A comedian once talked about looking back at the person you were five years ago. “Remember the stupid mistakes you made back then?” he asked the audience. “Well, you’re probably being stupid right now — and it’s going to take you five years to figure that out.”
Some of us don’t need five years. A year ago, in this column, I wrote these words: “The flu may still be a more dangerous prospect than COVID-19.” I just ordered some crow from Uber Eats. It should be arriving soon.
Something that is not a mistake is AR’s coverage of COVID-19 and its effect on insurance. This story is still unfolding in several aspects of modern life, but hope is just around the corner in the form of vaccines to combat this disease. COVID-19 has had an impact on home life for many of us who have been teleworking since the start of the pandemic. When we’re not having virtual meetings or supervising children’s schoolwork, we have a lot of time to assess the conditions of our homes. We see a lot of things. Things we have been staring at for months. Maybe it’s new staircase carpet or worse, a heat pump replacement, but something is likely to need fixing.
Insurers have been taking note too. Our cover story explores homeowners insurance and makes some striking observations on market conditions, weather vulnerabilities and the “COVID occupancy effect.”
The CAS Committee on Professional Education seems to be in the business of observation. For this Ethical Issues column, the committee takes a good look at the mother of all Actuarial Standards of Practice — ASOP 1. Don’t be deterred by the introductory nature of this meta ASOP. It is vital to understanding all the other ASOPs.
Also, in this issue, AR guest contributor, Arius Johnson, gives their take on pronoun disclosure in the workplace; Grover Edie wonders if the pandemic has made us lose our way of interacting with each other; and CAS President Jessica Leong conducts another video interview — this time she’s talking to Kathy Antonello, the CAS president-elect. In addition to the feature story on the 2020 CAS Award Winners, please visit AR Web Exclusives to see the three Rodermund Award Winners say a few words about being honored.
I hope you enjoy what you see in this issue!
