ACTUARIAL POST FOR THE MODERN ACTUARY AUGUST 2019
GETTING PERSONAL FOR BUSINESS INSURANCE
TIME FOR PENSIONS INDUSTRY TO FOCUS FINDING A HOME FOR LONGEVITY RISK VULNERABLE CLIENTS
TAIT’S MODERN PENSIONS
RETIREMENT PUZZLE page 1
PENSION PILLAR
BRIDGE
the Gap
RISK & FINANCE
Between
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Actuarial Post Team EDITOR Jennifer Redwood jennifer@actuarialpost.co.uk SUB EDITOR Jennifer Stone article@actuarialpost.co.uk ADVERTISING MANAGER Alan Burns alan@actuarialpost.co.uk
www.actuarialpost.co.uk @actuarialpost @APjobs Head Office 13 Vale Rise Tonbridge Kent, TN9 1TB 01732 359488
EDITOR’S NOTE If a month is a long time for us to publish our next edition then it most certainly is in politics. We now have a new Prime Minister installed in Downing Street with a promise to deliver Brexit by Halloween. Whether you are a Remainer or a Brexiteer it will be fascinating viewing over the coming months to see if Boris can produce. I am excited to annoucne that this years’ awards are now open, ready for you to make your nominations. Who do you think should be recognised for their work in GI, Pensions, Risk and Life? Most important of all, who would you like to see crowned this year’s Actuarial Post Actuary of the Year? Make your nominations here. Jamie Brown from CallDrive examines how the pension industry needs to focus on customer service with the movement of pensions becoming ever easier. Steve Leake from XPS Pensions looks to find a home for Longevity Risk. Matteo Ricciarelli from PwC Risk Modelling Services, standing in for Kareline Daguer, intriguingly asks is it The End of (IBOR) Days, and Tom Murray examines Life companies, legacy systems and cloud based services. Lastly, the 2019 Stars of the Future Awards nominations will be coming to a close next week. We are seeing a lot of nominations flooding in, but if you have not nominated anyone yet then do so now here,
Legal Notice All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted without the prior permission of the publisher in writing. Whilst every care has been taken to ensure the accuracy, Actuarial Post cannot accept responsibility for loss of business to those referred to in thie magazine as a result of errors.
Another packed magazine for you to enjoy and if you are on holiday I trust you are enjoying a well earned break. I look forward to welcoming you back for the next issue.
Jennifer Redwood
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CONTENTS 10
6
14
16
News
6
Movers & Shakers
8
City Dealings
9
Getting Personal
10
Tait’s Modern Pensions
12
Time for Pensions Industry to Focus...
14
Retirement Puzzle
16
Solvency II & Beyond
18
Inner Workings
20
Lights, Camera, Actuary
22
Finding a Home For Longevity Risk
24
Pension Pillar
25
22
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NEWS AUGUST Pensions over taxation scandal hits record levels Quarterly figures published this morning by HMRC in their Pension Schemes Newsletter reveal a shocking increase in the number of people being over-taxed when they take money from their pension. Steven Cameron, Pensions Director at Aegon said: “Since ‘pension freedoms’
were introduced in 2015, more people have been able to take lump sums out of their pension fund as and when they wish. But these lump sums are often over-taxed on an ‘emergency’ basis, with taxpayers having to fill in one of three different forms to claim back the excess tax. New figures for
FCA to protect consumers transferring out of DB pensions The Financial Conduct Authority has today published a package of pension related proposals designed to improve the quality of pension transfer advice, and to help consumers get better value from their pension. The package includes a proposed ban on contingent charging for pension transfer advice, an update on the work the FCA has been doing on non-workplace pensions and the final policy statement for the Retirement Outcomes Review. READ MORE
the period April-June 2019 show that the number of people over-taxed reached record levels. More than 17,000 people reclaimed £46m in tax in the last quarter, compared with 14,000 people claiming back £29m a year earlier. The total amount which taxpayers have had to claim READ MORE
Five pension and personal finance issues for Boris Aegon calls for Boris and his new Cabinet to look beyond Brexit to advance social care policy and address pensions priorities Steven Cameron Pensions Director at Aegon said: “As Boris Johnson settles into Number 10, we hope that alongside a renewed focus on resolving Brexit, he and his new cabinet will put their energies into other key policies which could make a huge difference to millions, whether through boosting public services, reducing taxes or improving incentives to save for future events such as funding social care.”
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Social care “Top of our list is the pressing need to deliver the long overdue promise of a new deal on social care funding. As the House of Lords recently reported READ MORE
NEWS PASA publishes GMP Equalisation call to action The cross-industry GMP Equalisation Working Group (GMPEWG), launched in January, today publishes their ‘Call to Action’. The GMPEWG is chaired by the Pensions Administration Standards Association (PASA) Kim Gubler, Chair, PASA commented: “The GMP equalisation journey started in earnest last year (October 2018) with the High Court’s decision to make equalising benefits for the effects of GMP (GMP Equalisation) a requirement throughout the operation of a scheme. Although we are still waiting for clarification on some points, the group has identified three initial areas we urge schemes to start working on now and not wait until all the details are known: READ MORE
Failing to secure pets will invalidate your car insurance New research from leading price comparison website MoneySuperMarket reveals that millions of motorists are at risk of voiding their car insurance by failing to secure their pets properly while driving.
void their insurance policy.
The warning comes as MoneySuperMarket reveals that almost a quarter (24%) of drivers let a pet sit unrestrained in their car – leaving them unprotected in the event of a claim. With over 40 million full licence holders in the UK, that equates to nearly 10 million road users possibly choosing to take a risky trip with their pet in tow. A further seven per cent allow their pet to travel with them unrestrained, despite knowing it could
The Highway Code states that animals need to be ‘suitably restrained’ to ensure they don’t distract the driver and recommends using a seat belt harness, pet carrier, dog cage or dog guard in order to do so. Rachel Wait, consumer affairs spokesperson at MoneySuperMarket, commented: “While driving with your pet in your car – whether in the boot or on a seat – might seem like a harmless way of getting from A to B, the truth is you can risk invalidating your car insurance. If you’re in a prang with an unrestrained pet in your car, insurers may use it READ MORE
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Top 5 memory prompts as PPI deadline looms With only one month to go until the 29 August 2019 PPI complaints deadline, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is urging consumers to jog their memories back to the 1990s and 2000s when they may have bought products and were mis-sold PPI at the same time. The FCA has released new research and enlisted the help of eight-time World Memory Champion Dominic O’Brien, as part of its drive to ensure people don’t miss their chance to claim money back for PPI. The research, released by the FCA, shows the majority of UK adults (87%) hit a significant milestone during the 1990s and 2000s – when many of the estimated 64 million PPI policies were sold in the UK. READ MORE
MOVERS & SHAKERS The latest moves and appointments from the actuarial marketplace Dalriada appoint Actuary Judith Fish as Professional Trustee
Aegon appoint new Chief Actuary
Dalriada Trustees has announced the appointment of Judith Fish as a Professional Trustee. Judith was formerly Head of Pension Risk at Santander UK and will be based in Dalriada’s London office. Judith brings a wealth of experience to the Dalriada team having worked in pensions for more than 25 years, serving as a trustee, scheme actuary, corporate adviser and employer in prior roles with major institutions including Santander UK, HSBC Actuaries and Consultants (acquired by JLT) and Deloitte. Judith’s appointment supports Dalriada’s now 150 strong team across its UK-wide presence in Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester and London.
