Reframing risk: Financial fluency for risk and insurance professionals

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The focus of the boardroom is largely financial. Many Airmic members work in publicly listed or private equity owned organisations where success is assessed through financial lenses such as equity valuation, access to debt, credit ratings and capital efficiency. These measures dominate board discussions and shape how CEOs, CFOs and executive teams evaluate performance, resilience and strategy. 

In these environments, value is not debated in abstract terms. It is understood through cash flow, balance sheet strength, volatility, leverage and returns. Risk and insurance only meaningfully enter those conversations when they can be linked to those outcomes. 

Financial fluency, in this context, is not about technical finance expertise. It is about translation: the ability to explain how risk and insurance decisions protect cash flows, preserve capital, reduce volatility and support sustainable value creation. Without that translation, even good risk and insurance decisions struggle to gain traction at senior level. 

This insight was the starting point for this research project, undertaken jointly by Airmic and CNA Hardy. From the outset, the guiding principle was simple: this research would be designed first and foremost to be of practical value to Airmic members. Rather than restating familiar ideas, it seeks to answer a difficult but useful question: how risk and insurance professionals can more clearly demonstrate the value of what they do, in the language senior decision makers already use.