The Actuarial Society

Actuary is a profession most people associate with the insurance and risk industry, while it is true that most actuaries work in the insurance sector many of them are branching out into niche fields like finance, gambling, weather forecasting and even sports analytics! With a keen analytical mind and good set of interpersonal skills, actuaries are an asset to any domain that relies on data analytics and risk management. The sports industry is experiencing a boom, with greater use of technology and better data driven analysis it’s now easier for the average viewer to get a view of how their favorite team or player performs in real time. This is also attracting new viewership and fans. With the ever-increasing popularity of sports, data analytics in the field has garnered more interest. Data in sports is used for simple things like match statistics to complex calculations that involve determination of a player's match performance and future potential. An actuary’s skill set would ena

Whenever we hear the term Actuarial Science, our first thought is insurance. This is because actuaries have been employed in the insurance domain since the 1700s and majority of them still work at insurance companies. While most traditional actuarial practices revolve around mortality analysis of life insurance, these processes can also be applied to property, motor, liability and other forms of non-life insurance. However, the main question still remains, what exactly it is that they do in the insurance sector? Let’s find out. Risk accompanies every human activity. An expert in risk estimation is an actuary. Actuaries evaluate financial risks in the insurance and finance fields, using mathematical and statistical methods. They apply the mathematics of probability and statistics to define, analyze, and solve the financial implications of uncertain future events. In order to stay in business, insurance companies need a way to access risk and quantify it before writing a new insurance p

  Have you ever wondered how many people must gather in a room in order for you to find your birthday twin? Probability theory says it's merely 23. Yes! There is a 50% chance (50.73% to be precise) that at least 2 individuals out of 23  will share their birthday. Move the party to a bigger room to accommodate 75 people and you will find out that there is a 99% chance that at least 2 people will share their birthday!  As strange as it sounds, it is in fact true. How do we get it? Let's take an example to understand this better. Assume two friends, Rahul and Anjali. The probability of Rahul and Anjali having different birthdays is 364/365, i.e, around 99.7%! Add Tina to the group and the probability of all of them having unique birthdays falls down to 363/365. Aman joins the group and the probability of an unrepeated birthday is further reduced  to 362/365. We continue doing this till we reach the 23rd person. The probability of the 23 individuals having a unique birthday is 343/

What is Insurtech?  The Insurtech domain recently marked its first decade on the calendar yet masses don’t have the slightest idea how impactful the field is. Short for Insurance technology - Insurtech is a very vast field of ever-evolving technologies used by insurance companies for increased efficiency and accuracy.  The domain makes use of multiple modern-day fields like Big Data and Artificial Intelligence. Insurance companies are increasing their expenditure towards Insurtech every year with the hope to maximize profits.     Need and capabilities of Insurtech  Insurtech, inspired by Fintech, was originally developed to meet the customers’ demand for digitization. Later companies adopted the idea because of the reciprocated benefits. Underwriters assess risk based on the individual’s history, as well as other factors that are deemed, important predictors. Companies have started automating the process of underwriting using Machine Learning. Companies have used patterns and previous

  Progress is impossible without change”- George Bernard Shaw The actuarial profession hasn’t always been the same.  However, throughout history, ​  actuaries have been involved in a variety of work not restricted to the insurance sector. Actuaries have worked in insurance, banking, finance, enterprise risk management and even casinos. The profession has gone through revolutionary changes since the 1980s owing to the union of actuarial models with financial theory and the advent of the Internet and high-speed computers.   The Roots of Modern Actuarial Science-   The insurance market in London existed by 1500, mainly for marine insurance. While the earliest life insurance policy was issued in 1583, there is no well known documentation of any actuarial table used during that period. Actuarial science was formally introduced to the world in 1693 when Edmond Halley published the First Life Table and described the method of using such a table to calculate the price of a life annuity. Edmond

  We’ve all heard how Actuarial Science is the perfect career choice for math-geeks and we’ve all spotted it on the list of high paying jobs. But, have you ever wondered what brought this profession to life? How was the probability theory developed and how it was instrumental in the creation of Actuarial Science? In this article we seek to answer these questions and learn more about the roots of this noble profession. An actuary uses mathematical and statistical principles to estimate the financial impact of uncertainty and help clients minimize risk.  Owing to this, the contribution of Actuaries to the insurance fields has been commendable, however, actuarial techniques now, are not only limited to the insurance domain but they are constantly seeking new grounds in wider fields. Insurance dates back to Ancient times The risk of dying too soon with meagre savings (covered by life insurers) or conversely the risk of living too long after retirement and exhausting your savings (covered b

Actuarial Science is a profession that’s shrouded in a lot of mystery. Even though actuaries have been around for hundreds of years now, all but a few people know what an actuary actually is and what the job entails. To put it simply, actuaries are professionals that gauge future risk using extensive mathematical and statistical methods. For example, you and your friend are betting on your favorite IPL team with ₹20,000 as your initial bet; your friend tells you that he’ll pay you ₹1,00,000 if your team wins this season but in return gets to keep the initial amount of ₹20,000 if your team ends up losing. Is this bet worth it? What is the probability of your team winning the league? Is ₹20,000 a fair amount for the returns you might get? If not, what is a price for you to pay in order to minimize the losses you’ll incur in case your team doesn’t win. These are the kind of questions that an actuary answers on a daily basis. Human beings have been reasonably successful in developing means