Following the news that Amanda Blanc has resigned from her role as head of European business at Zurich,
Aegon has appointed Leigh-Ann Plenderleith as its Chief Actuary and Financial Strategy Director. LeighAnn will lead and drive the strategy for capital management, asset/liability matching and market consistent value across the business. Leigh-Ann joins in July from Standard Life, where her most recent role was Head of Brexit Actuarial and will report to Chief Financial Officer, Stephen McGee. The appointment is subject to regulatory approval.
Commenting on the appointment, Adrian Kennett, Director at Dalriada, said: “In the ever-changing world of pensions, it is critical that we...
Throughout her 19 year career with Standard Life she has held a number of senior technical Risk and Finance roles and demonstrated a deep, strategic understanding of Enterprise
READ MORE
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XPS Pensions Group appoints new Head of Investment
Amanda Blanc announces surprise resignation from Zurich
XPS Pensions Group (XPS) announces the appointment of Alasdair Gill in a new role, as Head of Scotland Investments Team, to help grow their proposition. Alasdair joins from Mercer where he spent over 22 years
Ben Carey-Evans, Insurance Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view: “Amanda Blanc announced her surprise resignation from her role as head of European business at Zurich earlier this week, only eight months after she joined from AXA. It was a move that was supposed to enhance innovation at Zurich, with the company citing her outspoken thought leadership on the impact of digital capabilities in her introduction. READ MORE
building a wealth of knowledge and experience within the North of England and Scotland. Following the recent acquisition of Royal London’s corporate pensions business, Alasdair’s appointment is pivotal in building the XPS team, developing the firm’s
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expertise and driving growth. Gerry Devenney, Head of Edinburgh Office at XPS Pensions Group said: “This role is integral to the growth and development of the Edinburgh office and XPS’s proposition in READ MORE
CITY DEALINGS Keeping up to date on acquisitions, mergers and the dealings of companies in the city
Global insurance M and A up to highest level for four years Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the global insurance industry rose in the first half of 2019 with 222 completed deals worldwide, up from 196 in the second half of 2018, according to Clyde & Co’s Insurance Growth Report mid-year update.This marks the biggest increase in the volume of transactions since H1 2015 and the fourth consecutive six-month period of growth. While the Americas was the most active region with 93 deals, up from 92, the biggest increase in activity was in Europe, which saw an 40% increase in M&A with 88 completed deals compared to 64 in the previous six months as READ MORE
FCA FINES STANDARD LIFE THIRTY MILLION POUNDS READ MORE
Ivor Edwards, Partner and European Head of the Corporate Insurance Group at Clyde & Co, says:
“Despite recent signs of market hardening, delivering a positive result for shareholders remains challenging and M&A is an attractive strategy to deliver growth for re/insurance businesses around the world. In Europe, now that the majority of re/insurers are Brexit-ready, they have been able to divert management attention back towards their growth ambitions. As a result, we have seen a huge surge in completed deals in 2019 that had been put on hold”
Foresters Friendly Society select AXA Investment Managers
Drawdown investors profit in first years of pension freedoms
Foresters Friendly Society (Foresters), the mutual insurance provider protecting families since 1834, has appointed AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM) to manage a £175 million multi-asset mandate on behalf of its members, with capacity for the mandate to grow to £300m in the medium-term.
Analysis of stock market returns by Aegon, since the introduction of the pension freedoms, shows just how important it is for drawdown investors to be comfortable with stock market volatility.
The mandate will be led by portfolio manager Andrew Etherington, and managed across non-profit, withprofits and unit-linked funds. 80% of the mandate will be invested in traditional assets, allowing for a 20% allocation to AXA IM’s strong alternative investment offering, in... READ MORE
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The analysis is based on an individual with a £400,000 pension pot taking an annual income of £20,000 a year from 7 April 2015. They would have seen the value of their savings swing between £330,000 at their lowest point and £488,000 at their highest if invested in the ABI Global Equities sector average – a difference of £158,000. READ MORE
INFORMATION EXCHANGE
GETTING PERSONAL FOR BUSINESS INSURANCE
Small businesses are the lifeblood of the UK economy with diverse risks and cover requirements - 5.5 million (96%) businesses are micro-businesses employing 0-9 people. Within the insurance sector itself, there is a hive of innovation by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as part of the insurtech revolution. But many small businesses are feeling the pressure from the current uncertainties around Brexit, cashflow and resources. For seasonal businesses, trading can also be impacted by adverse and extreme weather . The common factor for most small businesses is that the owner or owners themselves organise insurance as part and parcel of running the business. As a consequence it’s understandable that they might approach the process in a similar way to how they might shop for their personal insurance cover. They want tailored cover that reflects their risk, a quick, streamlined process, at a price that is fair.
volume in some of the most common business sectors and much investment has been made in broker systems and technology to help streamline the quoting and cover placement process and help reduce the complexity. The success of insurance brands selling simple SME insurance direct online is testament to the market demand for quick and simple cover. Providing insurance to small businesses has traditionally relied on pulling together a range of data points from different data sources to make a full assessment of the risk.
E-trading has made SME insurance easier
The data related to the business, the business leader/s and directors, as well as the location, the premises (warehouse, office, retail unit), the contents of the premises etc. and where company car cover is concerned, motor claims and NCD information. It might mean three or four different call outs for data before the underwriter could gather a consolidated view of the risk.
For commercial insurance providers focused on this market, e-trading has been the route to achieving
We are now looking to the future of this process, taking some of the advances that have been
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made in the personal insurance market to bring a greater level of data enrichment and automation to commercial insurance underwriting. This includes the valuable ability to link director or business owner data to any previous or current records held for that individual. Data Enrichment at point-of-quote Data enrichment at the point-of-quote has been the biggest transformation in personal lines over the last few years. It has made a huge difference to the market, helping to deliver more precise quotes and leading to improved processes, better loss ratios and greater efficiency – purely by moving more data into the point-of-quote.
he lived in Kingston, commercial insurance providers can achieve a much more accurate picture of risk. Add policy history attributes from personal motor insurance as well as the potential of commercial and domestic property claims data and the picture of risk becomes very clear. The upshot is a smoother, speedier and more efficient process for both the customer and the insurance provider and the ability to make more informed decisions on risk. Commercial insurers put a high priority on data
This will give insurance providers a choice of 200+ attributes including crime information, data from the Land Registry, unemployment data, the Edited Electoral Roll, CCJs and insolvencies.
Recent research * we conducted shows that commercial insurers are open to considering greater data enrichment and automation. While less than half (44%) of the commercial property insurers we surveyed said they employ a completely or mostly digitised/automated underwriting process, 81% of commercial insurers said better utilisation of data/analytics and technology is a high priority. In addition, nearly two thirds of commercial insurers taking part in the survey (65%) agreed that greater digitisation and automation will have a positive impact on underwriting in the near future.
