In RMI 640, Management of the Insurance Enterprise, we worked on an insurance company simulation. It was a great part of the course for me. Throughout the semester, we learned how insurance companies – the underwriting, marketing, rating, financial analysis and regulatory – operate. The simulation was a great part of the course, bringing all the topics together.
Our class was organized into student teams that competed against each other utilizing the interactive simulation model. The teams participated in multiple rounds, making decisions on actuarial rates, underwriting selectivity, agent compensation, and reinsurance coverage. Giving us the feeling of running an actual insurance company and having to complete and make decisions on a multitude of factors, the simulation was challenging and fun. The team that created the greatest economic value was the winner.
Working with my teammates was one of the best parts of the simulation. Each person was responsible for managing a different insurance operational area – rates, underwriting, marketing, and reinsurance. Even though every department had its own separate responsibilities, we shared the same goal, and the company only succeeded when we worked as a coordinated team. Before every round, we had a meeting to talk through our choices, learn from each other’s experiences, and adjust our strategy. Seeing how others approached their responsibilities taught me a lot because everyone had different ideas and skillsets, and combining them helped us to understand the simulation better.
We started with a strategy and then began to adapt the simulations with reactive management to proactive underwriting. We have realized that every decision affected the results in different ways due to indirect effects and delayed impacts. After each round, we learned more about the game, which helped us understand how external conditions and competitors could change the environment.
By the end of the simulation, even though the final ranking didn’t matter much, we were proud that our company had the highest total economic value among the groups. But learning the process itself mattered more for me. It didn’t feel like a typical homework assignment–it was more like a game, both fun and eye-opening.
The simulation showed how complex the insurance operations are and how important the decision-making process is. Everything is interconnected, and every decision can have unexpected results because of the outside factors. In real life, the operations are even more complex, but seeing a simple, small version of that gave me a better understanding of how insurance companies function. Overall, this simulation game helped me connect course topics to real-world practice and learn from others’ perspectives.
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