2026 Reinsurance Call Paper Program on Improvements and Standardization in Reinsurance Pricing

In the highly uncertain world of reinsurance modeling, where data is often sparse at best, actuaries seem to have an endless catalog of imperfect modeling options to choose from, and the industry rarely converges on standard approaches to the key practical and theoretical challenges that persist. The Casualty Actuarial Society’s (CAS) Reinsurance Working Group is issuing a Call for Papers on improvements and standardization in reinsurance pricing to publish clear, practical, and accessible papers for actuaries, with supporting synthetic/generative case studies being of particular interest.

Proposals should be submitted by February 09, 2026.

The submissions should utilize open-source software. Examples of potential topics include:

1.      Novel Solutions to Challenges in Experience Rating

• How should we adjust experience rating for limit drift? Practical research building on or complementing the work of Mata and Verheyen; Desmedt, Snoussi, Chenut and Walhin; and others would be valuable.
• How should we trend aggregate losses to excess of loss layers? And how should we trend losses to excess/umbrella policies with varying (and sometimes unknown) self-insured retentions (SIRs), when “near-miss” losses below the SIRs are unknown? Practical research building on or complementing the work of Keatinge, Amstislavskiy, and others would be valuable.
• How should we select loss development factors (LDFs) in the absence of credible data, especially for excess of loss layers? Practical research building on or complementing the work of Pinto and Gogol, Korn, and others would be valuable.
• How should we select and implement rate changes in the absence of credible data – e.g., when rate changes do not appropriately allow for both new and renewal business? And how could market/benchmark indices be used to complement such data?
• How should we handle “signal reserves” in claims data? And how does this challenge interact with related challenges like selecting trend factors and LDFs?

2.      Novel Solutions to General Modeling Challenges

• How should we parameterize loss volatility in various circumstances to allow for all sources of uncertainty? While loss volatility for a large Line of Business’s (LoB) Gross Ultimate Loss Ratio might be relatively easy to parameterize and sensitivity-test, how should we parameterize loss volatility for large claims excess of some threshold, and how could market/benchmark data be used? Practical research building on or complementing the work of the Joint Risk Management Research Committee, Venter and Sahasrabuddhe, Mackay and Otto, and others would be valuable.
• Correlation, Common Shocks, and Contagions: How should we model the relations between Business Units, LoBs, Regions, and other modeled loss components in various circumstances, including for large claims excess of some threshold? Practical research building on or complementing the work of Meyers, Li and Ferrera, and many others would be valuable.
• Collateralized reinsurance pricing: A practical deep-dive into pricing methods and assumptions, including comparisons with traditional reinsurance pricing, would be valuable.

3.      Practical Tools or Guidelines to Drive Standardization

• Data guidelines: A survey and/or broadly applicable guidelines on data requirements for reinsurance pricing would be valuable, especially for reinsurance deals that currently lack standardization – the IUA Motor Data Questionnaire and the IOFA-CAS Property Per Risk Study are good examples to build on or complement.
• Model templates: A practical Excel or R-based model for reinsurance pricing would be valuable, especially for reinsurance deals that currently lack standardization – the CAS DFA Dynamo model is an example to build on or complement.

The Reinsurance Working Group will review papers for acceptance based on the following criteria:

• Idea originality.
• Clear concept presentation.
• Thoroughness of ideas.
• Timeliness, relevance, and applicability of research.
• Contribution to reinsurance literature.

Proposals related to any reinsurance-related matters are welcome. Both members and non-members of the CAS are invited to submit proposals.

Authors should focus on presenting ideas in a logical manner accessible to readers with experience in reinsurance. To aid research adoption, the CAS encourages researchers whose work product involves coding to place the final work product’s code and data in the CAS’s GitHub repository, https://github.com/casact, under the MPL2.0 license. 

Authors should avoid promoting specific commercially available tools or products. Instead, authors should emphasize open-source solutions, tools, and techniques.

Accepted papers will be published in the CAS E-Forum, and authors of accepted papers may be invited to present at the 2026 Reinsurance Seminar from May 31-June 2, 2026. In addition, a prize fund of $15,000 has been established for papers that make a particularly strong contribution to reinsurance literature.

Review of Papers

Each author whose proposal is accepted will be assigned two or three members of the Reinsurance Working Group who will serve as reviewers. Reviewers will read drafts, give feedback, and assist authors who work toward producing a final draft. The review process helps authors submit final papers acceptable for publication in the E-Forum. If a paper presents interesting concepts but is not appropriate for the E-Forum, reviewers will help the author find a more suitable medium for publication.

Awards

All papers submitted and accepted in response to the call and meeting the minimum standards to be established by the Reinsurance Working Group will be eligible for a cash prize. Awards from the prize fund will be granted at the sole discretion of the Reinsurance Working Group.

