Insurance Risk Management Training Course

Duration 10 days 20 modules · 65 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Risk Managers, Actuarial Analysts and others
Fee from USD 2,200 KSh 190,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-RM-042

Before you join: Participants should understand insurance products, underwriting, claims, reserving or insurance finance at a working level.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Insurance risk managers must connect underwriting, reserving, investment, operational and conduct risks to capital, liquidity and solvency decisions. Weak links between risk data, actuarial assumptions, controls and management reporting can result in inadequate capital buffers, delayed regulatory action or risk appetite statements that do not influence business decisions. This course addresses the practical work required to identify, measure, control and report material insurance risks.

Participants examine insurance enterprise risk management, solvency assessment and capital planning through the life of an insurer. The course covers risk governance, risk appetite, underwriting and claims risk, reserving uncertainty, market and credit risk, liquidity risk, operational resilience, reinsurance, asset-liability management and emerging risks. Participants use ISO 31000 principles, Own Risk and Solvency Assessment methods, Solvency II concepts and IFRS 17 risk disclosures to produce decision-ready risk information.

Teaching combines concise instructor briefings with insurance cases, group analysis, reporting simulations and structured work on each participant's insurer or a supplied case company. Participants progressively build a risk register, risk appetite statement, solvency assessment, stress-testing pack and board report. The final capstone brings these components together into a complete insurance risk and solvency control pack.

The course suits professionals who already understand core insurance operations and need to take greater responsibility for risk, finance, actuarial, compliance or internal audit decisions. It is relevant to life, general, health and composite insurers, reinsurers, captives, regulators and insurance groups.

What you will be able to do

  • Construct an insurance risk universe and scored risk register using ISO 31000 criteria
  • Draft a risk appetite statement with limits, triggers, tolerances and escalation actions
  • Assess underwriting, reserving, market, credit, liquidity and operational risk exposures
  • Perform an Own Risk and Solvency Assessment using baseline and stress scenarios
  • Interpret solvency capital requirements, available own funds and capital quality
  • Evaluate reinsurance structures, counterparty exposure and risk transfer effectiveness
  • Produce board-level risk reports using key risk indicators and early-warning thresholds
  • Present an integrated insurance risk and solvency control pack for management review

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Produce risk appetite metrics that connect underwriting decisions to capital limits
  • Interpret solvency reports and challenge assumptions behind capital and reserve movements
  • Build credible stress scenarios for management, regulators and board risk committees
  • Assess reinsurance programmes beyond premium cost and retention selection
  • Present insurance risk exposures using concise board-level reporting formats

For your organisation

  • Improves consistency between risk appetite, business planning and capital management
  • Strengthens evidence for ORSA, regulatory reviews and internal audit testing
  • Identifies concentration, liquidity and reserve risks before capital pressure escalates
  • Improves challenge of underwriting, reinsurance and investment risk decisions
  • Creates reusable reporting structures for risk committees and board oversight

Course modules

20 modules over 10 days

Participants can explain how insurance risk management supports solvency, capital decisions and policyholder protection.

  • Insurance balance-sheet structure: assets, liabilities, capital and policyholder obligations
  • Risk, uncertainty and volatility distinguished within insurance management decisions
  • Three-lines model roles for business, risk and internal audit
  • Solvency objectives linked to policyholder protection and business continuity
  • Board responsibilities for risk governance, capital oversight and challenge
  • Regulatory expectations for documented risk management and solvency assessment

Participants can design clear insurance risk governance roles, committees and escalation arrangements.

  • Risk governance framework defining authorities, committees, reporting and escalation
  • Board risk committee mandates, meeting agendas and decision records
  • Chief risk officer independence, access and challenge responsibilities
  • Risk ownership assigned through accountable executives and control owners
  • Delegated authorities aligned with underwriting, investment and claims limits
  • Risk culture indicators covering incentives, challenge, reporting and conduct

Participants can create a material insurance risk universe and prioritised risk register.