When you combine the attributes with the ability to link disparate records so that you know, for example, that John Smith running the boutique shop in Surbiton, is the same John Smith who had a motor policy with your insurance brand previously when
Taking a leaf from the personal insurance market will help insurance providers deliver the personalised type of cover small businesses would value. Data enrichment at point of quote is the right way forward.
So taking the insurance-specific customer verification and enrichment solutions applied in personal insurance and bringing them into commercial is the natural next step.
I. researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN06152/SN06152.pdf II. http://www.cmc-partners.co.uk/blog/2019/02/08/6-challenges-facing-small-businesses-in-2019/ III. http://www.londonlovesbusiness.com/business-news/business/adverse-weather-conditions-hitting-small-businesses/21349.article IV. LexisNexis Risk Solutions carried out an anonymous survey, the UK Insurance Underwriting Digitisation Study, 8 December 2016–9 January 2017. Mixed mode of data collection: online panel and telephone interviewing. The sample was 170 insurance professionals, 55 personal motor, 52 personal home and 63 commercial property. The respondent must spend 30% of their time in underwriting-related activities for a given line to be assigned to answer questions specific to that insurance line.
by Jonathan Guard, Director Commercial Markets Insurance, at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, UK page 11
TAIT’S
MODERN
PENSIONS
point of contact. Extreme tact and patience are essential in this situation and it may be a good idea to have specialist staff who take over in this situation.
Vulnerable Clients The FCA’s latest consultation paper, Guidance for firms on the fair treatment of vulnerable customers (GC19/3), provides more guidance and a general definition of vulnerability, a set of characteristics that may indicate vulnerability along with examples of the actions to mitigate potentially bad outcomes.
3. (Lack of) resilience
Identifying vulnerability A vulnerable customer is one who is more susceptible to detriment than the standard customer as a result of one or more factors which make it more likely that detriment could occur to them, and that any detriment could have a greater impact on them. The paper provides a list of “drivers” which are indicators of potential vulnerability, and which firms can use to help their front line staff to identify possible issues, particularly within their own target market. The drivers are split into 4 groups, some of which are clearly more relevant to certain markets. For retirement planning, particularly in the run up to and during the period when a customer is looking to take an income, there is a fairly high chance that any one or more of these conditions may apply at some point.
This is defined by the FCA as an inability to withstand financial or emotional shocks, and could either be temporary following a significant life event, or a more general attitude. Generally people’s ability to withstand sudden shocks decreases with age and this may mean that certain products and services become less suitable, although care must be taken if the situation is likely to change. If a client sustains a financial shock advisers should consider not just the effect on their overall dependence on their pension income, but how it might affect future decision-making. 4. (Lack of) capability Many clients lack knowledge of financial matters and have little confidence in managing money, yet they are expected to make some very difficult and significant choices. The industry is also riddled with jargon which increases consumers’ misunderstanding and distrust.
1. Health
Supporting vulnerable clients
This is an obvious driver of vulnerability, where a client has a medical condition which means they cannot carry out certain basic tasks such as reading documents or attending meetings. Where the impairment is physical it is usually more easily identified and likely to be disclosed in the fact-find.
GC19/3 contains a number of examples of good practice. The guidance is not mandatory and firms can decide if the suggestions will work for them. It is noticeable that the guidance could potentially be used in cases of enforcement, meaning firms should have a strong rationale behind the use, or not, of the guidance material.
Mental conditions are harder to spot, but if they have been previously diagnosed it would be reasonable to expect disclosure of this. Customers approaching retirement are more likely to have a health condition and the relationship between an adviser or pension scheme with the individual, can be a long and enduring one. As clients age the probability of both physical and mental illness increases and firms must look for tell tale signs and be ready to take protective action. We are not expected to be medical experts, but if a client is finding it more difficult to remember what happened last year, or makes increasingly inconsistent decisions this could be a concern.
Some things are however clear. Communications are key. The better firms are at communicating with their clients, the more likely they are to be able to identify and support vulnerable customers. Asking clients how often and by which methods they want to deal with you is not just about identifying vulnerability but makes for a better relationship. Ultimately, doing your best to understand the individual needs and preferences of every client or member is good practice and there is perhaps some rationale for treating every client as potentially vulnerable.
2. Life events Major life events such as bereavement or relationship breakdown may make decision-making particularly harder. An ageing client base means that the loss of a partner becomes more likely and the divorce rate is increasing fastest within older age groups. Regular communications with clients should make it easier for them to inform you when a life event occurs. For many clients this may well be the first
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by Fiona Tait Technical Director Intelligent Pensions
IT’S TIME FOR THE PENSIONS INDUSTRY TO FOCUS ON CUSTOMER SERVICE It’s time for the pensions industry to focus on customer service When it comes to the pensions industry, there’s a disconnect in customer service that needs to be solved. Here, Jamie Brown of Calldrive, a customer service and lead generation platform, explains why many pension providers are falling short. The pensions industry, despite being, at its heart, a customer-centred business model, sometimes gets a bad rap from its client base. Constantly under the microscope for its practices and in the news for funds being under scrutiny, customer services are sometimes given less attention than they perhaps need to be. This is true across all financial services but was recently highlighted in particular by the PPF (Pensions Protection Fund) as being particularly neglected within the pensions sector. The PPF’s Chief Executive, Oliver Morley recently told Pensions Expert: “The financial services industry as a whole isn’t, I’d say, on the cutting edge of customer service, and the pensions industry is less so.” A former head of customer experience at Thomson Reuters and most recently chief executive of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, Mr Morley says he would like to use his “outsider” status to improve standards across the industry. But how will this be achievable? Within pensions, one issue that has been highlighted and should be of real concern is record keeping. If customer records or CRM systems are not accurate, then this will no doubt stymie any efforts to improve matters.
Is it time that the pensions industry stopped taking customers and the business they are given for granted? After all a pension can be moved without too much trouble. The question that must be asked is; why should a customer contributing to a pension put up with lacklustre customer service? Investing in technology is one thing the PPF is advising, but unless firms are guided as to which areas they must seek out to improve, many will either not invest or will invest in products or services that will not serve them or their customers right. Customer service can often be boiled down to how a customer perceives a company’s communication, be that through traditional means or via online methods. For example, according to Hubspot Research, 90% of customers rate an “immediate” response as important or very important when they have a customer service question. 60% of customers define “immediate” as 10 minutes or less. While this might seem like a tight response time for many companies, many are making availabilty and transparency with their customers a priority. After all, the old adage of customers sharing bad service more than they share the news of good service still stands and in these days of switching services frequently, if services are seen as bad, or not responsive enough, customers will inevitably vote with their feet. In the same way that you are able to switch your bank account or energy provider, the list of service providers you are able to change at a moment’s notice is only likely to increase over time.
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How to mitigate this? Think of the customer journey at present. If you are stuck in endless call centre queues, automated phone option trees and ultimately, aren’t able to find out what you need to quickly, you are bound to be frustrated. Even worse is reaching the end of some options and being told to go online. If a customer has chosen to call, it is possibly their last resort and being told to double back on themselves can seem insulting. There are several ways to combat customer apathy and frustration, here are a few:
• A maintained approach: Investing in new customers is between 5 and 25 times more expensive than retaining existing ones. This is even more pertinent to pensions providers; often a pension is something people only ever choose the once. Making sure a customer stays with you and is retained is more important than ever with increased competition.
