agencies analysts think and why?
If you answered yes to any one of these questions, then this is the course for you.
In addition to many decades of senior experience in insurance ratings, the Litmus team have conducted over 60 successful “Ratings Advisory” projects, giving us a unique perspective from “both sides of the table”.
Ratings are forward looking opinions. This means that qualitative assessments of strategy, the credibility of earnings forecasts, market position, ERM and even brand strength can be as crucial to the rating outcome as capital adequacy.
Optimising your rating means seeing your organisation through the eyes of the “rating committee” (most of whom you will never meet).
The target of this course is to give you the knowledge and tools to do exactly that.
It includes:
- How the rating criteria defines how they decide your rating
- Key tactical guidance around the execution of your agency communications
- Understanding the “what and why” of how specialist insurance credit analysts think
- The common assumptions the rating committee members “bring to the table”
One day on this course will save many days pondering over the right approach and content for your agency presentations.
It will help ensure you give the analysts the best ammunition to deliver your argument to the rating committee.
Key elements include –
- The dynamics of the ratings process – how analysts think and react to situations, what they’re interested in and what drives their decisions
- The relative importance of the key elements of criteria
- Key factors in capital and ERM
- Context for the importance of operating performance and how it is evaluated
- How strategy, competitive position and business mix can profoundly influence the outcome
- Group methodology, and other support mechanisms
- The importance and function of the Rating Committee
- Key aspects in documentation
- Rating appeals and handling ‘downgrade risk’
- Rating analyst ‘hot buttons’
Rating criteria can be extremely detailed, and to make the one-day course practical we use our experience to focus on what really matters and how it all fits together. We also focus attention primarily on the two largest insurance rating agencies: A.M. Best and S&P.
Where the rating criteria is specific to either life or non-life lines we focus on non-life.
Deep dives on specific aspects of agency criteria beyond the scope of this course can be arranged with the Litmus team.
Who should attend?
The course is intended for CEOs, CFOs, CROs, CUO’s, Treasurers, Investor Relations staff – anyone who is, or might be, involved in the rating process for a (re)insurer.
As the course reflects Litmus’s detailed proprietary knowledge of the subject it is not typically open to other ratings advisors, bankers, re/insurance brokers or other advisors to (re)insurers (although we will consider specific requests to attend on a case by case basis).
Price
The fee is £1250+ VAT per delegate
We are offering a special early-bird discounted rate of £995 for bookings invoiced and paid before 1st August 2018.
Please note this course will be limited to an absolute maximum of 12 delegates, so book now to avoid disappointment.
If you prefer to talk with our experts specially about your circumstances, or keep the course to yourselves, please either contact us or the course is also available as an in-house event
Click here to book your space now
or email nicolarowley@litmusanalysis.com for further information
If you would be interested in running this course in-house please contact John Walsh at johnwalsh@litmusanalysis.com
For full details on our other courses please go to www.litmusanalysis.com/training
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