Insights and Ideas from the American Academy of Actuaries
Contingencies
Departments
Inside Track
Making a List…
By Eric P. Harding
It's late October as I write this column. Due to unseasonably high temperatures here in the mid-Atlantic, the leaves are just beginning to show their autumnal colors. It gets dark early in the evening, yes, but it's been warm...
President’s Message
Professionalism in Your Actuarial Marathon
By Bob Beuerlein
The cool weather this time of the year signals the beginning of marathon season in the United States. Thousands of runners have been training throughout the summer months to prepare for 26.2 miles of running-a real test of...
Letters
Even Shackled, the Invisible Hand Is Powerful
John Major's letter to the editor in connection with "A Rigged Game?" (Contingencies; July/August 2017) gives me the opportunity to add a few remarks. Major doesn't dispute the glaring shortcoming of the American health care system, but attributes...
Up To Code
Precept 1 and ‘Bad Conduct’
By Jan Carstens
In 1984 my husband and I got married and decided to spend three weeks in Europe for our honeymoon. We were young and adventurous (and in retrospect, maybe a little stupid), so we decided to book flights but not lodging-we had no...
International Corner
Insights from Worldwide Health Care Systems—North America
By Joe Allbright, John Have, Walter Marsh, Susan Mateja
Editor's note: This is the third in a series of articles from the Health Practice International Committee on ideas from foreign models of health care that may assist the United States in...
Tradecraft
A Key Factor—Encryption is only half the battle when securing data in the cloud
By Jane Melia
No matter what industry your clients are in, chances are they already have data stored in the cloud. A key concern for these companies, as well as for many more considering the move, is the exposure of that data to cyberattacks....
Cryptic Puzzle
The Puzzle Where Everything Goes Wrong
By Tom Toce
All of the answers from the clues below have to be altered before entry. The alterations will be familiar from cryptic clue solving. You might need to enter an anagram, a homophone, or a reversal. You might need to add or subtract...
Puzzles
Straight Flush!?
By Josh Feldman
I've always had a love/hate relationship with the game of poker. Sure, I love playing the game of poker, and although plenty of actuaries are far better at the game than me, I'd like to think I'm not a fish at the table. The hate...
End Paper
The Primacy of Judgment
By Sam Gutterman
I have often thought about the proper role of judgment in actuarial work. At times it seems inconsistent with the scientific method. But, contrary to some views, science is fundamentally based on observations, rather than...
Article
Letter From the President
The American Academy of Actuaries is stronger today than ever before. This isn’t because of numbers or dollars— though membership is steadily growing and our finances are strong—but because of the role that the Academy plays in serving the...
Climate
An Imperfect Storm
By Jeff Reeves
It's a common trope in old cartoons and TV sitcoms: a hapless meteorologist making wild guesses, much to the consternation of picnickers and sunbathers everywhere.
But for all the frustration some folks show when forecasts go awry,...
Inside Track
Prediction and Its Follies
By Eric P. Harding
We humans are creatures of patterns. We learn by noticing patterns in our surroundings, then making informed applications of those patterns in new scenarios.
One common example of an observed pattern that lends itself to...
President’s Message
Developing a Game Plan
By Bob Beuerlein
Football season is upon us. Whether you are a football fan or not, you have probably noticed differences in people's weekend habits in recent weeks. Whether it be neighbors wearing the colors of the local team, college alumni...
Up To Code
Control of Work Product—Be Upfront With Clients
By Godfrey Perrott
Recently an actuary contacted the Actuarial Board for Counseling and Discipline about a confidentiality issue.
The actuary's year-end actuarial reports with reserve opinions contained language about who could see the report....
Presidential Papers
Professionalism in Action: Setting the Temperature to ‘Ethical’
By Bob Beuerlein
In the final article in this "Professionalism in Action" series, I would like to circle back to an image that I described last November in my inaugural address as Academy president. I said then that, as actuaries,
"We must...
International Corner
Insights From Worldwide Health Care Systems—Europe
By Joe Allbright, Ian Duncan (United Kingdom), Christelle Dieudonné and Yann Quéré (France), and Rian de Jonge (the Netherlands)
Editor's note: This is the second in a series of articles from the Health Practice International Committee on...
Fiction
The Elephant Hotel Claim
By Jeremy Engdahl-Johnson
Jake Mitchell decided it was time to take the claim upstairs to management. He'd only been on the Ample Hills Insurance executive floor a handful of times in his long career, so he was surprised when he was granted...
Cryptic Puzzle
Precision Marching Bands
By Tom Toce
There's a common puzzle variant called "Marching Bands," which I've employed in the past. In order to change things up, I've decided to make this one a precision marching band puzzle.
The only band I know of that uses "precision"...
