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What do actuaries do on a normal day?

I've looked up definitions of what actuaries do, but I don't know exactly what they do day by day. I just want to get a feel of how it is socially, and ALL that they do, not just a a definition that I don't exactly understand on some website. #actuary #math

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Andy’s Answer

Generally actuaries are problem solving in various venues on a normal day. The balance of problems solving, science and finance with other individual is what make my day enjoyable.

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Jeff’s Answer

As other noted above, there is a wide variety of roles an actuary can take. For example, you could be involved in setting rates (premium to charge) to policyholders, analyzing reinsurance (basically insurance for your company's insurance policies), reserving (how much $ to hold to pay for claim development). Many companies will have a rotational program when you start at entry level to give you a taste of each specialty.

For pricing, a common description could be looking at experience and trends of past company claim history, industry information, and expectation of future claim activity to set rates that are appropriate for new business being written.

For reserving, a common description could be looking at the data on how much money has been paid at certain points in the development of claims and how much that changes in a given accident year (google claim triangles if you want a fuller explanation, there are numerous pdf's that will give lots of details). Basically you want to project how much money you will need to end up paying for losses that have already happened. For example, let's say at this point any claims that happened in accident year 2020 (so maybe hurricane caused losses in September 2020) have now had $100 paid out. However as losses come in and more people file claims, this total claim payment from this 2020 loss event will eventually end up requiring higher payout (maybe $150). You have to estimate the total ultimate payout amounts so you can be ready and have appropriate money held to pay these.
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Mariana’s Answer

It usually has something to do with a model designed to answer "what if" questions about some $$$ aspect of insurance business - how much to charge your customers, how much to keep on hands to make sure you can fulfill the promises you made to your customers, what's the worst that could happen, etc. You either build that model, run that model or scratch your head trying to explain what came out of that model.

Thank you comment icon Thank you so much! This is exactly the answer I’ve been looking for! Aubrey
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