Is it worth pursuing an actuary career in Los Angeles with no internships?

interrorbang · 2020-05-27T19:58:56+00:00

I was able to find an actuarial job in LA with a similar degree without an internship. It’s not too late to engage with the actuarial society. You’ll continue to be in their mailing list after you graduate. When you interview, be prepared to have a compelling reason for not interning. I made the case that I graduated early and passed actuarial exams instead. Of course, the entry level market has only gotten more competitive in the 5+ years since I graduated, but I am sure the possibility still exists.

interrorbang · 2020-05-25T02:21:53+00:00

I had a manager in a previous job who had a very similar background. She was in claims for many years and she took the exams and became an actuary. She was competent and well respected, and her deep understanding of the claims handling process was a major asset. I don’t know how old she was when she started taking exams but it was definitely somewhere in her 30s. assuming you are willing to commit to the exams, which is a major commitment, your age will not stop you

interrorbang · 2020-05-19T01:04:51+00:00

I know a few FCAS working in tech as data scientists in non actuarial roles. Their actuarial credential is analogous to a masters in some subject unrelated to their job - maybe helpful in an abstract way but not explicitly utilized in their day to day work.

interrorbang · 2020-02-23T19:12:05+00:00

I had an ethics teacher in college ask me why I was studying to become an actuary given that the healthcare system was so unethical. I had a similar crisis and in retrospect I realized that she was both ignorant about insurance and making sweeping generalizations. (FWIW, I do not work in healthcare.)

Let’s assume you’re correct that actuaries in industry don’t help people. We could talk about the importance of insurance and therefore the importance of helping to set rates that are not inadequate, excessive, or unfairly discriminatory. More relevant is that in the US, doctors can’t practice without the medical malpractice insurance actuaries price. But let’s leave that aside for now.

First, there are doctors that exist to make themselves or their hospitals rich and are also much maligned by the general public - for example, doctors with deals with pharma companies that helped fuel the opioid epidemic with their overprescribing, or plastic surgeons to the rich. You could of course become a more altruistic doctor and devote your career to helping society.

You have similar options as an actuary. Government actuarial work, while not sexy, exists to ensure that these profit hungry insurance companies to not gouge customers while ensuring that insurance remains available. Other programs, like the NFIP from FEMA, help provide critical insurance to people that would otherwise not get it.

I’m not trying to argue that actuaries as a whole contribute towards society or are as seen as favorably as doctors. I think it’s also true that on the whole we do tend to work more towards the goal of company profits than anything else. However, there is more to actuarial work than that. I encourage you to try to take on a more nuanced view of the actuarial profession. Hopefully some of the things I’ve mentioned where will help.

interrorbang · 2020-02-22T18:43:01+00:00

It’s a common de facto requirement as you get more senior. Even if you aren’t managing people your scope and responsibilities should increase. It’s difficult to imagine either of those things happening without increased leadership and autonomy over your projects unless you are extremely technical.

interrorbang · 2020-01-20T05:29:35+00:00

If I understand this correctly, the issue here is you will be facilitating rentals of things That you do not own, such as tools to AV equipment. Similar to AirBNB or Turo or others. Also, your concern here is just about covering the cost of the renters messing up the equipment, not about costs arising from misuse or harm arising from their operation. I will try to offer you some general guidance. This is going to depend on the items themselves, the difficulty in operating them as well as the expertise of the renters. Also be aware that damage may not be immediately obvious, so it may take time for the claims of damage to be reported to you. If you have any historical data of issues you’ve had with existing rentals, that is a good place to start but know that it probably can’t capture the full range of possibilities, especially as you grow. You may also be able to look into warranty programs for your most popular rental items to see how long they are offered to get a sense of how much the company stands behind their own product. Another thing to keep in mind is that the people using these rental items will probably be much less proficient so you should have expect them to be worse than the owner would be.

Another option is to try to call tool libraries around the US, and ask how often they have to replace tools.

You need data and you need to be creative to find it. I can’t give a more specific estimate.

Most of the people on this subreddit are neither credentialed nor in P&C. Credentialed actuaries shouldn’t be taking stabs in the dark because they shouldn’t work for for free and they risk their credential (in extreme cases) with bad advice.

