My Actuarial Working Life

When involving in system implementation (policy administration system) related work, I always encounter queries raised in administrating claim processes related to waiver of premium ("WOP") benefit. When WOP feature is triggered by a covered event (either death, TPD or critical illness), the benefit will be paid over long period (which may stretch for many years). This makes a systematic WOP claim process more important so that the inflow and outgo related to WOP benefit can be managed properly. What is WOP benefit? Briefly, when WOP feature is triggered by a covered event (either payor or insured), all future payments for premium after event date are "waived" - this doesn't mean the affected policy no longer receiving premiums. More accurately, although no payment is required for this policy, this policy still receives premiums - just the premiums come from different sources. This policy is expected to work as normal without any hiccup, for example, an inves...

This morning when I went through parts of my actuarial study notes on modeling, I came across this statement: " The modeling process often has a demanding deadline and a temptation could arise to accept the results from the model without performing a rigorous validation process. It is imperative that sufficient time be allotted to validating the model and subsequently reconciling the model results to emerging results. " This statement has rightfully highlighted the importance of validating & reconciliation exercises during modeling process - in fact, this statement is also true for other actuarial works as well as system implementation. Theoretically, we know that we should allocate adequate amount of time & resources to check/validate the model/process we have built up and reconcile the results the model/process has produced. Unfortunately, in real life, not many of us do what the statement has suggested in practice. "We have to forego vigorous checking ...

"Mr. P is now having some hard time dealing with policy data... Last time he just used the data which were already cleaned up and formatted by Mr. C. Anyway, this is good for him." Ms. L told me so during our coversation when we had lunch together yesterday. She is my ex actuarial colleague who I have known for ten years (and she is now a "mom-to-be"!) "Yup, this is definitely a good thing for him to learn. Now he can get to the real picture of policy admin system." I agreed with Ms. Lee. Mr. P is my ex-colleague as well, however he is a few years junior than us. "Actually almost all companies have some extents of system issues." "Yes, I agree. I think that most problems because the persons who setup system do not have enough knowledge on how the business should work." After dealing with several policy admin systems at different insurance/takaful companies, I find out that lack of business knowledge is the key reason causing m...