Skip to main content
The Actuary: The magazine of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries - return to the homepage Logo of The Actuary website
  • Search
  • Visit The Actuary Magazine on Facebook
  • Visit The Actuary Magazine on LinkedIn
  • Visit @TheActuaryMag on Twitter
Visit the website of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries Logo of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries

Main navigation

  • News
  • Features
    • General Features
    • Interviews
    • Students
    • Opinion
  • Topics
  • Knowledge
    • Business Skills
    • Careers
    • Events
    • Predictions by The Actuary
    • Whitepapers
    • Moody's - Climate Risk Insurers series
    • Webinars
    • Podcasts
  • Jobs
  • IFoA
    • CEO Comment
    • IFoA News
    • People & Social News
    • President Comment
  • Archive
Quick links:
  • Home
  • The Actuary Issues
  • May 2013
05

Letters to the editor - May 2013

Open-access content Wednesday 1st May 2013 — updated 5.13pm, Wednesday 29th April 2020

Welcoming all efforts on the right to reply

2

Good, bad and ugly theory

I was interested in Jessica Elkin's article (Student, p39) in the March edition of The Actuary. This has been a subject close to my heart for a number of years since reading a proposal by one of the Big Four accountancy firms for 'product placement' of accountants in movies - as is done by certain watch and car manufacturers in James Bond films! I wondered if this would work for actuaries and since then have looked out for portrayals of actuaries in the movies.

Many of those who have qualified in the past 15 years will be aware of the use in the new qualifiers' professionalism course of the video of The Billion Dollar Bubble as an example of unprofessional behaviour. In this 1970s' TV movie, James Woods played an actuary who got caught up in a scandal involving reinsurance on (fictitious) life policies to shore up the corporation's finances. He is definitely not a good role model, although probably the second most famous actor to play an actuary after Jack Nicholson in About Schmidt.

In many ways, given the lack of public knowledge of actuaries, it is surprising how often they feature. I believe that Double Indemnity (1944) was the first film to feature an actuary. The plot revolves around a murderer who seeks to gain advantage from a rather peculiar insurance policy. An insurance investigator, Edward G Robinson, knows the actuarial statistics and becomes suspicious.

Other movies to note, apart from those mentioned in the article, include The Apartment, Sweet Charity, Tron (featuring an actuarial programme named Ram), Thirteen Conversations About One Thing, and Along Came Polly, where Ben Stiller is a risk assessment expert, who, though not explicitly stated, performs the job of an actuary.

I would agree that most of the actuaries presented are not role models - could it be the association with mortality?

Keith Miller, 7 April


Limits to growth only a starting point

In response to the letter from Geoff Dunsford (Earth is Room Enough, April, p6), the motivation for the limits to growth research was to examine issues of resource scarcity, which the Resource and Environment Group (REG) feels have not been sufficiently examined. The intention was to start a debate on this difficult subject, not to attempt to provide all the answers. We welcome a discussion and recognise that there are many points of view. As Mr Dunsford points out, one of our strengths as actuaries is to base our thinking on data. Sometimes this means questioning conventional wisdom, when the data suggests this is a wise thing to do.

Also, I would like to clarify REG's role. The limits to growth research project was carried out by a team of experts including an economist and led by Dr Aled Jones at the Global Sustainability Institute at Anglia Ruskin University. REG members reviewed the report, but did not have a right of veto over any part of it. One of the research team members was an actuary and REG member, but was acting in an independent capacity, not as a representative of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. The report contains a large volume of data on resource availability and we hope it will be a useful contribution to thinking. But it is not, and should not, be REG's role to justify every part of a piece of commissioned research. This project is only a first step on the road to investigate these issues, and much further work is needed. Hopefully, in time, actuaries will be experts in the critically important areas of resources, growth and sustainability.

Tracey Zalk, REG managing committee member, 19 April


DC pension plans 'badly designed and poorly modelled'

(Full story at bit.ly/10hCHjl)

"I never realised that DC pensions were ever meant to be well designed, just a low-cost pension provided by employers that stood virtually no chance of providing a decent pension, unless the employee paid around three times as much as their employer. From a self-employed viewpoint, or a director with an apparently bottomless pension pot, the principles seem great, but rather scary for the person in the street."

David Nunns, 29 March


EU pension rule changes 'could push up UK deficits to £450bn'

(Full story at bit.ly/ZkxHsr)

"These are worryingly large numbers, but shouldn't the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries be approaching this with its 'public interest' hat on? We are quite used to advising trustees and sponsors, but perhaps we should be talking directly to members here. The fact that there is a deficit on the 'holistic balance sheet' acknowledges the very significant risk that members' benefits will not be paid in full. The report acknowledges that (at least on this basis) schemes 'have in principle exhausted the possibility to use sponsor support to recover the present deficit'. The report also shows how inadequately UK schemes are funded relative to the rest of Europe (except Ireland)

There is a legitimate public policy debate around whether this is the best approach to valuation, and about what action should be taken. However, we need to avoid the impression that this is all about presentation: there is a very real risk the fund assets prove wholly inadequate to pay promised benefits."

