Insurance has enabled each major socioeconomic transition over the last 600 years, whether underwriting shipping in the early days of international trade, to the introduction of machines, to advances in healthcare to capital infrastructure development. In the same way and at a much smaller scale, it allows entrepreneurs to secure loans, households to survive the accidental loss of a critical asset like a house or car, and manufacturers to retool and shift production.

While each situation is a unique risk profile, there are four broad approaches to managing commercial risks. These range from the prescriptive practice most commonly associated with FMGlobal, to the incentivized actions such as FireSmart and Home Improvement, to generalized advice on risk and resilience such as the BOMA Canada guide, to a fully integrated corporate risk management regime. Assessing the risks for underwriting will follow either a quality assurance or quality control approach.

In this course, students will: Learn the risk transfer process and how it's applied to underwriting, credit enhancement and transition planning; Explore each approach to commercial risk management; Learn how an insurer can understand the risks involved and their financial transfer in an insured-insurer partnership; Learn an evidenced first principles approach known as risk-based assessment (RBA) and how to apply it; Examine the RBA process in greater detail, including its use of primary data collection using open sources through to the interpretation of physical and transition risks; Explore the effects of climate and technological change over successive risk horizons; Learn compliance requirements concerning climate risk and ESG reporting standards; and Learn how to adapt and apply RBA to transition planning, risk strategy development, and equity projection parameters.