7.1 Introduction

WC high deductible reserving with occurrence and/or aggregate deductible

  • Reserving for layers XS of a per occ limit and/or aggregate limit

The rest of this section is not important for exam but just background information on high deductible WC program

High deductible WC became popular in the 90’s and actuarial efforts focused on pricing issues

Program was developed to provide both insurer and insured many advantages:

  1. Achieving pricing flexibility while passing additional risk to larger insureds in what was considered at the time an unprofitable LoB

  2. Ameliorating onerous residual market charges and premium taxes in some states

  3. Realizing cash flow advantages similar to paid loss retro

  4. providing insureds with another vehicle to control losses while protecting them against random large losses

  5. Allowing self-insurance without submitting insureds to sometimes demanding state requirements

After the program matures, the focus shifts to issues on the liability side

  1. How to estimate these liabilities when losses are not expected to emerge above deductible limits for many years

  2. How to construct development factors in the absence of long-term histories under a deductible program

  3. How to determine development patterns that reflect the diversity of deductible size and mix

  4. How to determine consistent development factors between limited and XS values

  5. What is a reasonable approach for the indexing of deductible limits over time

  6. How to estimate the liability associated with aggregate loss limits

  7. Is there a sound way to determine the proper asset value for associated service revenue

    • Similar to loss conversion factor in retro rating, loss multipliers are applied to deductible losses to capture expenses that vary with loss