Derek McLean, 10 April

This article appeared in our May 2013 issue of The Actuary .
Click here to view this issue

You may also be interested in...

2

President's comment: challenges in Life

Philip Scott reviews the many elements of work and research undertaken by the Life PEC and its support network
Wednesday 1st May 2013
Open-access content
2

Soapbox: Anticipating ailments

Dr J Wilson Carswell asks whether medical research could be used by the insurance industry to predict those likely to make IP claims
Wednesday 1st May 2013
Open-access content
2

Editorial: Health in your hands

Deepak Jobanputra believes we all hold the key to defusing the time bomb of an ageing population
Wednesday 1st May 2013
Open-access content
2

Pensions regulator urges trustees to avoid 'over-prudence'

The Pensions Regulator has warned trustees against being over cautious when agreeing their pension funding plans and stressed the flexibilities available to employers struggling to close their scheme deficits.
Wednesday 8th May 2013
Open-access content

NEST clocks up 300 employer members

Over 300 employers have signed up to use the pension scheme established by government to help deliver auto-enrolment, it was revealed yesterday.
Wednesday 1st May 2013
Open-access content
2

Don't throw baby out with the bath water

Maria Dolores Martínez-Miranda and Miranda Thomas report on a recent talk on granular reserving given by Jens Perch Nielsen, where he advised against abandoning our existing pool of practical actuarial knowledge in favour of the technological Wild West
Wednesday 1st May 2013
Open-access content

Latest from May 2013

All FTSE 100 DB schemes 'to close within decade'

All defined benefit pensions schemes at FTSE 100 companies could be completely closed within ten years, according to a survey from Towers Watson.
Friday 31st May 2013
Open-access content

LPFA calls for pooled pension funds

The London Pension Funds Authority has repeated its call for mergers of council pension funds following the publication of two surveys suggesting that fees are excessive in the sector
Wednesday 29th May 2013
Open-access content
2

Bernardino wants industry levy to help fund EIOPA

Europe’s insurance and pensions industries should have to pay a levy to help fund a stronger, more interventionist European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority, the chair of the regulatory body has said.
Tuesday 28th May 2013
Open-access content

Latest from small_opening_image

2

COVID-19 forum for actuaries launched

A forum for actuaries has been launched to help the profession come together and learn how best to respond to the deadly coronavirus sweeping the world.
Wednesday 25th March 2020
Open-access content
2

Travel insurers expect record payouts this year

UK travel insurers expect to pay a record £275m to customers this year as coronavirus grounds flights across the world, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) has revealed.
Wednesday 25th March 2020
Open-access content
2

Grim economic forecasts made as countries lockdown

A sharp recession is imminent in the vast majority of developed and emerging economies as the deadly coronavirus forces businesses to shut down across the world.
Tuesday 24th March 2020
Open-access content
Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Linked in
  • Mail
  • Print

Latest Jobs

Pricing Trading Manager - Contract

£700 - £1000 per day
Reference
148579

Head of Financial Risk

Flexible / hybrid working with minimum 2 days p/w office-based
£ excellent package
Reference
148578

Insurance Risk Leader

Flexible / hybrid with 2 days p/w office-based
£ to attract the best
Reference
148577
See all jobs »
 
 
 
 

Sign up to our newsletter

News, jobs and updates

Sign up

Subscribe to The Actuary

Receive the print edition straight to your door

Subscribe
Spread-iPad-slantB-june.png

Topics

  • Data Science
  • Investment
  • Risk & ERM
  • Pensions
  • Environment
  • Soft skills
  • General Insurance
  • Regulation Standards
  • Health care
  • Technology
  • Reinsurance
  • Global
  • Life insurance
​
FOLLOW US
The Actuary on LinkedIn
@TheActuaryMag on Twitter
Facebook: The Actuary Magazine
CONTACT US
The Actuary
Tel: (+44) 020 7880 6200
​

IFoA

About IFoA
Become an actuary
IFoA Events
About membership

Information

Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
Cookie Policy
Think Green

Get in touch

Contact us
Advertise with us
Subscribe to The Actuary Magazine
Contribute

The Actuary Jobs

Actuarial job search
Pensions jobs
General insurance jobs
Solvency II jobs

© 2023 The Actuary. The Actuary is published on behalf of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries by Redactive Publishing Limited. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any part is not allowed without written permission.

Redactive Media Group Ltd, 71-75 Shelton Street, London WC2H 9JQ