  • Risk taxonomy covering insurance, market, credit, liquidity and operational categories
  • Risk identification workshops using process maps and loss-event evidence
  • Materiality criteria based on capital, earnings, liquidity and reputation
  • Inherent and residual risk ratings using defined scoring scales
  • Risk register fields for causes, events, impacts, controls and owners
  • Aggregation analysis identifying correlated, concentrated and interconnected risk exposures

Participants can draft a risk appetite statement with measurable limits and escalation triggers.

  • Risk appetite statement structure: objectives, metrics, limits and governance
  • Quantitative tolerances for solvency ratio, earnings and liquidity coverage
  • Qualitative appetite statements for conduct, model and reputational risks
  • Key risk indicators linked to thresholds, owners and reporting frequency
  • Limit hierarchy from board appetite to operational underwriting authorities
  • Breach escalation procedures specifying action, approval and closure evidence

Participants can assess underwriting and pricing risks against portfolio profitability and capital needs.

  • Loss ratio, expense ratio and combined ratio interpretation
  • Pricing adequacy assessed through expected loss, expenses and target return
  • Underwriting cycle effects on rates, terms and portfolio quality
  • Accumulation controls for catastrophe, geographic and industry concentrations
  • Portfolio segmentation using exposure, claims history and risk characteristics
  • Rate-monitoring dashboards identifying adverse selection and pricing deterioration

Participants can identify reserve uncertainty drivers and assess controls over claims and liabilities.

  • Claims development patterns analysed through paid and incurred triangles
  • Chain-ladder method assumptions and sources of reserve uncertainty
  • Bornhuetter-Ferguson method applied where development history remains immature
  • Case reserve adequacy tested against settlement trends and complexity
  • Large-loss and catastrophe claims separated from attritional claim experience
  • Reserve governance covering actuarial review, challenge and management actions

Participants can evaluate reinsurance arrangements for protection, cost, counterparty and basis risks.

  • Treaty and facultative reinsurance structures matched to portfolio exposures
  • Quota-share, surplus and excess-of-loss cover compared for risk transfer
  • Retention selection assessed against capital, earnings and liquidity capacity
  • Reinstatement provisions and aggregate limits tested under catastrophe scenarios
  • Reinsurer credit quality reviewed using ratings, collateral and concentrations
  • Basis risk identified between underlying losses and reinsurance recoveries

Participants can assess investment exposures and their effects on insurer capital and earnings.

  • Interest-rate risk measured through duration, convexity and repricing gaps
  • Equity risk assessed through market shocks and concentration limits
  • Currency exposures mapped across assets, liabilities and reinsurance recoverables
  • Spread risk evaluated for corporate bonds and sovereign debt holdings
  • Investment mandates translated into limits, benchmarks and breach reporting
  • Asset valuation controls covering pricing sources, liquidity and impairments

Participants can measure insurance counterparty exposures and define proportionate credit controls.

  • Counterparty exposure mapping for reinsurers, brokers, banks and intermediaries
  • Probability of default, loss given default and exposure concepts
  • Credit limits set using ratings, collateral and exposure concentrations
  • Reinsurance recoverable ageing monitored for collection and dispute risk
  • Wrong-way risk identified between counterparty failure and insurance losses
  • Counterparty watchlists supported by triggers, reviews and escalation actions

Participants can prepare liquidity risk assessments for normal and stressed insurance cash flows.

  • Liquidity sources and uses mapped across premiums, claims and investments
  • Cash-flow forecasting built from claims, expenses, premiums and maturities
  • Liquidity coverage ratios calculated under defined operating assumptions
  • Stressed outflows modelled for catastrophes, lapses and collateral calls
  • Liquid asset classifications tested for saleability and market depth
  • Contingency funding plans define actions, authority and communication routes

Participants can assess asset-liability mismatches and propose suitable management responses.

