Practice areas
Enterprise risk management
Finance and investment
General insurance
Health and care
Life insurance
Pensions
Finance and investment
Finance and investment actuaries work in many areas of work, including institutional investment, equity, bond, real estate and other investment. Investment today centres around the capital markets: that is, stock and bond markets, and currency, property and derivatives markets. Many actuaries are involved in day-to-day activity in these markets (on behalf of their clients or employers), whilst others advise on the longer-term characteristics and implications of different investment strategies.
General insurance
General insurance actuaries help provide expertise in three main areas:
Reserving (in reserving they apply statistical techniques to assess the likely outcome of general insurance liabilities, typically, and the provisions that are needed for reporting purposes)
Rating (the pricing actuary assesses the frequency and average amount of claims to estimate premiums)
Capital modelling (for capital modelling the actuary projects both the liability and assets of insurers to assess solvency and future capital needs).
General insurance or non-life insurance policies, including motor and household policies, provide payments depending on the loss from a particular financial event. General insurance typically comprises any insurance that is not determined to be life insurance. It is called property and casualty insurance in the U.S. and non-life insurance in Continental Europe.
In the UK, General insurance is broadly divided into two areas, personal lines and commercial lines.
Commercial lines products are usually designed for relatively large legal entities. These would include workers' comp (employers liability), public liability, product liability, commercial fleet and other general insurance products sold in a relatively standard fashion to many organisations. There are many companies that supply comprehensive commercial insurance packages for a wide range of different industries, including shops, restaurants and hotels.
Personal lines products are designed to be sold in large quantities. This would include motor insurance, household insurance, pet insurance, creditor insurance and others.
The London Market provides a focus for many insurance companies and syndicates operating under a Lloyd’s of London banner to write large commercial risks such as supermarkets, football players and other very specific risks. It consists of a number of insurers, reinsurers, [P&I Clubs], brokers and other companies that are typically physically located in the City of London. Business is typically written through specialist brokers. The London Market also participates in personal lines and commercial lines, domestic and foreign, and provides reinsurance.
The statistics on the changing profile of our membership tell us that around 30% of our general insurance members live and work outside the UK. As a result, the General Insurance Board is continually looking at what it can do to support our non UK members.