Tackling insurance challenges single-handedly
As a business expansion actuary at TAL, Claire Greenwell has almost single-handedly tackled the retail reinsurance sector challenges head-on during a period of unprecedented change in the retail life insurance market and one which occurred at a faster rate than anyone anticipated.
According to TAL general manager, value and profitability, Joseph Daley, Greenwell’s drive to achieve a better outcome for customers even when there was no end in sight is testament to her commitment to ensuring customers are treated fairly.
“Insurers and reinsurers have different views regarding the risk, with losers being the customers. To drive a better customer outcome, Claire has worked hard to share insight and information to create alignment between insurers and reinsurers, connecting everyone,” Daley said.
“Claire has had to build new capability to better understand our business and experience to enable the right negotiations with reinsurers. In recent time, Claire has progressed from analyst to taking a lead role in negotiating key reinsurance terms to create simpler more aligned solutions for TAL.”
Greenwell said retail reinsurance is a small market with limited opportunities in life insurance and retail reinsurance, with various challenges in market profitability.
“I think what was really important was saying why TAL is different, why we’re a valuable partner, what the reinsurer could get out of the partnership with TAL, and moving away from just those traditional reinsurance partnerships to true joint partners, and being more involved in what we offer to customers rather than sitting in the background and just taking on that additional risk,” she said.
Greenwell has worked as an actuary at TAL for the past four years and during this time she has taken the lead on key projects, including creating a new international group reinsurance function in partnership with Dai-ichi Life, and reconciling TAL’s pricing valuation systems.
Greenwell is also passionate about education and provides support at TAL to those who are interested in actuarial studies, saying TAL has been ramping up its education drive in the last two years.
“I also do a lot of support internally just with the graduates and students that are here, helping to support them get through their exams, running through their tutorial. So that’s something that is really important to me and I want to continue doing that throughout my whole career,” she said.
Family First Financial’s Celeste Dally was a nominee in the rising star category, who established her business in 2015 to empower the working class and help low income earners break out of a vicious cycle of unhealthy and sometimes dangerous habits. Judges praised her for her hard work, which is producing “amazing outcomes”.
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