Financial Analysis of Insurance Companies – Industry Overview and Analysis of Financial and Regulatory Reporting

This course is a part of Financial Analysis of Insurance Companies, a 3-course Professional Certificate series from edX.

Want to gain a solid understanding of the unique analysis methods needed to assess the financial strength and operating performance of insurance companies in the US and Europe?

We’ll begin this course with a look at the main lines of business and the current operating environment of the Life and Health sector of the industry. We will also discuss the impact of changes in interest rates on investment earnings and sales of annuity products. Next, we’ll turn our attention to the property and casualty sector and its main lines of business. We will then look at the trends in premium and investment income for this sector. Next, we’ll look at other sources of financial data and at the different accounting methods and standards that you will encounter when evaluating insurance companies.

Learners will also be introduced to the rules of SAP and how it differs from GAAP and IFRS accounting. We’ll also look at the mandate and organization of the U.S insurance regulators and the information that insurance companies are required to report each period in order to document their ongoing solvency. Next, we’ll examine the operating cycle of a typical insurance company starting with issuing a policy and ending with reporting financial results. We’ll also look at some key terms that you’ll need to understand and important issues that you’ll need to consider in your analysis.

We’ll wrap up this course with a deep dive into how investments are categorized according to risk, valued, and carried differently on the books of a Life versus a P&C insurance company. We’ll talk about some of the red flags you should look for in the mix of assets a company invests in and in the behavior of its asset managers (internal and external).

Note: This course is part of the Financial Analysis of Insurance Companies Professional Certificate.

*Audit the first module on Life and Health sector for free and upgrade to verified to unlock the remaining modules.

What you'll learn

• Describe major industry trends and challenges
• Explain the insurance industry's regulatory environment
• Describe the operating cycle of an insurance company
• Compare and contrast statutory and U.S. GAAP/IFRS accounting
• Describe the impairment tests for invested assets
• Differentiate between loss reserves, policy reserves, UPR and IBNR reserves