MIB, Scor Re and Hannover Re providing a buffet breakfast and coffee breaks, as well as anniver - sary cakes and musical intermissions for the special milestones. They added a very special touch to our meetings. The 2024 20 th Anniversary Meeting was held in connection with the AHOU Annual Conference in Boston, MA. It was attended by Senior and Chief Un - derwriters, not only from the US, but from Australia, Panama, Spain, Bermuda and Mexico. Jorge Hernández of American Fidelity was the Chair of the 2024 Meeting. The topics for discussion were previously suggested by the members and then dis- cussed during the meeting. Among the most relevant, the issue of still using a COVID questionnaire attached to the applications for insurance, electronic or otherwise. The consensus was that only a question related to having been hospital- ized in the past was important to keep. There was another issue that was seen by only a few companies, where Russian nationals were purchas- ing insurance in Argentina. A couple of years ago, the Argentine police carried out raids as part of an investigation into a “million-dollar illicit network” that provided pregnant Russian women and their partners fake documents, issued in record time, to al- low them to settle in Argentina. Some of those women and their partners tried to obtain life insurance with US carriers as Foreign Nationals. On the Financial side, the accuracy of tax returns and financial statements from Latin American clients was also discussed. Many times, these documents are not truly reflecting the real financial position of the proposed insureds. Many of them have much higher wealth than they declare. That is why Inspection Reports by companies on the ground or operating in the region can provide a better understanding of the reality, when the face amounts warrant the confiden - tial third-party verification. The group also discussed the challenges of obtain- ing medical records in the Latin American markets,
something that has not improved over the years. Lack of digitalization in doctors’ offices is still requiring the insurance agent to visit the physician with a form to be completed or a PDF form to be sent to the at - tending doctor to be completed and submitted to the insurance company. A very similar situation exists with the Medical Exam and Laboratory tests. With the withdrawal of large US labs because of difficulties shipping kits to and from different countries, local country legislation protect - ing local labs, and heavy regulation on the shipping of human fluids, international insurers rely on local laboratories to perform the tests. But most of those labs are clinical labs and don’t have all the reagents or equipment for insurance specific tests, such as NT- proBNP, cotinine and others. Large labs at hospitals are not practical for the industry because clients have to make appointments to go and take extra time out of their daily work schedule, when insurance examin- ers and lab techs can draw the blood and collect the specimen at their home or place of business. Finally, the subject of Artificial Intelligence and Ac - celerated Underwriting was brought up. At the mo - ment, none of the underwriters attending were using those for their current international business. For Accelerated Underwriting, a lot of data is required, which is still not readily available in those markets, especially Latin America. Elections for the 2024/2025 elections took place before the end of the meeting. Luiz Medeiros of American Fidelity was elected Chair of the 2025 IUSG meeting, which will take place in Anaheim, CA, in connection with the AHOU Conference. At the conclusion, because of the 4 th Milestone anni - versary, Certificates of Appreciation were presented to the four Past Chairs: • Sandra Prado
• Jorge Hernández • Dr. Eduardo Mora • Bill Tilford (absent)
We are all looking forward to the next meeting in California.
ON THE RISK vol.40 n.3 (2024)
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