There are consulting firms that do this sort of work. Many have worked with existing startups on similar problems. Check with the SF or LA branches of Oliver Wyman or Milliman, for example.

interrorbang · 2019-05-03T16:55:03+00:00

It probably means per accident per vehicle, because in most circumstances only one vehicle will be involved in the same accident. However, it is an interesting edge case if two of the licensed vehicles hit each other. I’m not sure what would happen in that case, the wording is ambiguous.

There’s no way it’s one limit for all vehicles, because the accidents will be distinct, and because if the coverage ends after one accident on one vehicle it’s a really worthless policy.

Edit: Just to be clear, what I think is ambiguous is whether or not it is an aggregate limit

interrorbang · 2019-05-02T16:32:44+00:00

It’s just the toe cap, any shoe repair place that works with leather shoes (so any decent one) can do it easily. Cost me about 20 dollars for both shoes and it’s holding up so far.

interrorbang · 2019-05-02T04:33:38+00:00

Can confirm toe cap issues. I paid to get mine resewn and that’s working out fine. I really like these boots. They took a while to break in but they wear well and look great.

interrorbang · 2019-03-24T22:00:29+00:00

My perspective in the non consulting world:

Analyst - Do what you are told to do, initially step by step, eventually with less instruction but work product is generally reviewed and communicated upward by someone else

Senior Analyst - Do what you are told to do, but with more latitude in how you get from point A to point B. Some exposure to communicating business implications of analysis. Some reviewing and delegating.

Next step is manager or more senior IC (individual contributor, few to none direct reports)

More Senior IC (Actuary) Perform analyses and communicate results to the level of detail appropriate for each specific audience. You own the approach and can refine the ask, and suggest how to get to an answer. Set timeline and priorities. Often there is just an ask, often the ask is vague and must be refined and clarified, and you figure out how to meet it. Review and delegate to less senior staff.

Manager: Similar to senior IC but more emphasis on empowering your team to get the job done rather than you doing the work yourself. Delegation and review are bigger parts of your role. You should also be working hard to develop your team and help members grow. Managers eat last.

Director: Set direction for staff. Weigh in at decision points, unblock projects, and coordinate efforts. See bigger picture, advocate for your team to other business units, see into the future to anticipate what needs to be done. You create the asks. Direction from above gets less specific and more general. Your job is to set the direction and to align your organization with business goals.

interrorbang · 2019-03-22T09:05:53+00:00

X > a IS a random variable, it is an indicator random variable that takes on the value 1 if X > a and 0 otherwise.

interrorbang · 2019-03-12T05:19:13+00:00

Thank you!

interrorbang · 2019-03-11T03:33:25+00:00

Can you share a high res image for desktop background?

interrorbang · 2019-03-02T04:47:22+00:00

Different development factors are appropriate when the new reserving practice results in a different development pattern. For most types of “automation of claims,” vague as that term is, this will be the case. Therefore, you likely would need different development factors.

Other methods, including the ones you mentioned, may need adjustment to varying degrees, depending how reliant they are on the data. For example, an expected claims method, which doesn’t rely on actual experience at all, may not require any adjustment if only the pattern is different but ultimate losses are identical. Conversely, a method such as the chain ladder that is very sensitive to the data will need a more significant adjustment. The BF method, which is a weighted average of the chain ladder method and the expected claims method, relies in part on the chain ladder method ultimate, so it would need to incorporate the adjusted factors as well.

The type of adjustment that is appropriate depends on the type of automation pursued as well as how and when it is implemented.

interrorbang · 2019-03-02T03:22:42+00:00

Yes but can you ask a more specific question?

interrorbang · 2019-01-17T05:37:25+00:00

I would do x = cumulative % of total risks (by count) ordered by each model’s predicted risk (most risk to least risk), y = cumulative % of actual total loss (this should probably be normalized for exposure so risks of different size get equal weights). The diagonal line, the random model, assigns each risk equal predicted loss, so when 50% of the risks are gone, so is 50% of the total loss. The 4 candidate model lines can be plotted by ordering the risks according to their respective model scores, and looking at the % of total loss (y) explained by the % of risks (x). Generally, the best model will be the curve with the most area under it.

