50 Shades of Product Development
Announcement from the EAA organiser:
Product development is multifaceted, and the related activities are quite diverse. Depending on the organization of a life insurance company, these activities may include topics ranging from actuarial to IT, from law to sales, from marketing to customer services, from accounting to investments – and beyond.
In addition, life insurance business is under threat. Different topics and issues put pressure on business in force as well as on new business, and thus finally on product development: low interest rates, new regulations, new requirements from sales channels and retail clients, environmental and social aspects, the advent of the technological movement in insurance («InsurTech»), and many more.
Thus, the complexity of product development in combination with today’s requirements demand for a holistic view on products and their development. It became obvious now that current best practice in developing products is not sufficient anymore.
Insurers need to change their product development fundamentally. It needs to be faster, more innovative, sustainable, more flexible, and pretty much closer to sales and clients.
In this web session, we discuss different aspects of modern product development and put together the puzzle of different activities, aspects, and perspectives.
Therefore, we will deal with, amongst others, the following topics:
- current product landscape and its evolution
- upcoming trends and upgrades for the product design of savings, retirement, and risk products
- modern investment solution for life products
- smart and fast implementation of life products because of a new product philosophy and external cooperation partner
For more details on this web session, please see the also the preliminary programme.
The web session is suited for actuaries and actuarial trainees as well as insurance professionals who are directly or indirectly involved in product management, product development (projects), investment management, product strategy projects or corporate and business development in life insurance.
This online training is fitting to persons who have not yet gained a deep and long-term experience and who have not yet a broad overview on all aspects of product development. Participants do not need to have a deep knowledge in the discussed fields, however, a certain curiosity and an open mind set towards product innovation, modern product development and a new product philosophy may be helpful and beneficial.
Technical Requirements
Please check with your IT department if your firewall and computer settings support web session participation (the programme Zoom will be used for this online training). Please also make sure that you are joining the web session with a stable internet connection.
The aim of this web session is to provide insights into the multifaceted and diverse activities related to the development of life insurance products – including the latest trends in developing innovative and digital life insurance products.
Click here to make a reservation: Your early-bird registration fee is € 650.00 plus 19% VAT for bookings by
20 December 2022. After this date, the fee will be € 845.00 plus 19% VAT.
Thomas Gehling
Thomas is an actuary and has been working as a freelance consultant since 2017. He focuses on biometric risk products and its product design, pricing, risk management and related topics. The huge field of disability products is his core area. He supports insurers, distribution channels, raters and others, trying to improve and innovate disability insurance in German speaking countries. Machine Learning used to improve risk products is the other topic of his work. Before, he worked for a leading reinsurer. He studied mathematics and is a member of the German Association of Actuaries (Aktuar DAV). He was a member of different working groups deriving mortality and disability tables.
Frank Genheimer
Frank is Managing Director and Partner with New Insurance Business (NIB), a consulting company that offers strategic and tactical consulting in the fields of transformation, innovation and digitization for insurers and their cooperation partner. Before Frank founded NIB in 2015, he worked as product developer, project manager, product manager and life actuary with different insurance groups and for several European countries since 2004. Frank is a qualified member of the German and Swiss society of actuaries. In addition, he is a regular speaker and moderator at seminars, workshops, and various other events throughout the financial service industry in Europe.
Dr Elias Vicari
Elias is CEO of Squarelife Insurance AG. Squarelife is a sister company of Lifeware AG, an innovative IT and outsourcing provider that is serving numerous life insurance companies in 17 national markets for more than 20 years. Elias has been involved in Squarelife's digital and agile product development for many years with the goal of implementing all end-to-end processes - from application to Solvency II calculations - in a single integrated system. This allows Squarelife to set-up a new life insurance product in a few days.
Dr Axel Wachsmann
Axel rejoined Société Générale in Paris in 2022 as Managing Director, Head of Insurance Distribution Europe. He oversees the development of life insurance products in Europe ranging from protected funds or notes to full hedging solutions of variable annuities. From 2005 to 2018 Axel already worked at Société Générale, in particular as Managing Director, Head of Cross Asset Solutions Germany & Austria. In this position he was in charge of both distribution and institutional investment solutions covering together with his team the full spectrum of financial institution clients in Germany and Austria. From 2019 to 2021 Axel was with Barclays joining them as Managing Director to co-head the cross asset solutions and rates sales for Germany and Austria. In the following Axel became Head of Equity Derivatives and Equity solutions for Germany and Austria. In 1994 Axel started his professional career as risk controller at Deutsche Bank and then became Head of market risk methodology at Dresdner Bank where in 2001 he moved to the institutional equity derivatives sales department. Axel studied mathematical economics in Bielefeld and in Lyon. In his master thesis he looked at the ALM of a French pension fund and his Ph.D. thesis dealt with equilibrium models including convertible bonds.