• Is it your web or mobile presence? It has been revealed by McKinsey & Company that • Be there for every preference. According to sixty-one percent of users are unlikely Hubspot Research, 62% of customers want to return to a mobile site they had to communicate with companies via email for trouble accessing, and 40% end up visiting a customer service. 48% want to use the phone, competitor’s site instead. This could well 42% live chat, and 36% “Contact Us” forms. impact on existing customers as well, leading This means that simply having a great phone them to take their business elsewhere. system is no longer enough. If a customer uses email primarily because they are time All of this could actually improve your retention poor, for example, then the fact your phone and even profitability. For example, it has been system is great could mean nothing. revealed by research by Walker that eightysix percent of consumers are willing to pay • Focus more on the customer journey: more for a great customer experience. In fact, Businesses can grow revenues between by the year 2020, customer experience will 4% and 8% above their market when they overtake price and product as the key brand prioritise better customer service differentiator. This is especially worth noting if, experiences. This is especially true when as a pension provider, you plan to drive up value pensions providers offer additional services. and revenue. In a world where people value The chance to upsell obviously increases if service regardless of price, this must become a they have had a positive experience. given. page 15
by Jamie Brown, Calldrive
RETIREMENT PUZZLE
ACTIVE MANAGEMENT AND SURVIVORSHIP BIAS There is a very simple and powerful argument in favour of passive management. This argument holds more broadly across asset classes, but is simplest to consider in equities, so I’ll focus there. Essentially, the combined portfolio of all active investors must aggregate back up to the market portfolio. Therefore, the average active manager should simply return passive performance, less fees and transaction costs. In one sense this is true. At any point in time, the aggregate portfolio will be the market portfolio. But this misses a key detail. Not every active investor is an active manager. Investors with structural home biases, for example- and retail investors holding personal portfolios- are, in this sense, active investors. Unless there is truly no information to be had, it is hard to see that these investors are competing on a level playing field against a well-equipped and resourced team of professionals. So what does the evidence say? There is empirical evidence that active management can lead to positive returns. Looking at the 20 year period from 1997 to 2017, the Morningstar database suggests 31bps of net alpha from 1.65% tracking error; the eVestment database for institutional equities implies 1.16% of net alpha (with 0.5% fees assumed), for 1.42% active risk (sources AQR, Morningstar, eVestment). That these values are so different is something of a flag. At least part of the explanation is likely to come from survivorship bias. Essentially, managers will grow more, attract more investors, and publish their results more freely if they’ve had strong performance. Those with weaker performance are more likely to fail, and thus disappear from the records. In particular, the eVestment database is self-published, so is likely to suffer from more survivorship bias. So we should haircut the evidence, but it’s not obvious by how much. However, we can test this, at least in theory. Assuming a logistic distribution (essentially a normal distribution but with fatter tails, and simpler computationally) for alpha, we can simulate 10,000 funds, with volatilities in line with the history, expected returns of zero, and prescribe rules for when funds fail. Essentially, we ascribe an x% chance (at the end of each period) of excluding any fund that has a period of n years with negative total active performance. Clearly, this won’t solve the active-passive debate. But it does show a few things. Firstly, that survivorship bias can be significant; but also, for it to explain a 0.2 Sharpe entirely, we would have to see a fairly punchy half to two-thirds of the original funds drop out of the reckoning. It seems unlikely that survivorship bias could explain all the alpha. page 16
by Alex White Head of ALM Research Redington page 17
SOLVENCY II & BEYOND 2021: THE END OF (IBOR) DAYS by Matteo Ricciarelli, Director in Risk Modelling, PwC For a film director in search of inspiration for a future Oscar winner, turning to IBOR discontinuation may not be the worst idea. Several key ingredients of the evergreen thriller movies based on the financial industry are there: the LIBOR scandal to start with, time fast running out and firms engaging in a nearly impossible mission, which involves multi-trillion dollars contracts. In a nutshell, suspense! The insurance industry, traditionally conservative and (fortunately!) underrepresented in the production of financial thrillers, could feature as well. In response to the ‘Dear CEO’ letter dating back to September 2018, insurers stepped up looking for dependencies on LIBOR in their asset portfolios, derivatives to hedge interest rate exposures, reinsurance agreements, and insurance policies. To automate the execution of otherwise manual and cumbersome jobs, firms are also considering contract review technologies. The output of contract review projects will inform repapering strategies that firms may wish to adopt when dealing with their counterparts. However, for insurance firms, LIBOR is also deeply rooted on the liability side of the balance sheet and Solvency II calculations. The European insurance regulator, EIOPA, has not yet shed light on how the new SONIA-based risk-free-rate (RFR) will look. The recent letter from the Working Group on Sterling Risk-Free Reference Rates recently addressed to EIOPA aims at encouraging ‘[…] EIOPA to go beyond monitoring transition to now actively removing the recognised Solvency II barriers to transition’. The lack of certainty around timelines for the production of new RFR hinders the progress the insurance industry can make in terms of its preparation for transition. Secondly, it also bears the risk that the LIBOR-related financial instruments currently used to derive the EIOPA RFR may become illiquid as we approach the end of 2021. Hence it may invalidate the resulting RFR for liability valuation purposes. As we approach the end of 2021, the EIOPA term structures should be unveiled, so that the insurance
industry can abandon the realm of educated guesswork around how term structures may develop. In light of the historical spread between LIBOR and SONIA rates, we may expect that the new SONIA-based RFR will be lower than the current RFR. This will lead to higher Best Estimate Liability (BEL) and Risk Margin (RM) and, potentially, echo the Solvency Capital Requirement (SCR) by hindering the effectiveness of some hedging practices. ALM (interest rate) mismatches may thus come into play and increase the interest rate SCR. Hedging strategies will need rebalancing. On the operational side, firms using stochastic runs to estimate their liabilities may need to consider amending the vastly popular Libor Market Model (LMM) and its several variations to reflect the backward-looking mechanism adopted to convert overnight rates into term structures. The Credit Risk Adjustment (CRA) may become the ‘illustrious victim’ of the IBOR discontinuation: the secured nature of SONIA will diminish the need for the CRA to offset the counterparty credit risks. At the same time, given the CRA is embedded within the Solvency II text, it may not disappear without a regulatory challenge. Similarly, the new SONIA-based RFR may exhibit a liquidity profile different from the one derived from the LIBOR-based RFR. Arguments to bring forward the Last Liquid Point (LLP) may be developed, which would have a big impact on ALM, hedging, and liability valuation. Finally, the new SONIA-based RFR will have implications for the calibration of Solvency II internal models, which may be more challenging due to the limited availability of SONIA rate historical data. The insurance industry awaits clarifications within well-defined timelines to start addressing the necessary changes to their valuation, hedging and Solvency II internal models. Until further clarity is provided, “2021: The end of (IBOR) Days” should remain the title of an intriguing thriller - hopefully one with a happy conclusion and few dramatic twists!
