This course is designed for a broad range of professionals across the general insurance ecosystem who engage with or are impacted by pricing decisions — whether from a technical, commercial, or risk management perspective. It is suitable for both technical and non-technical roles and is especially valuable for those navigating market cycles or seeking to deepen their understanding of how pricing is determined, challenged, and optimised.

At the end of the programme, participants should be able to:

• Understand the insurance pricing landscape, including market dynamics, cover structures, and the underwriting cycle.
• Apply core pricing methodologies such as burning cost, frequency/severity modelling, and experience vs exposure-based rating.
• Break down the components of a technical premium, including cost loadings, capital considerations, and profit margins.
• Evaluate pricing applications across multiple lines of business, including property, casualty, and reinsurance.
• Incorporate external influences such as reinsurance, catastrophe risk, inflation, and litigation trends into pricing decisions.
• Quantify and communicate uncertainty in pricing assumptions and outputs.
• Understand the pricing control cycle and perform rate adequacy and risk-adjusted rate change assessments.
• Adapt pricing strategies to emerging risks and evolving market conditions.

Morning Session (9:00 AM – 12:30 PM)

Laying the Foundation: Classical Pricing Techniques

• Welcome & Introduction
  
  • The evolution of pricing: from intuition to analytics
• The Insurance Market Landscape
  
  • Insurance buyers and their expectations
  • Role of insurers and reinsurers
  • Function of intermediaries (e.g., brokers, MGAs)
  • Overview of major global markets (e.g., London Market)
  • The underwriting cycle
• Insurance and Reinsurance Products
  
  • Classification by type of cover (e.g., property, casualty, specialty)
  • Customer segmentation (e.g., personal, commercial, corporate, reinsurance)
• Cover Structures
  
  • Personal vs commercial lines
  • Reinsurance structures and pricing relevance
• Pricing in Context
  
  • Regulatory, legal, and market constraints
  • Balancing actuarial models with commercial judgment
• Experience Rating: A Generic Process
  
  • Risk understanding and segmentation
  • Data requirements and common challenges
  • Key assumptions and data preparation
• Modelling Fundamentals
  
  • Burning cost
  • Frequency and severity modelling
  • Aggregate loss modelling
  • Identifying, quantifying, and communicating uncertainty
• Components of the Technical Premium
  
  • Cost-plus pricing methodology
  • Capital considerations in pricing
  • Introduction to price optimisation
• Experience vs Exposure-Based Rating
  
  • When and why each method is used
  • Exposure metrics across different lines of business
• Group Exercise 1: Estimating a Technical Premium

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Afternoon Session (1:30 PM – 5:00 PM)

Advanced Pricing & Applications in a Changing Market

• Pricing Cycles & Controls
  
  • The Pricing Control Cycle
  • Assessing rate adequacy and rate changes
• Group Exercise 2: Calculating Risk-Adjusted Rate Change
• Pricing Applications by Line of Business
  
  • Property: Exposure rating, NatCat modelling, fire protection factors, sums insured, risk engineering, business interruption
  • Casualty: Increased limit factor (ILF) curves, limits/deductibles, litigation trends
• Pricing Across Multiple Lines
  
  • Independent vs correlated risks
  • Portfolio pricing and diversification
  • Insurance structure optimisation
• Case Discussions & Emerging Themes
  
  • Commercial vs personal lines pricing strategies
  • Adjusting strategy in hard and soft markets
  • Pricing for emerging risks: climate, cyber, inflation
• Wrap-Up Discussion: Building a Best-in-Class Pricing Function
  
  • Collaboration across underwriting, claims, actuarial, and finance
  • Future trends in analytics and pricing technology
  • Q&A and audience reflections

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Ishita Bhatia is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries (UK) and holds a Certificate in London Market Insurance from the Chartered Insurance Institute. She currently serves as the Group Head of Specialty Pricing at QBE, where she leads the global pricing strategy across all Specialty lines. In this role, she partners closely with underwriting and data science teams to drive innovation in pricing frameworks, embed consistent methodologies, and enhance model sophistication across regions. Prior to this, she led Pricing and Data Science for QBE’s Natural Resources, Construction, and International Markets portfolios, delivering impactful pricing solutions in complex and evolving areas such as Renewable Energy.

Before joining QBE, Ishita spent nearly a decade at Willis Towers Watson in Singapore, advising corporates and insurers on actuarial modelling, capital strategy, and risk financing across diverse P&C and specialty risks. She brings deep expertise in general insurance pricing, regulatory frameworks, and applied analytics. In addition to her industry experience, Ishita has co-authored a publication in the British Actuarial Journal titled “Loss Modelling from First Principles,” which explores how foundational modelling techniques can strengthen risk understanding and support sound decision-making in insurance and finance. She now contributes as a Subject Matter Expert in General Insurance Pricing for the Singapore College of Insurance.

Full Course Fee: S$414.20 (incl. of 9% GST)