PLA.NET

PLA.NET is a standard software package for your asset liability management for life, health and property / casualty insurances. A broad range of questions can be addressed by PLA.NET in the areas of asset management, controlling, risk management, accounting and actuarial operations.

The functionalities of the two industry-specific ALM systms, ALM.IT and SERA, have been transferred to PLA.NET for property / casualty insurers.

Scope of Service and Areas of Application of PLA.NET
  • Evaluation and optimization of asset allocation
  • Assessment of long-term strategies and derivatives hedging
  • Assessment of new asset classes
  • Execution of ALM analyses in line with the Bulletin 4/2011
  • Determination of measures of risk in connection with risk management
  • Solvency II, self-analysis and management
  • Solvency II, generation of selected input data for the industry simulation model (for example, cash flows)
  • Liquidity planning
  • Market Consistent Embedded Value
  • International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) – quantitative data preparation and analyses
  • Product development: the influence of new products on the solvency capital
  • Evaluation and optimization of the reinsurance structures in property / casualty insurance
  • Ability to answer actuarial questions in areas such as: assessment of long-term guarantees, costs of the additional interest reserve (ZZR) (life insurance), reduction of actuarial interest due to the AUZ (health insurance) and development of the loss reserves (property / casualty insurance)

PLA.NET results are the stochastic development of the capital investments, the income statement, the balance sheet, the RfB and numerous other key figures. These other key figures include, for example, net and market value return, AUZ, solvability ratio, cost ratios, combined ratio, earnings indicators for the profit test, ROE, IRR etc.

These valuations not only follow the HGB (German GAAP), but are also carried out from an economical perspective.

Structure


PLA.NET includes the following components:

Capital Market Model
PLA.NET contains an Economic Scenario Generator (ESG) that enables the required capital market scenarios for all common asset classes, including an inflation rate, to be generated. In addition to real-world scenarios, risk-neutral scenarios can also be generated. The latter fulfill all requirements in the context of Solvency II to be able to assess actuarial provisions and to create a solvency balance sheet.

One’s own capital market scenarios, scenarios from ROKOCO Predictive Analytics GmbH or even those from a third-party provider can also be input and used.
Asset Model
The assets are currently depicted in more than 20 different asset classes. These range from various fixed income securities (incl. callable bonds, annuities, etc.), stocks, real-estate, private equity and several special funds, to hedging instruments such as put options, swaps, swaptions and swaption bonds. Major advantages of PLA.NET are its simple expandability to allow for new asset classes and its comfortable importing interface to asset management and controlling systems.
Liability Model
The future projections of the liabilities are made on the basis of a company’s own rate structure and specific accounting principles, as well as assumptions about new business. The individual tariffs are conveniently displayed using a library of tariff classes. ROKOCO provides this for common tariffs similarly for both life and health insurances. The predefined tariff classes are adapted to a company’s specifications. Additionally, new tariff classes can be defined freely and the respective tariffs can be set using parameters.

Projection takes into account the specifics of the German insurance Supervisory Authority in, for example, the following ways:
  • The Minimum Allocation Decree in life insurance (MindZV)
  • Premium adjustments in health insurance, taking limiting measures into consideration, including calculation of the triggering factors
  • Rules for the use of the provision for RfB-resources
  • Direct credit
  • Etc.
Compression
Deterministic calculations for millions of contracts can be easily processed.

For stochastic calculations, it is advisable to compress and focus the portfolio to allow for a smooth projection without performance issues and that gives high-quality calculation results.

Using clustering methods or a Latin hyper-cube, we can help you achieve an optimal compression of the liabilities.

Compression of the assets can be made, for example, by rating classes and maturities, but is not mandatory.
Management Model
The simulation can be controlled by numerous management rules. These rules connect the calculations of the assets and liabilities sides and align the modeled company. The numerous management rules are parameterized and are thus easily adaptable to different and company-specific circumstances.
Analyses
All individual items from the balance sheet, statutory accident insurance, investment development, key figures, etc. can be instantaneously displayed graphically or easily transferred to Excel.

In stochastic simulations, in addition to consideration of the usual expected values, results for each individual scenario can also be considered. Further, value at risk, tail value at risk, expected shortfall, shortfall probabilities or even entire distributions can be determined.

Technology and Support

Using state-of-the-art software technology such as the .NET Framework and techniques such as multi-threading and clustering enables us to achieve a future-proof, rapid and cost-effective implementation of the requirements at hand. Because the programs are more stable and are high in performance, not only is user-comfort increased, but also the ability to work intuitively.

All data, parameters and results are securely stored in a database secure for revision and can be traced at any time.
ROKOCO escorts each licensee in the implementation of PLA.NET, comprehensively directing them through the system and collectively making necessary adaptations for any individual requirements. A user manual and a help system are provided, which ease handling of the system.

There is customer support for all users of PLA.NET during regular business hours (a “hotline“). The possibility to exchange experiences is provided by way of a yearly user conference, where further developments of PLA.NET are discussed.

Summary

PLA.NET is a modern software tool for asset liability management in the areas of life, health and property / casualty insurances, taking into account all relevant technical specifications for these industries. Because of its modular design, custom adjustments can easily be made to accomodate a company’s individual needs.
Usage of PLA.NET offers the following advantages:
  • Comfortable definition of products
  • Rapid achievement of initial results
  • Convenient analysis possibilities
  • Flexible visualization of the results
  • Transparency of the results – no black box
  • Possibility of successive development, including self-initiated developments (for example, in the case of new tariffs)
  • Secure storage of data, parameters and results in a database for revision
  • Possibility to be used on existing systems, for example with an existing liability model