The Life of a NonLife Actuary Peter Copeman

1
The Life of a Non-Life ActuaryPeter Copeman

• Invicta Actuarial Society
• 2 December 2004

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Introduction

• Peter Copeman
• Member of the GI Board
• Chairman, GI Professional Standards Guidance
  Committee
• 5 years in Life Pensions 25 years in
  Non-Life/GI
• 19 years employed 11 years consulting
• Partner, Actuarial Insurance Management
  Solutions, PricewaterhouseCoopers

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Outline

• The evolution of non-life
• Role of the GI Actuary
• GI issues
• The future of non-life

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Developing UK GI actuarial market

• First GIRO Conference 1974
• approx. 25 participants
• GIRO Conference 2004
• approx. 400 participants
• Approx. 900 GI actuaries including trainees (10
  of UK actuarial market)
• But in US, Casualty Actuarial Society formed in
  1914
• Totally irrelevant statistic Actuaries are
  .0006 of worlds population

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What is General Insurance?

• Anything other than Life Pensions
• Wide scope-
• personal lines
• corporate
• reinsurance
• Channels-
• direct
• broker
• affinity group
• Types of business

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Characteristics of a GI actuarys role

• Very limited statutory roles
• Industry established before actuaries came along
  
• Little regulation (at the moment)
• Started in reserving, now moving to pricing and
  capital modelling
• Lots of things happen really quickly

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GI actuarial roles

• Reserving
• Pricing
• Reinsurance modelling
• Capital modelling/DFA
• Management information
• Mergers Acquisitions
• Transfers of Business
• Schemes of Arrangement
• Wider fields

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Challenges

• Still making our mark
• Dealing with uncertainty
• Communicating results
• No actuarial rule book
• Techniques still evolving
• Changing environment
• will the future follow the past?

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Characteristics of a successful GI actuary

• Practical
• Why?
• data not perfect and never will be
• things change
• timescales for action
• need to sell ourselves
• Obsessed with data
• Persuasive
• Good communicator
• Networks well
• Likes solving problems/research

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GI Market topical Issues

• New risk based solvency regime
• Regulation of GI intermediaries
• Solvency II
• International financial reporting standards
  (IFRS)
• The softening market
• EU gender discrimination
• Courts Act
• UK asbestos
• Compensation culture
• The Spitzer effect

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Issues for GI actuaries

• Criticism
• GRIT
• High demand
• Morris review

12
The future for GI actuaries

• Widening role
• Continued high demand
• Larger proportion of UK actuaries
• More litigation
• Enjoying their work!