Actuarial Things: Excess Mortality, Colo(u)ring Book, An Actuarial Career

It's a busy life! ...and it's what you make of it

The following is aimed at those in the actuarial profession, but also those in the life and health insurance industry:

Did you miss our live session in August?  We invite you to attend virtually this Thursday, September 21, 2023 at Noon ET.
 
           Excess Mortality:  A Peek Under the Iceberg

Everyone is attentively watching the current excess mortality and morbidity crisis unfolding.  We think it's just the tip of the iceberg. Discover the iceberg of health problems underlying the elevated death and disability we see playing out in the bottom line. Find out more about creative non-controversial solutions the insurance industry can take to proactively address persisting excess mortality.
 
This session is free to attend.  

It is sponsored by the Insurance Collaboration to Save Lives, a Texas non-profit formed by insurance executives to assist life insurers in addressing the current mortality issues faced in America and around the world.  Our vision is for the life insurance industry to band together and save a million lives.  We think it’s possible.  It’s profitable.  And it’s the right thing to do.
 
We believe this presentation falls into the Organized Activity category for Continuing Education purposes for U.S. actuaries.
 
Register on Linked In 

https://www.linkedin.com/events/icslopenindustrypresentation-ap7105542863802822657/comments/ 

Sign up now to learn more about the collaborative or to join the mission: https://www.insurancecollaborationtosavelives.org/contact

I will be one of the presenters — and here are a few of the graphs from the presentation:

A day in the actuarial life…

Actuarial Tutor aka John Lee has an Actuarial Colo(u)ring book on offer:

Being a successful actuary...

I got my physical copy yesterday! Check it out! I would have to say my favorite page is that of dating yourself by the version of Excel you first remember….

Actuarial Podcast: Launching your Actuarial Career

Here I am talking with Chris Smith at the Actuary of the Future at the Society of Actuaries:

There’s some tips for people at all levels of the actuarial career.

Some perspective - from 2011 and now

I have brought this up from time to time, but because actuaries are a type of quintessential back office job, every so often actuaries get a bit disconnected from what they do and the human world. They get a bit depressed.

I found something I wrote back in 2011 about the situation: Life in the back office.

Actuaries tend to be very far removed from the beneficiaries of their work. We sit in cubicles, staring at computer screens. We wrangle with crap data. We have legacy spreadsheets we are trying to tame into something that gives us sane answers. We have proprietary database systems that create new bugs after 20 years of operation.... yay.

It can be a very isolating job. Many people find it very boring. The barrier to entry of the exams is rather high -- I've taught exam seminars and tried to help people with their frustrations of having to sit the same exams multiple times (and even tried helping people on exams I didn't teach). Then many people see that the math and concepts on the exams are way beyond what they have to implement at work, and don't see the intellectual challenge.

It’s kind of long, and it is about how no, it’s not a bullshit job. It’s worth doing well, and it does contribute to society. (Usually)

But I find it amusing that this is how I ended:

So no, we're not saving lives. The people we help don't know our names (and we don't necessarily know theirs....but a big part of my job is checking over claims files. And that can get depressing.) And we won't be remembered long after we retire. But we do have some impact on people.

Well, I do hope the current side project does help save lives (inasmuch it pushes the day of death off a little farther.) I wasn’t expecting that, and it was okay.

But it does help to step back and think about things from time to time. They also serve who only stand and wait.