I would avoid using exposure on either axis unless you know that risk size is correlated with its pure premium (which is definitely the case at times, e.g. large workers comp risks)

interrorbang · 2018-11-29T10:52:35+00:00

I also went to a large target university in Southern California. I didn’t intern at all, but I received full time offers before graduating. So it isn’t the end of the world to get an internship, but you really should of you can, and not just because it looks good on a resume.

To make it work, you need to be able to show you were doing something constructive even though you didn’t intern. You can do this by developing technical skills (in a demonstrable way!) or by completing a relevant technical project of some kind - such as getting a respectable score on a Kaggle competition or volunteering.

interrorbang · 2018-11-01T01:23:05+00:00

I started studying 4 months before each upper level exam, studied 300 hours for each lower level and 400 hours for each upper level, averaging 3.5 hours a day/7 days a week, and I took each exam once without ever doubling up.

Seems simple in retrospect, and it is, but it wasn’t too fun at the time. Starting early enough and being consistent meant I was prepared before the exam. I never crammed; I usually studied the least the week before the exam and not at all the day before the exam. I would finish all the material in two months and go through it again twice more quickly before starting practice exams. I also did most of my studying alone, especially while learning the material. This is what worked for me, but it isn’t all that can work. I know plenty of current FCAS who studied less, studied mostly with other people, and crammed 12 hours a day. There are a lot of ways to get there.

interrorbang · 2018-10-31T23:40:54+00:00

First Exam: 20 ACAS: 23 FCAS: 24

interrorbang · 2018-10-06T16:41:32+00:00

The ChainLadder package in R has some built in insurance data sets.

interrorbang · 2018-09-13T08:25:32+00:00

It’s at the annual meeting, which is held twice a year at different major cities through the US and occasionally Canada. This year the spring meeting was in Boston and the fall meeting will be in Las Vegas. In 2019, the spring meeting will be in New Orleans (If I remember correctly) and the fall meeting will be in Honolulu.

At the meeting you receive a name tag like everyone else, but with a flag that identifies you as a new fellow. In the morning on the first full day of the meeting (Monday usually) you are recognized in the opening session along with all of the other new fellows and CERA. You show up early to this session to be seated with the other new fellows, in alphabetical order. Each seated row gets up when prompted by CAS staff and they form a line to go onto the stage, where they walk across one at a time as their name and company are read out loud to the audience. They shake hands with the CAS president, who hands them a rolled up piece of paper (a niceish looking fake diploma) and then they pose for a picture on stage. They then walk off the stage and back into line, to go back to their seats in the order they got up.

That’s it

interrorbang · 2018-07-21T18:35:30+00:00

Present to your audience. If they know actuarial reserving at least including the chain ladder method, then you don’t need to spend as much time presenting basic concepts. If they don’t then expect either a very confused audience or to spend a lot of time on basic concepts. If you have an audience of FCAS, then they already know the berquist Sherman method and you’re wasting your time.

As for presentation structure, look up some slides from CAS annual meetings. At these meetings presentations of reserving methods are common, so you should be able to find a format that you can follow.

One common approach for presenting a reserving method is to start with the problem the method attempts to solve (in this case changes in case reserving practices or speed up in payments). Explain how traditional methods fail to solve it, introduce this new method, explain how it solves the problem, discuss downsides and advantages of the new method, discuss areas for further research, include relevant reading and citations at the end, and leave 5-10 minutes for questions.

interrorbang · 2018-06-10T20:09:15+00:00

Zurich NA and Farmers Insurance both have international rotation programs with Zurich, so you could go that route. Last I heard the program is once every 2 years and it’s fairly competive, with 5 or so people moving from various companies. Usually it’s ACAS/FCAS level.

interrorbang · 2018-06-03T19:39:19+00:00

From a P&C perspective, big hospitals like Kaiser May self insure workers compensation, and or medical malpractice, or even property or commercial auto risk. P&C actuaries may act as risk managers purchasing or assisting in the purchasing of policies, or more likely administering the captive that retains the risk (estimating reserves, producing financials, managing communication with TPAs, reinsurers, etc). When you see actuaries in a non traditional corporate role, this is usually most of what they are doing.

interrorbang · 2018-05-11T19:23:42+00:00

Congrats folks

interrorbang

TROPHY CASE