2026 CAS Canada Connection

Welcome, Celebration of Canadian New Members

Join us for a celebration of new Canadian CAS members!

Artificial Intelligence in Pricing

We will describe the different steps in the traditional pricing paradigm (analyze/monitor, decide, deploy), how AI can be practically used in each step, and its likely future impact. We will then give an overview of a conversation with Co-pilot about purchasing insurance, and discuss consequences for distribution and related areas.

Learning Objectives:

1. Explain the steps in the traditional pricing paradigm and how AI can be used practically in each step
2. Explain the likely future impact of AI on pricing work
3. Be aware of the consequences of AI on distribution and related areas

Speakers:

Benjamin Williams

Ben is a Senior Director at WTW. He specializes in predictive analytics and applications to pricing, underwriting, and claims, and has more than 20 years experience in the P&C insurance industry. As well as WTW, he has worked in his native New Zealand, for multinational insurers in Europe and for a US commercial lines insurer, where he led the analytics team. Ben has masters degrees in Mathematics from the Instituto Politecnico Nacional in Mexico and in Physics from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.

Jean-Francois Tremblay

Jean François joined WTW in June 2024 and is a Senior Director in the Insurance Consulting and Technology business. He brings more than 25 years of experience in the insurance industry, with a career centered on leveraging data, analytics, and technology to drive optimization, sophistication, and innovation—particularly in Pricing and Underwriting. He holds a degree in Actuarial Sciences from Laval University and is a Fellow of both the Casualty Actuarial Society (FCAS) and the Canadian Institute of Actuaries (FCIA).

Emerging Climate Risks in Canada

Canada's recent catastrophe record has P&C actuaries asking how far historical loss experience can guide pricing, reserving and capital as climate patterns shift. This session looks at how key Canadian perils are changing and how confident the science is for each. It then uses wildfire as a worked example, covering property exposure and liability. It also compares the modelling approaches available today, from catastrophe models to climate-adjusted views and climate model projections, including what each can and can't tell you. The session closes with how the tools apply to major Canadian infrastructure projects and what this means for pricing, risk transfer and capital decisions.

Learning objectives

1. Describe how climate change is expected to affect key Canadian perils, and how confident the science is for each.
2. Compare catastrophe models, climate-adjusted catastrophe models and climate model projections, including the limits of each.
3. Explain how wildfire hazard and loss analytics are built, and how they can apply to both property and liability exposures.
4. Apply forward-looking climate and natural hazard analytics to asset-level and project-level exposures to inform pricing, risk transfer and capital decisions.

Speakers:

Dave Bigelow

Dave Bigelow is a Vice President within Aon’s Climate Risk Advisory. He has worked with world-leading data and engineering firms, helping organizations understand their exposure by modelling future impacts to assets and operations. His work has been applied across sectors from power, mining and finance, to communities, buildings and the environment. He has also developed multiple innovative products, leveraging engineering expertise to operationalize climate analytics.

Turn the Page: from Tort to Care-based Reserving in Auto Insurance

What happens when a province fundamentally changes the way injured claimants are compensated? How should actuaries approach reserving when historical experience is no longer an adequate guide?

This session brings together perspectives from two Canadian insurers navigating long-duration injury claims in care-based environments. Khurram Masud from MPI will discuss how reserving for rehabilitation and income replacement benefits differs from traditional auto liability claims, highlighting the importance of claim duration and termination rates as key drivers of reserves when the largest claims can pay out over decades. Andrew Loach from ICBC will provide a case study on the transition from a tort-based system to Enhanced Care in British Columbia, discussing anticipated and unanticipated changes in claimant behaviour, reserving challenges and lessons learned during the first five years after implementation.

Attendees will gain practical insights into long-tail reserving methods, experience monitoring, and managing uncertainty during periods of significant system change.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the application of long-term reserving methods to auto injury claims.
2. Identify key elements of change to a care-based system.
3. Communicate on key sources of reserve uncertainty during insurance system reform.

Speakers:

Khurram Masud

Khurram Masud is Director, Valuation & Capital Management at Manitoba Public Insurance. He has almost 25 years of actuarial experience across property & casualty, life and health insurance in Canada, the Middle East, and South Asia. His areas of expertise include reserving, pricing, capital management, IFRS 17, risk management, and reinsurance.

Prior to joining MPI, he held actuarial leadership roles with consulting, insurance, and reinsurance organizations, supporting a broad range of valuation, pricing, capital, and regulatory initiatives. He is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, the Society of Actuaries, and the Canadian Institute of Actuaries.

Andrew Loach

Andrew Loach, FCAS, FCIA, is the Corporate Actuary for the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, with responsibility for establishing reserves for injury claims under both tort-based and care-based systems. He has over 20 years of experience in ratemaking and reserving for auto insurance.