  • Asset-liability management objectives linked to cash flows and solvency
  • Duration matching applied to interest-sensitive liabilities and fixed-income assets
  • Cash-flow matching identifies timing gaps across projected benefit payments
  • Yield-curve shocks tested against asset values and liability valuations
  • Matching adjustment concepts considered within applicable solvency regimes
  • ALM committee reporting connects investment strategy, liabilities and capital

Participants can assess operational risk scenarios and improve key insurance control activities.

  • Operational risk taxonomy covering people, process, systems and external events
  • Risk and control self-assessment documents causes, controls and residual exposure
  • Loss-event data classified by event type, amount and business process
  • Key control indicators monitor exceptions, backlogs and control failures
  • Segregation-of-duties controls tested across claims, payments and investments
  • Control remediation plans assign milestones, evidence and accountable owners

Participants can assess cyber, data and technology risks affecting insurance operations and solvency.

  • Cyber risk scenarios quantify business interruption, recovery and claims impacts
  • Information asset classification supports proportionate access and protection controls
  • Data-quality dimensions assess completeness, accuracy, timeliness and consistency
  • Model input controls identify source errors and unauthorised adjustments
  • Third-party technology risk assessed through due diligence and service reporting
  • Cyber incident response plans define decisions, notifications and recovery priorities

Participants can assess conduct and compliance risks arising from insurance products and distribution.

  • Conduct risk mapped across product design, sales, claims and complaints
  • Product governance controls test target-market fit and customer outcomes
  • Treating-customers-fairly principles translated into measurable management information
  • Anti-money-laundering controls address customer screening and suspicious activity reporting
  • Compliance monitoring plans prioritise regulatory obligations and control testing
  • Complaint root-cause analysis identifies systemic product and process failures

Participants can structure an Own Risk and Solvency Assessment linked to business planning.

  • ORSA scope connects strategy, risk profile, capital and liquidity
  • Forward-looking assessment projects solvency across the business planning horizon
  • Baseline scenarios incorporate planned growth, pricing and investment assumptions
  • Management actions documented with timing, feasibility and capital effects
  • ORSA governance defines challenge, approval, documentation and board sign-off
  • ORSA reports communicate material risks, scenarios and solvency conclusions

Participants can interpret solvency capital measures and assess the quality of available capital.

  • Solvency capital requirement distinguishes required capital from accounting equity
  • Minimum capital requirement identifies regulatory intervention and recovery thresholds
  • Own funds classified by permanence, subordination and loss-absorbency characteristics
  • Standard formula modules cover market, underwriting, credit and operational risks
  • Internal model governance addresses validation, change control and use
  • Capital coverage ratios tracked against appetite, triggers and management buffers

Participants can design and interpret stress tests for solvency, liquidity and earnings resilience.

  • Sensitivity analysis isolates effects of single assumption movements
  • Scenario analysis combines correlated underwriting, market and operational shocks
  • Reverse stress testing identifies events that threaten business viability
  • Catastrophe scenarios incorporate gross loss, reinsurance and reinstatement effects
  • Management actions assessed for credibility, timing and secondary consequences
  • Stress-test results translated into capital, liquidity and recovery decisions

Participants can produce risk reports that support board oversight and timely management action.

  • Risk dashboards present exposure, trends, limits, breaches and management actions
  • Board reports distinguish decision-useful messages from supporting technical detail
  • Key risk indicators reported with thresholds, ownership and trend commentary
  • Risk acceptance records document rationale, duration and approval authority
  • Internal audit assurance evaluates governance, controls and reporting reliability
  • Regulatory reporting calendars align submissions, review milestones and accountable owners

Participants can connect IFRS 17 reporting information to insurance risk, profitability and capital analysis.

