Tag Archives: actuary

Actuary in 2010 (“the Future”)

I am getting old, some day, I will probably admit it. And I have been wondering, over the past months, if things have changed in the actuarial profession. And how. I have seen things changing in Europe, mainly due to Solvency II requirements, and I know that the ‘culture’ of actuarial studies is not the same in Europe and in North America (in Europe, as far as I know, student discover actuarial science in graduate programs, usually after a bachelor program in mathematics, or economics and business, with a strong quantitative background). But in North America, I had the feeling that actuarial studies are more ‘business’ than ‘mathematics’. So I wanted to get a better understanding of that feeling I had. When I was working on the associateship exams (while I was working as an actuary in Hong Kong), I remember reading the Loss Models, trying to get a better understanding of ruin theory and credibility concepts. But in the new edition, ruin theory has been removed, and I keep wondering when (in their studies) actuarial students in North America hear about solvency. I am still working on that, reading past syllabuses (or syllabi, I don’t understand what should be the plural) of the SOA preliminary exams.

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What is working as an actuary really like?

Just a short post to mention the page entitled “What is working as an actuary really like ?” on http://beanactuary.com/. I wanted to share that page with some students (even if it is quite incomplete) because I am always surprised when I hear that what we teach during lectures is too mathematical (or even to much based on computing skills). Practice can be much more complex than what we do in our courses (e.g. variable selection in ratemaking, integrating expert opinion in claims reserving, or hedging life insurance contracts with several complex financial options). If practitioners want to share their experience, comments are welcome… I just hope that some students will stop thinking that Barney Stinson is doing the job of an actuary… and that what we teach might – somehow – be useful someday…