Timetable

1. Deadline for Proposals
   By February 9, 2026, authors should submit a one- to two-page proposal including the paper title, a short description of the topic(s) to be addressed, the approach to be taken, and a survey of existing actuarial literature on the subject (title and abstract of a maximum of the five most relevant papers). Proposals should be emailed to Heather Davis, Research Manager, and Elizabeth Smith, Director of Publications and Research, with “2026 Reinsurance Call Paper Program Proposal” in the subject line of the message.

2. Acceptance of Proposals
   The Reinsurance Working Group will decide whether to accept or reject each proposal. The number of accepted proposals may be limited. Authors will be contacted by February 23, 2026, regarding their proposals.

A review team will be assigned to work with each author whose proposal is accepted.

3. Monitoring Progress
   The author and review team will establish a mutually agreeable schedule to produce interim drafts. By March 23, 2026, a first draft of the completed paper (including an abstract of no more than 200 words) should be submitted to the review team. 

A draft version of the companion practical tool, if any, should also be submitted at that time. Each paper will be screened by the review team to assure its quality of exposition, relevance to the call and to reinsurance research, and adherence to requirements described below. The review team may require rewriting of the paper to bring it to an acceptable standard. 

Note: Authors are no longer required to format papers in a specific template, but submissions must include the following:

• • A final electronic file of the paper in Microsoft Word or LaTeX. 
  • An accompanying pdf of the final paper.
  • Separate files for figures in JPEG or PNG format in at least 300 dpi.
  • Supplementary attachments/datasets (R files, .xls, etc.).
  • An executive summary of 1-2 pages that will help the CAS create a promotional brief or social media post. The summary should include a mention of the research gap being filled, the research question, a brief description of the methodology, the results, and—most importantly—the relevance of the results and the way forward.

Authors should be prepared to provide any supporting documentation granting permission for the use of any proprietary or copyrighted material used in the paper. Permissions documentation must also be included if the author is not the copyright holder of the paper (i.e., the author’s employer owns copyright to the work). See the E-Forum Submission Guidelines for complete information.

4. Comments on First Draft and Invitation to Present
   By April 6, 2026, the review team will send comments on the first draft to the authors and select authors to invite to present at the Reinsurance Seminar on May 31-June 2 in Philadelphia, PA.

5. Second Draft
   By April 20, 2026, the Reinsurance Working Group must receive the second draft of the completed paper (and tools, if any) for review.

6. Approving the Completed Paper
   By May 4, 2026, all authors will be notified as to the acceptability of their second drafts and will be asked to submit the final papers by May 18, 2026, to allow the Reinsurance Working Group to determine the prize-winning paper.  

Once the Reinsurance Working Group approves the manuscript, authors must upload their paper electronically in the Scholar One system for publication in E-Forum. The E-Forum Working Group will review the manuscript, provide feedback for additional revision as necessary, and then accepted papers will be published in the CAS E-Forum electronic journal.

The Reinsurance Working Group may reject papers that are submitted late, do not align with the accepted proposal, do not incorporate material suggestions from the review team, or contain deficiencies in clarity, substance, style, or grammar.

7. Presenting the Paper
   Authors may be invited to present their papers at the 2026 CAS Reinsurance Seminar held May 31-June 2, 2026 in Philadelphia, PA.

8. Submission Guidelines
   Papers should be no more than 10,000 words and should be prepared in accordance with the procedures in the E-Forum Submission Guidelines.  

Authors will be required to upload an electronic copy of the paper and will be asked to sign the "Permission to Publish" form, which formally grants the CAS permission to publish the paper.

The Reinsurance Working Group looks forward to receiving proposals in response to the call and is happy to respond to inquiries from interested parties. Questions may be addressed to CAS Research Manager Heather Davis. Your participation will contribute to the written body of knowledge of the CAS and to the success of the 2026 Reinsurance Call Paper Program.

About the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS)

The CAS was organized in 1914 as a professional society for the promotion of actuarial and statistical science as applied to insurance other than life insurance, such as automobile, liability other than automobile, workers compensation, fire, homeowners, commercial multiple peril, and others. Such promotion is accomplished by communication with those affected by insurance, presentation and discussion of papers, attendance at seminars and workshops, collection of a library, research, and other means. The membership of the CAS includes over 11,000 actuaries worldwide, employed by insurance companies, industry advisory organizations, national brokers, accounting firms, educational institutions, state insurance departments, the federal government, and independent consultants.

The Reinsurance Working Group promotes research in property and casualty ceded and assumed reinsurance. The group identifies research areas for exploration and supports the development of requests for proposals and calls for papers. Group members choose proposals that will advance the field and then collaborate with authors to develop and promote compelling and innovative papers.

About the CAS Reinsurance Working Group

The Reinsurance Working Group promotes research in property and casualty ceded and assumed reinsurance. The group identifies research areas for exploration and supports the development of requests for proposals and calls for papers. Group members choose proposals that will advance the field and then collaborate with authors to develop and promote compelling and innovative papers.