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ACTUARIAL POST RECRUITER OF THE YEAR 2012 . 2013 . 2014 . 2015 . 2016 . 2017 . 2018
BULK ANNUITIES ACTUARY INVESTMENT MANAGER PRICING ACTUARY COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR CFO RISK PRICING MANAGER
LIFE
HEAD OF ACTUARIAL MODELLING
HEAD OF LONGEVITY HEAD OF INVESTMENT
SENIOR AUDIT MANAGER
HEAD OF RISK LEAD CONSULTANT
H E A LT H C A R E A C T U A RY
MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT
CHIEF ACTUARY PRINCIPAL
HEAD OF EXPOSURE MANAGEMENT ACTUARIAL PRACTICE LEADER ACTUARIAL TECHNICAL LEAD
HEAD OF MODELLING FINANCIAL MARKETS RISK MANAGER WITH PROFITS ACTUARY PENSIONS & INSURANCE MANAGER ACTUARIAL PRICING CONSULTANT INVESTMENT ACTUARY - FIDUCIARY MANAGEMENT
HEAD OF CAPITAL STRATEGIC RISK CONSULTANT DIRECTOR OF GI SPECIALIST INSURER SENIOR MANAGER - INSURANCE INVESTMENT
ACTUARIAL ANALYTICS MANAGER
LIFE DIRECTOR
HEAD OF ACTUARIAL CHANGE RISK ACTUARIAL LEAD
MANAGING DIRECTOR HEAD OF RISK PRICING
CONTACT STAR TODAY TO DISCUSS THIS EXCITING NEW ROLE Antony Buxton FIA MANAGING DIRECTOR
page7766 19 414 560 | antony.buxton@staractuarial.com +44
INNER WORKINGS CLOUD-BASED SERVICES AREN’T PIE-IN-THE-SKY
by Tom Murray Head of Product Strategy LifePlus Solution, Majesco Getting information and completing transactions with a life and pensions company can be difficult. The paperwork involved, the highly personal nature of the data and, in some cases, the traditional culture of the organisations has, with the best of intentions, unfortunately created quite a bureaucracy. So much so that it can seem to customers that the life and pension sector were more focused on protecting the information than they were on protecting their customers. This is no longer going to work in a world that is morphing into an on-demand, 24x7 environment which brooks no delay in terms of service fulfilment. The bottom line is that life assurance intermediaries, such as agents and brokers, and direct customers are looking for a much higher level of service than is currently provided by existing business processes employed by many carriers. Real-time values and the ability to check their policies at any time of day or night is now regarded as de rigueur. And there is constant pressure to deliver more, such as allowing people to amend their own data and giving them information on their own financial position wherever they are and via whatever medium they choose. The trouble for many life companies is that they are held back by a huge encumbrance - their legacy systems. Large banks of policies are already residing on these
systems and the cost of maintaining the existing level of service is very high. The technologies used are designed to provide the type of batch-style, mass numbercrunching processing that suited the industry 20 years ago, not the on-demand, real-time approach that is expected by customers today. Requests for information on the value of investments or pensions frequently take so long to process, that the information is out of date and useless by the time the customer actually gets it. And it is not just the company’s own systems that can be a problem. If companies are to deliver real-time services to their end customers, they will also need real-time services from their own information suppliers. So, they need to switch to suppliers who are capable of providing this level of service. Life and pension customers want services delivered on multiple platforms; they want real-time figures and not to always be receiving valuations that are weeks old; they want to be able to access the same service whether they are currently using their smartphone, their tablet or are on their computer; when they make a claim, they want it to be facilitated rapidly without undue delay caused by paper-based bureaucracy. The only way that this demand from consumers can be met is by the use of flexible, cloud-based services
page 20
throughout the organisation. Dynamic in-bound services are needed to make sure that the company is receiving information as rapidly as possible, whether it be fund prices, medical responses, or standard information such as credit checks. Without this, it will be impossible for companies to deliver the realtime outbound services their hard-won customers are demanding.
that see their devices not as an addition, but as an extension of their own selves.
It is not so with the legacy systems. These systems are like a lead weight, dragging down the attempts of companies to be customer centric. Older technologies just can’t perform in this new world that is demanding such high levels of responsive service. As hard as it is to embrace changes, companies need to take a “digitalfirst” approach, making digital customer journeys the default and only falling back on more traditional approaches for the exceptional cases. Insurers must examine the extent to which all aspects of their operations could benefit from being digitalised. If one adopts a mind-set of assuming customers want to interact with the company digitally, this will be to the forefront of decision making when insurers are designing their services. And services designed to deliver digitally will be vital to attract business from millennials and generation Z, those younger generations
The key point is that technology is becoming so complicated and evolving so quickly that life and pension companies should concentrate on their expertise – designing the products and services that their customers need – and leave the management of delivery to those who specialise in that. Moving to the cloud is cost-effective, allowing for subscription payments that mean companies are only paying for the services they use, allowing them to experiment with new approaches and run fast-mini projects rather than always being forced to be conservative in their ambitions because of the scale of the cost involved in trying new strategies that have to be supported by cumbersome legacy systems. Consumers are trusting the cloud with all their personal information, via social media, and increasingly their dayto-day financial information, via online banking. The idea of cloud-based services was once seen as very futuristic but is now a hard reality in most business areas. Online sales and services are becoming an ever-bigger part of the economy. Insurers need to join the digital revolution and move to the cloud if they want a slice of this pie.
page 21
LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTUARY... Bolton Associates’ focus is specifically in the non-life actuarial space; the largest dedicated GI actuarial specialist in the market, working across the whole insurance market. The consultants at Bolton Associates offer an exceptional service, managing the process with the utmost tact and respect for all parties. We are passionate about our market, taking great interest in the insurance world as a whole; keeping up with trends and changes, and maintaining our ever-expanding network. We are good at what we do, because we enjoy what we do.
search & selection
The next focus for Bolton Associates’ Spotlight page, is an interview with a leading actuary within one of the Lloyd’s Broking houses. With the broking firms now offering important analytical, actuarial and deal-assisting advice, for the next few months Zoe Bolton will be talking to the senior actuaries in these firms, getting a brief insight into their career paths and visions for the future. This month Zoe talks to James Francis of Ed Broking. What is your current role, and how did you end up in it? I am currently Head of Actuarial at Ed Broking having joined the group in 2018. I started my career at Deloitte, where upon qualification I looked to move in-house, eventually joining Argo Group where I served for 7 years as Head of Group Capital Modelling. I joined the broking world last year as it seemed a natural extension of my career to date; combining the variety and client facing aspects of consultancy with the commercial modelling aspects I loved as a capital modeller. What is the defining moment of your career to date? After seven months working for my previous employer my then boss quit. I thought I wasn’t ready to lead and build the function, but the MD backed me (hopefully not just because I was cheap!). Regardless, this gave me a lot of confidence at a relatively junior stage of my career, and I worked hard to change the way I thought about things and how I wanted to be perceived by others. This proved to be a real turning point on my route to where I am today. In your opinion, what prepared you best to take on your current role? I think to be a good broker, you have to understand how the carrier makes decisions. Working in-house within capital modelling gave me great exposure to executive, reinsurance and ERM committees, and with this great insight into the strategic side of the business. Understanding how to blend a modelled result with external commercial considerations is extremely useful to deliver the best results for our clients. What is the biggest challenge you face in your role within this market?
