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Tuesday 3rd April 2012
Deepak Jobanputra says being an actuary can be a force for good
My experience over the years supports the case that the actuarial profession is certainly one to aspire to. I am constantly surprised by other people's reactions to our profession, ranging from a recent exclamation of "Wow! You're an actuary!" from a fellow parent, to earnest questions such as what an actuary exactly is and "Can you really predict the future?" I can't think of many other professions that provoke this kind of fascination.
This interest with predicting the future extends further into the profession. Indeed, the profession's recent strap line has been 'making financial sense of the future'. However, this doesn't mean that we're financial wizards who can predict the fortunes of tomorrow, and we shouldn't present ourselves to the public as such.
Our role as actuaries is broad and has a significant effect on society and where society is headed. While the pace of development in the world is evident for everyone to see and appreciate, this is at times balanced by a number of calamities.
We must always be aware of the limitations of our risk analyses. It is our duty to serve society by providing sound financial solutions while ensuring that financial stability is maintained.
In this edition, we discuss the growing importance of the risk function and how actuaries have a great opportunity to lead - not only in the financial services arena but in the wider world.
A key challenge that risk specialists face is the ever-famous Rumsfeldian 'unknown unknowns', referred to by Elliot Varnell (see Q&A). This is further supplemented by our review of Emanuel Derman's book, Models Behaving Badly, in which he states that every financial axiom is "pretty much wrong", but that the relevant question is how wrong and in what way.
I would love to hear from you with your views on how actuaries can and do make a difference. I am optimistic that the actuarial profession will grow its reach into wider areas of business and society. May we continue to provoke interest and fascination from the world at large.
Deepak Jobanputra
[email protected]
This interest with predicting the future extends further into the profession. Indeed, the profession's recent strap line has been 'making financial sense of the future'. However, this doesn't mean that we're financial wizards who can predict the fortunes of tomorrow, and we shouldn't present ourselves to the public as such.
Our role as actuaries is broad and has a significant effect on society and where society is headed. While the pace of development in the world is evident for everyone to see and appreciate, this is at times balanced by a number of calamities.
We must always be aware of the limitations of our risk analyses. It is our duty to serve society by providing sound financial solutions while ensuring that financial stability is maintained.
In this edition, we discuss the growing importance of the risk function and how actuaries have a great opportunity to lead - not only in the financial services arena but in the wider world.
A key challenge that risk specialists face is the ever-famous Rumsfeldian 'unknown unknowns', referred to by Elliot Varnell (see Q&A). This is further supplemented by our review of Emanuel Derman's book, Models Behaving Badly, in which he states that every financial axiom is "pretty much wrong", but that the relevant question is how wrong and in what way.
I would love to hear from you with your views on how actuaries can and do make a difference. I am optimistic that the actuarial profession will grow its reach into wider areas of business and society. May we continue to provoke interest and fascination from the world at large.
Deepak Jobanputra
[email protected]
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