  • IFRS 17 insurance contract groups defined by profitability and cohorts
  • Risk adjustment reflects compensation required for non-financial insurance risk
  • Contractual service margin movements interpreted alongside expected future profit
  • Loss component recognition identifies onerous groups and emerging deterioration
  • Discount-rate assumptions affect liability measurement and earnings volatility
  • IFRS 17 disclosures connected to risk reporting and management commentary

Participants can build, review and present a complete insurance risk and solvency control pack for board decision-making.

  • Risk register prioritises material exposures, controls, owners and treatment actions
  • Risk appetite statement sets limits, triggers and escalation responsibilities
  • ORSA assessment integrates business plan, capital forecast and scenarios
  • Stress-testing pack quantifies solvency, liquidity and earnings impacts
  • Board risk report summarises decisions, breaches, trends and recommended actions
  • Management presentation defends assumptions, conclusions and proposed control improvements

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Insurance risk universe and scored risk register template
  2. Risk appetite statement and key risk indicator library
  3. Own Risk and Solvency Assessment planning model
  4. Solvency and liquidity stress-testing scenario pack
  5. Reinsurance counterparty and risk-transfer review checklist
  6. Board insurance risk and solvency report template

Who should attend

  • Risk Managers — need structured methods for insurance risk identification, reporting and control
  • Actuarial Analysts — connect reserve, pricing and capital assumptions to enterprise risk decisions
  • Finance Managers — assess solvency, capital planning, liquidity and IFRS 17 risk disclosures
  • Compliance Officers — monitor regulatory risk requirements, governance evidence and escalation processes
  • Internal Auditors — test risk management design, control effectiveness and board reporting
  • Underwriting and Claims Managers — link operational decisions to risk appetite and capital consumption

Skills and tools covered

Insurance risk assessmentSolvency capital planningRisk appetite designORSA scenario analysisReinsurance risk transferBoard risk reporting

Tools and standards

ISO 31000, Own Risk and Solvency Assessment, Solvency II, IFRS 17

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings followed by insurance cases, facilitated group work, spreadsheet-based scenario analysis and reporting simulations. Participants examine realistic issues such as reserve deterioration, catastrophe losses, reinsurer default, asset value falls and liquidity strain. Each module adds a practical component to an insurance risk and solvency control pack. Facilitators provide structured feedback on assumptions, calculations, risk ratings, controls and management reporting. Time is reserved for application planning against participants' own business units or a supplied insurer case.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should understand insurance products, underwriting, claims, reserving or insurance finance at a working level. Experience in an insurer, reinsurer, broker, captive, regulator or insurance advisory role is expected. Familiarity with financial statements, basic probability concepts and spreadsheet calculations is helpful. Participants do not need to be qualified actuaries, accountants or risk specialists. Prior knowledge of Solvency II, IFRS 17, capital models or Own Risk and Solvency Assessment reporting is not required; these are introduced and applied during the course.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

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

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants need working familiarity with insurance operations, insurance finance, underwriting, claims, actuarial work or risk management. No actuarial qualification or prior Solvency II, ORSA or IFRS 17 training is required.

Bring a laptop for spreadsheet and case work, plus any non-confidential risk appetite statements, risk reports or policy documents relevant to your role. Participants may use supplied insurer cases where workplace material cannot be shared.

It is designed for risk, actuarial, finance, compliance, internal audit, underwriting and claims professionals in insurers and reinsurers. It also suits regulators, captives and advisers who review insurance risk and solvency arrangements.

General risk management courses focus on organisation-wide risk concepts and governance. This course applies those methods to insurance liabilities, reserving, reinsurance, solvency capital, liquidity, asset-liability management and insurance regulation.

Participants leave with practical formats for risk registers, appetite metrics, ORSA planning, stress testing and board reporting. These can be adapted to current underwriting, capital planning, audit or regulatory reporting cycles.

Training runs from 08:30 to 16:30 each day, with about 6.5 contact hours. The first week establishes governance, core risk categories and appetite; the second week develops solvency assessment, stress testing, reporting and the final control-pack presentation.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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