Pricing the Shift : Alberta's move from BI to Accident Benefits Under Care-First

On January 1, 2027, Alberta will transition from a tort-based Bodily Injury (BI) system to a no-fault Accident Benefits (AB) model under the Care-First reform. For pricing teams, this is a complete reset: decades of BI loss history become largely irrelevant, requiring new AB coverages to be priced from scratch without Alberta-specific data. This ground-up exercise necessitates a shift in methodology. While carriers can benchmark against other no-fault provinces, differences in benefit design mean these references cannot be copied directly. A credibility-based approach, such as Lasso Credibility, is essential to blend external priors and expert judgment with emerging data. Success will require a faster pricing cadence than the industry standard; carriers must move away from annual reviews toward real-time portfolio monitoring to detect early signals in utilization and segment divergence before they impact the bottom line. 

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the structural shift from tort-based BI to no-fault AB pricing.
2. Apply credibility-based approaches to blend external benchmarks with emerging data.
3. Design a portfolio monitoring strategy adapted to a high-uncertainty environment.

Speakers:

Kamela Taleb

Kamela Taleb joined Akur8 as an Actuarial Data Scientist in 2025. Over the past nine years, Kamela has held actuarial and pricing roles across a wide range of business lines, including commercial, cyber, natural catastrophe, auto, and construction. At AXA, one of France’s leading insurers, she experienced firsthand Akur8’s strong added value. There, she contributed to developing a new auto pricing structure and strategy using advanced modeling techniques such as GLMs and GBMs, driving greater pricing sophistication and optimization.

Model Risk Management in the Age of Generative AI: One P&C Insurer’s Approach

The increasing availability of AI-based technology introduces new opportunities and new risks for P&C insurers, creating the need to balance the two through a commitment to responsible use of AI. The risks associated with use of AI within a financial institution have been recognized through regulation, including OSFI’s Model Risk Management Guideline (E-23). This presentation will highlight core aspects of Definity’s approach to managing AI model risk, and discuss what it takes, from a practical, hands-on perspective, to put regulatory guidelines into practice and enable effective use of AI. Concrete examples of AI applications, supporting functions such as customer service and claims intake, will illustrate how we assess a model’s suitability for its business purpose. Actuaries have played an essential role as members of cross-functional teams working on AI initiatives and governance, and the presentation will describe how actuarial perspectives have added value to these efforts.

Learning Objectives:

1. Propose model risk mitigation approaches that align with the risk level of a Generative AI use case.
2. Identify Standards of Practice that are relevant for an actuary making recommendations related to use of an AI model.
3. Propose metrics to evaluate an AI model’s suitability for a business use case.

Speakers:

Craig Sloss

Craig Sloss (he / him) is an Enterprise Analytics Consultant at Definity Financial Corporation, where he has been a member of the Advanced Analytics team since 2014. Craig’s role involves providing technical guidance on model development, validation, and governance to data scientists and actuaries who work on predictive models supporting fraud detection, claims management, underwriting operations, and customer service interactions. He has been a major contributor to Definity’s policies and practices around responsible use of AI, at both the first and second lines of defense, and has played a leading role in Definity’s efforts to operationalize bias and fairness testing for predictive models. Craig actively supports initiatives to advance the actuarial profession, in roles such as Volunteer Chair of the CAS Canada Race and Insurance Pricing Task Force, and as Vice Chair of the CIA Property & Casualty Practice Committee.

Expanding Your Influence: A Conversation with Industry Leaders

What does it take to turn actuarial expertise into lasting influence? Join CAS members who are industry leaders for a candid discussion about career growth, leadership, and the opportunities ahead for CAS members in Canada and beyond.

Panelists will share lessons from career progression and professional development the led them to where they are today. Leave with practical ideas to build your professional and leadership skills and make a greater impact in your career.

Learning Objectives:

1. Explore ways to build professional and leadership skills.
2. Identify tools and strategies to support career growth and advancement.

Speakers:

Barry Franklin

Barry Franklin is a risk management and insurance executive with more than 40 years of experience in a variety of actuarial and risk management leadership roles. He founded Upstate Actuarial LLC, a boutique risk management and actuarial consulting firm, after retiring as Chief Actuary for Zurich North America.

Barry is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society, a Chartered Enterprise Risk Analyst, and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries. He has been active in actuarial profession leadership, having served on the CAS Board of Directors and Executive Council, as well as numerous CAS committees and task forces. In November, Barry will conclude his term as CAS President and begin his term as Chairperson of the CAS Board of Directors. Barry holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Northern Illinois University, with a major in Probability and Statistics and a minor in Economics.

Erika Schurr

Jonathan Frost

Jonathan Frost is the Senior Vice President and Chief Underwriting Officer of Munich Reinsurance Company of Canada (MROC). In this role, Jonathan is part of the MROC Senior Leadership Team, providing underwriting strategy to the group and overseeing the operation of all underwriting departments. Previous to this role, Jonathan was the Vice President of Property Treaty Underwriting responsible for the execution of the strategic direction of the portfolio with expertise in technical pricing, modelling and underwriting.

Jonathan has over 20 years of experience in the insurance and (re-) insurance industry holding previous roles at Guy Carpenter as the Head of Analytics in Canada and Royal and SunAlliance in the actuarial pricing and valuation teams.

Jonathan is Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society and the Canadian Institute of Actuaries.