Regular readers of this blog might recall some previous posts of mine on the role of the Appointed Actuary. APRA had asked the Industry and the Actuarial profession for views on how the role of the Appointed Actuary should change, given difficulties in recruiting (particularly in life insurance) and a perceivedContinue Reading
Today’s book review is Superforecasting: The art and science of Prediction, by Philip E Tetlock and Dan Gardner. When I explain my work as an actuary to people not involved in finance, I explain that I work out how much money the insurance company needs to set aside from the premiumsContinue Reading
Late last year, there was a flurry of mainstream interest in mortality statistics – here is the New York Times reporting on a study by two economists (Ann Case and Angus Deaton) The paper: documents a marked increase in the all-cause mortality of middle-aged white non-Hispanic men and women in the United StatesContinue Reading
Lately there have been an increasing number of shark attacks off the NSW coast. I’m increasingly having a conversation with friends about why the number of sharks is increasing. But are there more sharks? Or just more shark attacks? First on the shark attacks. In 2015 we have had a hugeContinue Reading
In June 1958, under Alf Pollard’s leadership, Australia’s first commercial computer was installed in the MLC buildings in North Sydney. MLC was (and still is) one of Australia’s biggest life insurers. The computer weighed five tonnes, had a room of its own, cost £160,000 and took 20 million times longerContinue Reading
Last year, after a spate of cycling deaths, I posted about the riskiness of cycling in Sydney. I concluded that cycling Sydney’s streets is actually safer than it was 20 years ago. Since then, I’ve gone back to a regular commute – I’m cycling to work two or three timesContinue Reading
I’ve blogged about the role of the Appointed Actuary before – here and here. My own view has been that we need to positively define the role of the Appointed Actuary, and that, at least in life insurance, it should be closer to the first line of defence (ie managing theContinue Reading
On Wednesday this week (22 April), I am part of a panel discussion on ICAAP – comparing and contrasting the experience across the banking, life and general insurance industries. I’m representing life insurance. This post summarises the points from my introduction. I’ll come back and update with any interesting pointsContinue Reading
On Thursday, the FSC and the AFA released the Trowbridge report. John Trowbridge was appointed as chair of a Life Insurance and Advice working group to review the misaligned incentives identified in ASIC’s damning report from last year. The group was asked to make recommendations on how the industry can respondContinue Reading
Every quarter (since June 2008), APRA summarises various financial statistics from the life insurance industry in a quarterly report. Every quarter, I read it eagerly, to see if it answers the question that I am often asked, “how will we know if the life insurance cycle has turned?”. The total industryContinue Reading