Staying relevant. Where insurers aim to condense the supply chain we have to offer more than just the placement of risk to justify our existence as intermediaries. We aim to provide this through technological innovation; streamlining the placement to reduce frictional costs, and through superior analytics to deliver a more in depth understanding of risk. How does your actuarial training and background assist in your day-to-day role now? I would argue my actuarial training is very much ongoing. One of the things I love most about my current role is having the opportunity to explore; taking concepts I am familiar with and building on these to either do things more efficiently, create better visualisations or develop more predictive models. Communication in my role is key and the actuarial syllabus prepares us well for this. When did you first join the Institute & Faculty of Actuaries, and what advice would you give to those students looking to emulate your career path? Joined 2007. My Advice: ask a lot of questions! Always find out the context behind any piece of work and what decisions you are helping to inform. Too many actuaries work within their defined box without oversight of the bigger picture. If you had your time again, what would you do, career-wise? Professional juggler Please share your favourite piece of trivia with our readers! As an imminently expecting first time father as part of my “essential baby reading” I recently learnt that at birth babies have 300 bones compared to 206 in a full grown adult. Also, they have no kneecaps.
page 23
FINDING A HOME FOR LONGEVITY RISK Longevity risk has historically been seen as an inherent part of running a pension scheme. But innovation in the market has changed this and getting a grip on longevity risk is no longer the preserve of large sophisticated schemes.
When using buy-in, longevity is one of several factors in the pricing. Buy-in pricing of pensioners often provides a return well above gilts, as is the case currently. Therefore, we need to break down the different sources of longevity risk in a scheme, understand the costs of removing them and weigh this up against the risk reduction this can offer.
What is longevity risk? Longevity risk is the risk that pension scheme members live longer than expected. Pure longevity risk is a combination of three elements: • Base risk arises from the characteristics of a scheme’s membership not being precisely reflected in the actuarial assumptions, affecting smaller sized and immature schemes • Trend risk is an uncertainty associated with predicting future improvements in life expectancy across the population, affecting all scheme sizes particularly immature schemes • Idiosyncratic risk is the risk your scheme experiences lower than expected deaths purely due to randomness and small sample size, affecting smaller sized schemes or those with concentration of liabilities in a few members Measurement risk is a fourth risk which is not directly related to actual longevity but is closely connected as it relates to how predictions change over time. All schemes are impacted by measurement risk but schemes that update their assumptions triennially may see a bigger impact compared to annual updates. Bringing longevity risk into the frame
Longevity risk in context To build a full picture, longevity risk should be considered both in isolation and at an overall level to capture the dilution with other uncorrelated risks. Historic scenario analysis can be used to look at how a scheme’s funding level would have been affected by market factors including investment returns, interest rate and inflation. This can be compared alongside the impact longevity assumptions would have had on the funding level in each of the last 20 years. The impact of longevity is relatively more significant the lower the return target of the investment strategy. As most schemes are on a journey of de-risking, over time longevity risk will inevitably become progressively more material to overall risk. The toolkit There are a range of approaches that can be used to control and moderate the longevity risk a scheme is exposed to including:
Trustees are familiar with the concept of setting a risk budget for their scheme and looking to diversify sources of return within their investment portfolio. Is it possible for pension schemes to apply this rationale to managing longevity risk? Longevity risk is normally measured over the lifetime of a scheme, compared to other risks which are often measured over one or three years. It is therefore more difficult to draw comparisons between longevity risk and other risks such as investment, interest rate or inflation.
• Pension increase exchange: removes longevity risk on future pension increases • Flexible retirement options: members retiring early are offered flexible pensions which can often be front end loaded • Transfer value exercise: longevity risk is completely removed for members who transfer • Partial buy-in: longevity risk is removed for insured benefits • Longevity swap: longevity risk is removed for benefits covered by swap • Consolidator: longevity risk is completely removed
The true cost of hedging longevity Longevity risk is unusual because it isn’t a rewarded risk in the traditional sense but there can often be a cost to remove it. For example, when the risk is hedged with a longevity swap a more conservative life expectancy assumption typically increases the expected benefit cashflows by between 5% and 8%. This cost means longevity risk can often be considered as being rewarded for the purpose of decision making – i.e. you don’t incur the cost if you retain the risk. However, this doesn’t in itself undermine the case for removing or hedging some or all of your longevity risk. This is the same principle as is employed in an efficient investment strategy which will seek to diversify return drivers rather than put all of the eggs in one basket. To complicate matters further, some ways of managing longevity risk do not involve cost at all. For example, some member option-based approaches implicitly reduce longevity risk whilst improving a scheme’s funding level.
Furthermore, you can reduce the base and trend risks through using the latest approaches, such as member profiling, to better estimate your membership’s characteristics. The more we understand about a scheme’s membership, the better we can reflect how long members are living and how this may change in the future. Taken in the context of the wider strategy, then this could unlock the means to better control future funding of your scheme.
by Steve Leake, Head of Demographic Research Team, XPS Pensions Group
page 24
PENSION PILLAR BALDRICK AND THE STATE PENSION AGE While defaults might be heavily invested in high risk investments (e.g. equities) in the early years, this proportion falls to an average of 21% equities when people reach retirement age.
by Dale Critchley Policy Manager Aviva Baldrick was famous for having one, but millions of people don’t have a plan, cunning or otherwise, when it comes to their retirement date. Or if they have a plan, they haven’t told their pension provider anything about it. Aviva’s governance reports reveal that a huge proportion of people in workplace pensions are triple defaulting. That means paying the default contribution rate, investing in the default fund and intending to retire at the default retirement age. While investing in the default fund might be the right thing to do if people don’t have the time or expertise to manage their own investments, it relies on people setting the retirement age that’s right for them. We estimate that an average earner in an automatic enrolment scheme could lose over £4000 by sticking with a default retirement age that’s 3 years too early compared to their plans and just under £10,000 if they have a retirement age set at 60, but don’t actually intend retiring until age 68. With default investments providing solutions to over 12.5 million UK savers in master trusts alone this adds up to a substantial sum across UK pension savers. Almost every default investment solution has a de-risking element. This means that as members get closer to their retirement date, investments are switched from higher risk (higher return) funds, to lower risk (lower return) funds, to protect their retirement savings from sudden market moves.
De-risking profiles have been carefully designed to balance risk and return in the approach to retirement. But this balance is thrown out of kilter if the retirement age on our records doesn’t match the member’s plans. If we have a retirement age that’s too young we’ll move investments to less risky assets too early. This means members lose out on investment growth when their pension pot is the largest. If we hold a retirement age that’s too old, we’ll keep money invested in riskier investments for too long. If investments lose value too close to planned retirement age there may not be time for them to recover their value. This means less money, or perhaps a last-minute delay to retirement plans. The difference in return can be wide. An analysis of defaults found 5 year default investment returns to be 3.62% lower at retirement than at 30 years to pension age. And 2.4% lower compared to the average investment return at 5 years to retirement age. Most schemes still have a default retirement age of 65 or younger, but anyone who’s aged under 41 won’t receive their state pension until age 68. Some will see the state pension as insignificant, but many will depend on it to provide them with the additional income to allow them to leave work. People might already have some kind of plan in mind - but they need to log onto their provider’s website and update their pension records if they’re to avoid a nasty surprise, or suffer an avoidable loss on their route to retirement.
1. Loss for an individual earning £27,664 automatically enrolled at age 22 into an AE minimum scheme invested in Aviva’s My Future default fund, contributions assumed to increase annually at 2.5%, figures discounted for inflation at 2.5% p.a, 2. Master Trust and GPP Defaults Report, Corporate Adviser Intelligence, June 2019 3. Master Trust and GPP Defaults Report, Corporate Adviser Intelligence, June 2019
page 25
TEMPORARY JOBS • LIFE • GRADUATE • PENSION • IMMEDIATE JOBS • £100K+ • CONSULTANTS • TEMPORARY JOBS • LIF GRADUATE • PENSION • IMMEDIATE JOB • £100K+ • CONSULTANTS • TEMPORARY JOBS • LIFE • GRADUATE • PENSION • IMMEDIATE JOBS • £100K+ • CONSULTANT • TEMPORARY JOBS • LIFE • GRADUATE • PENSION • IMMEDIATE JOBS • £100K+ CONSULTANTS • TEMPORARY JOBS • LIF GRADUATE • PENSION • IMMEDIATE JOB • £100K+ • CONSULTANTS • TEMPORARY JOBS • LIFE • GRADUATE • PENSION • IMMEDIATE JOBS • £100K+ • CONSULTANT • TEMPORARY JOBS • LIFE • GRADUATE • PENSION • IMMEDIATE JOBS • £100K+ CONSULTANTS • TEMPORARY JOBS • LIF
RECRUITMENT
• • FE BS Y TS E • FE BS Y TS E • FE
search & selection Part-Qualified
Nearly / Newly Reserving
General Insurance £Market Rates London
Associate £Market Rates London
We are working closely with an exciting start-up who are looking for part qualified candidates. All commercial actuarial backgrounds will be considered providing you have strong experience with some of the following: R/Python/ SQL/Tyche. Ideal opportunity for those with an interest in data driven analytics.
Reserving actuaries looking to join a dynamic London market insurer should get in touch. As a relatively new entrant to the market, the opportunity to set up and build the reserving process will be an attractive proposition. You will be a self-starter with experience of using SQL and have great communication skills. You will report into the head of reserving and will have clear visibility to senior executives.
.
REF: ZB 001209 HT
REF: ZB 001210 CS
Pricing Actuarial Analyst
Data Scientist
General Insurance £Market Rates London
General Insurance £Market Rates UK & Europe
Part Qualified GI Actuary required to join a dynamic team in a well-known Lloyd’s/London market insurer in a pricing role. Ideally, you will have 2-3 years of London Market/ Lloyds pricing experience. The position will be operating over multiple territories & lines of business and working on reinsurance and insurance business. To be considered you must have strong Excel and VBA skills. .
Global insurer are seeking experienced Data Scientists with prior insurance company experience, to join a new department developing innovative risk modelling tools for clients and underwriters. The successful candidate will have strong data mining skills, coding skills in Python, R with knowledge of AI, machine learning, IoT, NLP and with project management and excellent communication skills.
REF: ZB 001189 MM
REF: ZB 001212 CC
Pricing Actuary
Pricing Analyst / Actuary Cyber
General Insurance £85,000 + Bonus + Excellent Benefits London
General Insurance To £120,000 Per Annum London
Exclusive to Bolton Associates, this highly respected global Lloyd’s Insurer, requires a Nearly/Newly Qualified Pricing Actuary to join an established but growing team. Embedded with the underwriters, you will have proven Lloyd’s/London Market experience, excellent communication and influencing skills. Strong VBA is highly desirable. .
London market company with a highly regarded cyber team has an opening for pricing analysts / actuaries to join their Cyber team. Ideally permanent but contractors with Cyber experience will also be considered. Those candidates without cyber experience but experience of pricing business with minimal to no historical data will also be considered.
REF: ZB 001208 PW
REF: ZB 001195 SC
www.bolton-associates.co.uk page 27 +44 (0)207 250 4718 Bolton Associates, 5 St. John’s Lane, London, EC1M 4BH
N OLNI -FLEI F E CHIEF ACTUARY - LIFE
STRATEGIC LIFE LEADER
Qualified
Specialty Insurer
LIFE SOUTH WEST / MIDLANDS
STAR5805
Qualified
DIRECTOR-LEVEL ROLE Leading Consultancy
LIFE LONDON / SCOTLAND
Qualified
STAR5738
Leading Client
LIFE NON-LIFE LONDON
STAR5693
Are you a Chief Actuary looking for a new challenge? Or are you looking to step up a level into your first Chief Actuary post? This is your chance to take up a key role within an innovative and developing organisation.
Seeking a recognised industry leader, with a UK life practising certificate, and extensive experience of supporting high-profile projects across restructuring, transfers, investment ALM, capital raising, and capital optimisation.
Seeking candidates with excellent communication skills who are able to influence others, work co-operatively, prioritise and manage complex projects, and lead meetings with senior stakeholders.
REPORTING AND ANALYSIS
TRANSACTIONS LEADER
FINANCE TRANSFORMATION MODELLING
Qualified
Financial Services Group
LIFE LONDON
STAR5739 / 5740
Take a major role in the delivery of the Solvency II reporting requirements for a market leader. With ownership of key processes and exposure to stakeholders at all levels, you must have strong interpersonal skills.
Global Consultancy
LIFE LONDON
Seeking a qualified actuary with a strong record of leading the delivery of transaction projects, proven team leadership capability and practical Solvency II experience, including experience of the Matching Adjustment.
STAR5769
Join this high-calibre finance transformation team in a specialty modelling role. Experience building models with MoSes, Prophet, RAFM, or similar, is a must, as is an interest in the future of modelling.
THE PRICE IS RIGHT - LIFE PRICING
C U RRENT CONTRACT VACANCI ES
HEALTH ACTUARY Global Financial Solutions Provider STAR5718
Part-Qualified
Market-Leading Firm
LIFE LONDON
STAR5500
LIFE LONDON
STAR5778
PRODUCT AND PRICING
GROUP PRICING SENIOR ANALYST
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Market Leader
Part-Qualified
Financial Solutions Provider
STAR5742
LIFE LONDON
STAR5792
LIFE ACTUARY - BUSINESS CHANGE
MANAGERS OR SENIOR MANAGERS
Part-Qualified / Qualified
Qualified
Use your life assurance reporting experience to assist in the implementation of the new IFRS 17 process, testing systems and processes, validating outcomes, and building business plan models to forecast metrics.
Global Reinsurer
An exciting opportunity to play a key role on quotations and basis development across all lines of business, and to provide technical input to the development of protection products, structured finance solutions and pricing tools.
Take pricing and product development to the next level in a position ideal for an all-rounder with UK protection products experience. This broad, commercial role requires strong modelling and stakeholder management skills.
STAR5713
Part-Qualified / Qualified
An ideal development opportunity for an ambitious actuarial student to join a cutting-edge firm providing expert balance sheet structuring to life insurers.
A fantastic opportunity to review, improve and approve quotations, pricing bases and monitoring experience for a global business. In this key role, you will also provide project management and guidance to local teams.
