New Competence Partner Cominia: What to expect next

About Cominia
Comina specializes in actuarial services. The company excels through a unique combination of outstanding expertise and a comprehensive understanding of the insurance industry. Thanks to its highly competent team of actuarial consultants, clients receive customized and effective solutions quickly, also in particularly challenging project situations and changing market conditions.

About Björn Medeke, Managing Director and Principal Consultant
Björn Medeke is a doer and mathematician in one. With his analytical way of thinking and ability to communicate complex actuarial concepts in an easily understandable way, he has established himself in the German market as a successful professional and expert in actuarial consultancy. His CV includes more than 20 years of professional experience – most of it in management and leading functions – both with insurance companies and actuarial consulting firms. He has led the German unit of a major global actuarial consultancy and was head of consulting at a leading software provider for insurance companies. For the mathematician and actuary with a doctorate, co-founding and taking over the management of Cominia is not just another step in his professional career, but a passion.

Björn Medeke manages Cominia's operations and sales.

Dr Medeke, please give us a brief description of Cominia’s areas of activity.

Cominia is an actuarial consultancy that started operations in April 2023. With 45 permanent, highly qualified actuaries currently on our staff, we focus primarily on portfolio-related actuarial services.

Our areas of activity include portfolio analyses, portfolio adjustments and portfolio migrations. We also offer business process consulting, product development, actuarial testing, accounting and actuarial software development.

Cominia’s expertise also extends to project management and interim management in actuarial projects and general actuarial fields. In addition, we are active in risk management and support key functions such as the actuarial function.

With our broad range of services, we are a competent and reliable partner for our clients.

Looking back on the past nine months: What have been your highlights, how has the company developed?

The past nine months have been very exciting for Cominia. After an intensive preparation phase, we were delighted when we were finally able to go into operations in April 2023.

From the start, we were overwhelmed by the interest the market showed in our company and our services. We are proud to report that we have already acquired 10 customers and 15 projects in this short period. Our activities are primarily focused on the German market, but we have also acquired our first projects in Belgium and Austria.

It is also worth noting that we are already active in various sectors in Germany. We work for life insurance companies, pension funds, health insurance companies and property/casualty insurers. This broad positioning enables us to serve a diverse range of customers and to cater to their individual needs.

Another highlight is our great team of highly qualified employees who perform an outstanding job for our customers. Without their commitment and expertise, we would not be where we are today. Together, we have managed to successfully establish our company on the market in a short space of time.

Overall, we can be very proud of Cominia's development over the past nine months. The positive start, the overwhelming interest in the market, the successful acquisition of customers and projects and our dedicated team prove that we are on the right track.

The Cominia team brings with it many years of actuarial expertise from various segments of the insurance and financial markets. What challenges do you expect we will be confronted with in 2024? 

The situation certainly varies from company to company, so there is no general answer to this question. However, here are some possible topics that can be expected:

• Replacing legacy systems: As technology advances and the insurance industry's requirements change, modernizing IT infrastructure is essential. Legacy systems often no longer meet current requirements and it is important to choose a new core system that is flexible, scalable and technologically up to date. The replacement of legacy systems and the migration of insurance portfolios will continue to be a critical task for businesses.
• Digitalization and technology: The insurance market is becoming increasingly digitalized and is investing in technological innovations such as artificial intelligence and big data analysis to improve customer service and enable more efficient processes.
• Product innovations and personalized insurance solutions: Customers increasingly expect customized insurance products  that meet their individual needs and life situations. Insurance companies will therefore increasingly develop innovative and flexible insurance products that are tailored to specific customer requirements. In the field of pension provision, it is also important to ensure the attractiveness of products compared to traditional bank products, even in the current market environment with rising interest rates.  
• Regulatory requirements and compliance: The insurance sector is subject to many regulatory provisions and compliance requirements. These are expected to continue to increase in the future and pose challenges for the industry. Insurers will have to focus increasingly on implementing these regulations and ensuring compliance.
• Sustainability and environmental protection: In view of the growing importance of climate change and the environmental protection agenda, sustainability aspects are becoming increasingly relevant. Insurance companies will increasingly develop sustainable insurance products and strategies to combat climate change. Sustainability reporting will be of particular importance.

Cominia can contribute its expertise in all these areas and support the insurance industry.

How will you position your company in this environment? What objectives will Cominia pursue within the current year?

As a company, we will position ourselves as one of the leading providers of actuarial services in the German market. An important point here is that we can support our customers with experienced and well-coordinated teams of the right size and composition of specialist profiles to suit the respective project phase. Thereby, we highly value quality, efficiency and customer focus.

We are especially proud to be able to play a key role in another life migration project for a large insurance group with a larger team of experts from the start of 2024. This demonstrates our customers' trust in our competence and expertise.

We will also continue to expand our activities in risk management and actuarial consulting for health insurance companies and pension funds. In addition, we will grow our workforce to ensure that we can adequately meet increasing demand.

Thus, recruiting highly experienced consultants who are an ideal fit for our corporate culture will be an important task for us this year. Only by having a strong and competent team we will be in a position to offer our customers the best possible support.

Overall, we aim to further expand our position as an established provider of actuarial services and inspire our customers with the best solutions and excellent service. We are confident that our planned steps will enable us to achieve our goals in 2024.