Insurance Risk Management and Solvency Control Training Course

Course overview

Insurers must make capital, pricing, underwriting and investment decisions with a clear view of risk appetite, solvency capacity and regulatory obligations. Yet risk information is often fragmented across actuarial, finance, underwriting, claims and compliance teams. This course addresses the practical challenge of turning risk registers, exposure data, stress tests and capital measures into a coherent risk management and solvency control process that supports management decisions and stands up to board and regulatory scrutiny.

Participants examine the insurance risk universe, including underwriting, reserving, market, credit, liquidity, operational, conduct and catastrophe risk. They learn to define risk appetite statements and limits, assess inherent and residual risk, build key risk indicators, apply risk and control self-assessments, and connect scenario analysis to capital planning. The programme also explains the practical roles of the Own Risk and Solvency Assessment (ORSA), Solvency II concepts, internal control reporting, actuarial inputs and IFRS 17 financial reporting considerations.

Delivery combines instructor-led explanation with insurance casework, spreadsheet-based analysis and facilitated workshops. Participants work through a fictional insurer’s solvency deterioration, identifying risk drivers, testing management actions and preparing evidence for a risk committee. They leave with a practical risk and solvency control pack: a risk appetite framework, risk register, KRIs, stress-testing worksheet, capital action plan and outline ORSA reporting structure that can be adapted for their own organisation.

The course is suited to insurance professionals moving into risk, finance, actuarial, compliance or governance responsibilities, as well as managers who need to challenge risk and capital information without becoming technical modellers.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Map an insurer’s underwriting, reserving, market, credit, liquidity, operational and conduct risk exposures.
• Construct a risk appetite statement with measurable tolerances, escalation triggers and ownership assignments.
• Apply a risk and control self-assessment to score inherent risk, control effectiveness and residual risk.
• Design key risk indicators with thresholds, reporting frequency and management response actions.
• Perform deterministic stress tests and reverse stress tests using an insurance capital scenario worksheet.
• Interpret solvency capital, own funds, technical provisions and coverage ratio measures for management reporting.
• Prepare an ORSA-style risk, solvency and capital planning narrative for a board risk committee.
• Develop a risk mitigation and capital action plan linked to risk limits, scenarios and accountable owners.

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Risk Managers — who need to establish or strengthen insurer-wide risk appetite, monitoring and reporting.
• Insurance Finance Managers — who must connect capital planning, solvency metrics and financial reporting.
• Actuarial Analysts and Actuaries — who provide reserving, capital and stress-testing inputs to risk governance.
• Compliance and Internal Control Officers — who assess regulatory expectations, controls and escalation processes.
• Underwriting and Claims Managers — who need to understand how portfolio and reserve decisions affect solvency.
• Board Secretariat and Governance Professionals — who prepare risk committee materials and track management actions.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should be comfortable with basic insurance terminology, including premiums, claims, reserves, reinsurance, underwriting and investment income, and should understand simple financial statements. Familiarity with Excel formulas, tables and charts is assumed because exercises use spreadsheet-based risk and scenario analysis. Previous exposure to risk registers, actuarial reports, Solvency II or ORSA is helpful but not required. This is a foundation-to-intermediate course: complete beginners to insurance should first gain basic sector knowledge, but no prior capital modelling, programming, regulatory filing experience or specialist actuarial qualification is required.

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor-led modules to establish insurance risk and solvency concepts, followed by worked examples using a fictional composite insurer. Participants use Excel to assess exposures, score controls, calculate scenario impacts and create risk indicators. Small groups review underwriting, reserving and investment evidence, then present recommendations as a management risk committee. Each day closes with an applied activity that builds part of the final risk and solvency control pack. On day five, participants complete an application plan identifying the reports, owners, data sources and governance changes needed in their workplace.

Course outline

Day 1: Insurance risk governance and risk appetite

• Insurance risk taxonomy across life, general and composite insurers
• Three lines model and board risk governance responsibilities
• Risk appetite, risk capacity, tolerance and limit definitions
• Risk appetite statement design for underwriting and capital risks
• Risk ownership, delegation and escalation accountabilities
• Risk registers and risk event documentation standards
• Inherent risk, residual risk and control effectiveness scoring

Workshop: Participants build a risk taxonomy and draft a risk appetite statement with limits for a fictional insurer.

Day 2: Measuring and monitoring insurance risks

• Underwriting risk drivers, portfolio concentration and pricing adequacy
• Reserve risk, claims development uncertainty and actuarial assumptions
• Market risk, asset concentration and asset-liability mismatch
• Credit risk in reinsurers, intermediaries and investment counterparties
• Liquidity risk, claims cash flows and collateral demands
• Operational and conduct risk event assessment
• Key risk indicator design, thresholds and dashboard reporting

Workshop: Participants create a KRI dashboard and escalation protocol for emerging underwriting, reserve and liquidity pressures.

Day 3: Solvency, capital and financial resilience

• Technical provisions, best estimate liabilities and risk margin concepts
• Own funds classification and solvency coverage ratio interpretation
• Solvency Capital Requirement and Minimum Capital Requirement principles
• Standard formula versus internal model decision considerations
• Reinsurance effects on capital, volatility and counterparty exposure
• IFRS 17 links between insurance liabilities, profit emergence and risk information
• Capital planning assumptions, dividends and management actions

Workshop: Participants analyse a solvency coverage decline and prepare a capital action plan using a spreadsheet scenario.

Day 4: Stress testing, scenarios and ORSA

• Deterministic stress testing methodology and scenario parameter selection
• Reverse stress testing and business model failure points
• Combined scenarios for catastrophe, reserve deterioration and market losses
• Sensitivity analysis and interpretation of capital drivers
• ORSA purpose, scope, governance and annual cycle
• Forward-looking solvency assessment and multi-year capital projections
• Documentation standards for assumptions, limitations and expert judgement

Workshop: Participants run combined stress scenarios and draft an ORSA-style narrative explaining the resulting solvency outlook.

Day 5: Risk reporting, controls and management action

• Board risk committee reporting structure and decision-focused reporting
• Risk limit breaches, escalation routes and remediation tracking
• Risk and control self-assessment facilitation techniques
• Internal control testing evidence and assurance mapping
• Management information quality, data lineage and reconciliation controls
• Regulatory engagement and supervisory review preparation
• Integrated risk and solvency control operating model

Workshop: Participants present their completed risk and solvency control pack to a simulated risk committee and agree a workplace implementation plan.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Excel, Solvency II, Own Risk and Solvency Assessment (ORSA), IFRS 17

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions