Insights and Ideas from the American Academy of Actuaries
Contingencies
Features
Spotlight on Tomorrow’s Leaders
Meet the 2024 Rising Actuary Award recipients As the actuarial profession continues to evolve, the next generation of actuaries is stepping up to shape the future. The Rising Actuary Award recognizes outstanding earlycareer actuaries who have...
Risk, Rates, and Reality
By David A. Quinn Misconceptions of Actuarial Soundness in Medicaid Capitation Rate Development The first 110 minutes of the two-hour meeting were cordial. The Medicaid managed care organization (MCO) presented cost drivers, and the state...
Actuarial Professionalism Considerations for Generative AI
This paper was released earlier this year. It is being reprinted here in Contingencies to ensure wide distribution and accessibility. This paper describes the use and professionalism considerations for actuaries using generative artificial...
Safeguarding Self-Regulation
By Brian Jackson The actuarial profession has a unique body of knowledge and skills. As a result of many years of specialized education and years of responsible experience before being allowed to practice independently, actuaries are given the...Departments
Member Spotlight
Margo MacKenzie
What is your practice area and/or area of expertise?
Property & Casualty Loss Reserving
What led you to become an actuary? And what attracted you to the profession?
I've always liked math and science, but never really had any idea...
Member Spotlight
Chris Lombardi
WHAT LED YOU TO BECOME AN ACTUARY? AND WHAT ATTRACTED YOU TO THE PROFESSION?
As a directionless business major, it was in a statistics class my freshman year. My grades were bad throughout the year, but in studying for the final exam,...
Editor’s Note
Ten Years
By Eric P. Harding
I'm sitting in my office in the Academy's headquarters on M Street NW in Washington, D.C. It's October 10, five days from when we go to press…and 10 days from the 10-year anniversary of my start date with the Academy.
My,...
The Last Word
The Looming Crisis of Long-Term Care
By Sam Gutterman
There has been little political discussion at the federal level concerning how to meet the needs for long-term care. Should I be surprised? The simple answer is "no."
Nevertheless, it is a challenging and complex issue that...
Puzzles
The Game of Chicken
By Josh Feldman
One of the first movies I ever saw was Footloose, and even though I haven't rewatched the movie in over 40 years, the film left a lasting impression on me. As an impressionable 9-year-old, I couldn't have cared less about the...
Cryptic Puzzle
Child’s Play
By Tom Toce
Once again, a puzzle from Bob Fink and Jerry Miccolis. They write:
As cryptic crossword constructors, we often view the letters of the alphabet as "children at play." Well, we've taken that concept quite literally in this puzzle....
Book Review
Plus ça Change…
Review by Paul Conlin
The Donkey & The Boat: Reinterpreting the Mediterranean Economy, 950-1180
Chris Wickham; Oxford University Press; 2023.
The global Covid pandemic we all lived through in 2020-23 brought new relevance-at least for...
In Practice
Customizing a Life Expectancy Calculation for an Individual Small Business
By Jay Vadiveloo
This is the third of a series of articles in Contingencies on small businesses in the U.S., abbreviated as SMEs, or small and medium-sized enterprises. The first article, "Putting It to Work-Risk management services for...
Hot Topics
Anxiety Is an Actuary
By Jen Elwood, Valerie Hamilton, and Jill Wilson
Inside Out 2 was the hottest movie of the summer. As of this writing, the film was the eighth-highest grossing movie of all time and the highest-grossing animated film ever.[1] Kyle Smith, a...
Up To Code
Up To Code—The Classics
By Robert J. Rietz
ReferenceFor more on the new membership requirements, see the September Actuarial Update.
THE HOLIDAYS WILL ARRIVE BEFORE WE KNOW IT, and I'm reminded of some professional advice I received about 25 years ago. I was...
President’s Message
Connecting the Dots
By: Lisa Slotznick
My last President's Message! During 2024, my messages have covered a range of issues impacting the Academy, our members as actuaries, and our readers as participants in society. Starting with the Academy's Competency Framework...
