How do insurance companies invest the premiums they receive? How do you predict future claims to be paid out to policyholders? How can an accountant help someone make money? Have you ever had to deal with theft or unethical behavior in the workplace?

These are a sampling of the questions submitted by Accounting 2301 students on March 31 to Laura Hinson, President and CEO of QBE US Agencies, Inc, an Australian-owned insurance company operating in the US. Ms. Hinson is the former CFO of QBE of the Americans and Winterthur US. QBE of the Americans is a $4 billion insurance company with operations in the US and Latin America. Winterthur US is a $1.6 billion Swiss-owned insurance company operating in the US. Ms. Hinson is the sister of adjunct associate professor, Elizabeth Ponder, instructor of the Financial Accounting Principles class at ACC Cypress Creek.

Ms. Hinson explained several accounting issues relating to the insurance industry. She shared that most of the assets of insurance companies are investments in the stock and bond markets; insurance companies have seen income earned from their investments decline significantly in the recent stock market adjustments and lower interest rates. She also described the complications of estimating future claims liabilities for the insurance industry, an issue related to the students’ study of accounting for contingent liabilities.