Conning's FIRM Portfolio Analyzer wins the ALM solution of the year category for the breadth of its offering and continuous improvements, which are helping insurers perform better in the challenging and volatile economic environment.

The software employs a modular approach, allowing users to pick individual tools or build a full ALM system. For example, one tool is FIRM's Allocation Optimizer, which models how each potential investment strategy would impact an insurance company's earnings, balance sheet and solvency position across tens of thousands of stochastic scenarios.

Conning's agile approach to development results in updates being released to clients every few weeks. In the case of the GEMS Economic Scenario Generator – which provides the stochastic returns and economic variables which are used within ALM analysis – recent developments include the ability to correlate equity returns with interest rates, and improvements to the recalibration tool allowing users to reparameterise GEMS economic models to fit their internal capital market assumptions.

Other highlights from the last 12 months include introducing a neural network approach for modelling liabilities sensitive to portfolio return and/or inflation.

According to Conning, fitting of liabilities to a neural network model is superior to approaches such as LSMC or other proxy models, due to the speed of fitting the model, accuracy of the fit and faster model run times.

Conning also released a focused implementation of FIRM, branded as the Portfolio Value-at-Risk tool, which allows users to calculate the value at risk of their investment holdings. This SaaS tool removes some of the complexities in the full version of FIRM and uses the cloud to deliver analysis in just a couple of minutes.

Client testimonials speak of exceptional service, a broad range of solutions that can be employed in a modular fashion, ease-of-use and high-quality validation and documentation.

Mark Saunders, director at Conning, says: "We are pleased to be recognised by InsuranceERM's judging panel for our dedication to providing innovative ALM and SAA systems that support our clients through these volatile economic times."