Research-Post‐Wildfire Drinking Water Crisis: Implications and Opportunities for the Insurance Industry - POG Member

How does this role benefit the work of the organization and the profession? *

This role supports the research activities of the SOA Research Institute, providing actuaries with valuable up-to-the-minute data on Catastrophe & Climate related issues, enabling them to make more informed and accurate decisions.

Responsibilities & Duties *

The Project Oversight Group (“POG”) will oversee the Project and work closely with the research team to review the acceptability of Project deliverables. The POG will also provide feedback or suggestions as appropriate regarding the progressing research.

This research is to provide the actuarial community with a fundamental education about wildfire‐caused contaminated plumbing and recovery associated phenomena, health and financial impacts, help raise the awareness of this emerging issue within the insurance industry and prepare the industry for confronting it.
The report will serve as an important stepping‐stone for promoting future in‐ depth investigation in related domains conducted by actuaries. This research will synthesize the current knowledge about wildfire‐ caused plumbing contamination risks and provide commentary relevant to actuaries.
The report to investigate:
• The physical process for causing plumbing damage and contamination in the aftermath of a wildfire.
• The health impacts due to exposure to contaminated water.
• Measures for testing contaminated water.
• Possible intervention strategies under various contamination severity scenarios.
• Ranges of recovery costs and recovery times associated with different intervention strategies,
• Lessons learned from recent post‐wildfire plumbing contamination disasters, and the resulting (delayed) recovery timelines.
• Recommendations on what can be improved to avoid future disaster recovery delays, which may in turn lower the recovery cost for households and insurance companies.
• The possibility of employing actuarial knowledge to establish a quantitative framework for modeling wildfire‐caused plumbing contamination losses.

Time Commitment - Hours *

11 to 20 hours

Time Commitment - Description *

Most time will be spent reviewing project deliverables by e-mail. It is anticipated there will be 2-3 Conference Calls to get group feedback from the POG for the research team.

Experience Required - Designation *

Member, Non-Member or Candidate

Opportunity Location *

Non-Country Specific

Travel Required *

None

SOA Training Required *

None

Primary Area of Practice *

• Not Applicable

Specializations *

• Open to all Specializations