Cat Risk Management Credential Introduced; Updates on CSPA
Actuarial Review sat down with iCAS Director Amy Brener to learn about the latest credential offering from The CAS Institute.
Actuarial Review: So, what’s new at The CAS Institute — or iCAS – these days?
Amy Brener: The CAS Institute is ready to roll out its second credential, which is actually envisioned as a two-tier credential, in catastrophe risk management. The first tier will consist of four parts: ethics, insurance fundamentals for catastrophe risk, introduction to catastrophe modeling, and introduction to catastrophe risk management. The second tier will contain two additional modules: advanced construction of catastrophe models and advanced uses of models in catastrophe management. We’re in the process of naming the credentials.
AR: What is the timeline for release of the exams?
AB: For the ethics part we are beginning to make a list of existing ethics courses that will provide the required content; we do not plan to develop our own course at this time. The insurance fundamentals for catastrophe risk course will be a two-parter. The first half will consist of an online course and multiple-choice exam, administered for us by The Institutes, which also runs two of the courses for the Certified Specialist in Predictive Analytics credential. Part one will be available in the last quarter of 2018; the exam may be taken any time between October 15 and December 15 at a Prometric testing center.
The second half of the cat risk course is under development and will be more like a CAS exam in that we will produce a syllabus and reading list. The Institutes will develop a multiple-choice test for us, which we anticipate being available in January 2019, again given through Prometric.
The Introduction to Catastrophe Modeling course is currently under development. The course and exam are scheduled to be released in midspring/early summer 2019.
We are also just starting to develop the Introduction to Catastrophe Risk Management course and are putting together the exam committee for it.
AR: Who are the subject matter experts and where are they coming from?
AB: As you know, we are working with the International Society of Catastrophe Managers on these credentials. What I love about our program is that it is platform-agnostic. Most of the major modeling vendors have their own certifications, but they are platform-specific. We are creating a credential that is independent of the model platforms. The major vendors are not only supporting our efforts, but representatives of AIR, RMS and Corelogic are all actively participating in the development of the credential.
AR: What’s the status of the Certified Specialist in Predictive Analytics credential?
AB: The first sitting of the third exam for the CSPA credential is scheduled for September 13, 2018. It is an examination that will be administered twice a year — once in September and once in the March/April timeframe. This exam sitting will use in-person proctors, although we intend to move to remote proctoring for the next sitting. Candidates will log into a platform provided by our vendor, TrueAbility, using their own computers.
Starting in October 2018, we will have two projects ready for the final phase of the program. Candidates will be assigned a case study project with a unique data set. They will have two months to work on the project in a secure environment. When candidates complete their projects, they will submit their output for a panel to review. If more work is needed, the candidates will be given another month for an additional charge to cover the cost of access to the secure environment. Candidates who can complete the entire project, including any rework needed, within two months will not incur any additional cost.
AR: How long is the case study project anticipated to take?
AB: We are estimating the project to take between 20 and 40 hours total.