Major Global Insurer
E
IV
US
CL
C O NTACT US NOW TO DI SCUSS OUR
LIFE SOUTH WEST
Qualified
STAR5555
EX
LIFE CONTRACTORS
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Leading Consultancy
LIFE ANALYST
CAL LING ALL
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Use your life or pensions experience to provide support in developing, calibrating and documenting assumptions, methodologies and parameters, maintaining pricing frameworks, and reviewing pricing approaches for new products.
Major Consultancy
LIFE LONDON
Is your next role one of the
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STAR5680
Join a growing risk team in one of several key roles, where you will contribute to developing and launching new initiatives and take on day-to-day responsibility for a portfolio of assignments.
LIFE
VACANCIES on our website?
Lance Randles MBA
Peter Baker
Jan Sparks FIA
PARTNER +44 7545 424 206 irene.paterson@staractuarial.com
PARTNER +44 7889 007 861 lance.randles@staractuarial.com
PARTNER +44 7860 602 586 peter.baker@staractuarial.com
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PENSIONS
INVESTMENT SENIOR MANAGER
Qualified
Qualified
Leading Insurer
PENSIONS LONDON
STAR5673
CLIENT-FACING PENSIONS Global Leader
PENSIONS SOUTH WEST / SOUTH EAST
STAR5720
Part-Qualified
Leading Pensions Consultancy
PENSIONS MANCHESTER
STAR5661
A fantastic opportunity for a pensions actuary to work in-house. This corporate role offers visibility and responsibility to a candidate who can both take the lead in negotiations and get their hands dirty with model development.
Take a lead role in providing strategic advice to clients with worldwide pensions arrangements, particularly in relation to mergers & acquisitions and corporate restructurings.
Seeking candidates with client-facing experience to join a multi-disciplinary team providing leading-edge advice across funding, investment, risk transfer and covenant.
IN-HOUSE PENSIONS - RISK MODELLING
CORPORATE PENSIONS
INVESTMENT SOLUTIONS
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Global Insurance Company
PENSIONS NON-LIFE LONDON
STAR5785
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Leading Consultancy
PENSIONS LONDON
STAR5633
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Leading Consultancy
INVESTMENT LIFE NON-LIFE LONDON
STAR5729
A fantastic opportunity to take up a nontraditional role within a leading company. In this exciting position, you will develop new skills in pension risk capital modelling whilst supporting IAS 19 reporting.
Take this chance to lead technical analysis for a variety of corporate clients, acting as a key point of contact. You will work on strategy, liability management, transactions, de-risking and other special projects.
Provide cutting-edge investment solutions to life and non-life insurance clients, developing propositions and ensuring effective delivery. You will be able to work autonomously, alongside a market-leading team.
INTEGRATED RISK MANAGEMENT
STRATEGIC PENSIONS
BPA PRICING ANALYST
Part-Qualified / Qualified
Part-Qualified / Qualified
Leading Consultancy
PENSIONS EDINBURGH
STAR5655
Leading Consultancy
PENSIONS EDINBURGH
STAR5710
Part-Qualified
Major BPA Provider
PENSIONS LIFE LONDON
STAR5589
Seeking a pensions specialist to support both Trustee & Corporate clients, contributing to varied and interesting projects including integrated risk management and asset/liability modelling.
Use your strong client consulting experience to lead on the preparation and delivery of both day-to-day and strategic advice, with a focus on creating tailored solutions that meet client needs.
An excellent opportunity to support clients on multi-stage de-risking projects. This growing team deals with large clients, liaising between fund managers and the reinsurance market to construct bespoke, commercial solutions.
PART-QUALIFIED PENSIONS ACTUARIES
YEARN AFTER READING
CORPORATE TRANSACTIONS
Part-Qualified
Leading Consultancy
PENSIONS GLASGOW / EDINBURGH
STAR5786
We have a number of exciting opportunities for candidates of all levels of experience to support a range of high-profile clients, whilst developing your consulting skills and knowledge of occupational pensions.
Is your next role one of the
89
PENSIONS & INVESTMENT
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Part-Qualified
Major Consultancy
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STAR5335
Part-Qualified / Qualified
Leading Consultancy
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STAR5581
Multiple opportunities for high-calibre student actuaries to take their careers to the next level with a market-leading consultancy, delivering dynamic and complex solutions to corporate clients.
Use your excellent planning and communication skills to manage the high-quality, efficient delivery of day-to-day actuarial services to clients, focusing on employer advice and transactions.
ACTUARIAL ANALYST - YORKSHIRE
CORPORATE & TRUSTEE ADVISORY
Part-Qualified
Part-Qualified
Growing Independent Consultancy
PENSIONS YORKSHIRE
STAR5750
Seeking technically-strong pensions analysts to join a dynamic and growing team, within a business providing exposure to trustee, corporate and investment services for a range of clients.
Leading Global Consultancy
PENSIONS LONDON
STAR5580
Take up this chance to work on diverse workstreams such as integrated risk management, liability management, design strategy, and M&A due diligence, whilst contributing to cutting-edge thought leadership.
Peter Baker
Adam Goodwin
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PARTNER +44 7860 602 586 peter.baker@staractuarial.com
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MANAGING DIRECTOR +44 7595 023 983 louis.manson@staractuarial.com
OPERATIONS DIRECTOR +44 7739 345 946 joanne.oconnor@staractuarial.com
Irene Paterson FFA
The pensions market is currently extremely buoyant, with exciting opportunities across the UK at all levels. Now is a great time to contact us regarding the next move in your pensions career. page 29
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RESERVING MANAGER Technology Consultancy
NON-LIFE LONDON
Part-Qualified / Qualified
STAR5755
CALL ING ALL
NON-LIFE CONTRACTORS C O NTACT US NOW T O DI SCUSS OUR C U RRENT CONTRACT VACANCI ES
INTERNATIONAL RISK Market Leader STAR5732
INTERNATIONAL CONSULTING
Financial Services Leader
NON-LIFE SOUTH EAST
A superb role requiring a people-focused actuary to apply expert judgement and to take the lead on projects, whilst mentoring junior actuaries and analysts. A strong technical and software background is essential.
INTERNATIONAL PRICING ACTUARY
COMMERCIAL LINES CONSULTANCY
Qualified
Qualified
Specialist, Growing Insurer STAR5522
RESERVING EXPERT
Niche Insurer
NON-LIFE LONDON
E
Qualified
STAR5795
Working in a small and close-knit actuarial team close to senior management, this wideranging role involves delivering reserve reviews, advising on industry best practice, and helping the team advance with the latest methodology.
PRICING AND PORTFOLIO ANALYTICS Leading Consultancy
NON-LIFE LONDON
STAR5724
This Senior Manager role has a particular focus on London and Lloyd’s Market reserving. You will take the lead on projects, often working with specialist colleagues across multiple disciplines.
Part-Qualified
STAR5383
Use your commercial lines reserving or pricing background in a role offering the opportunity to learn and develop, as you support the creation and delivery of high-quailty analytic output.
IV
TAKE THE LEAD Qualified
Leading Broker
NON-LIFE LONDON
US
Working closely with the risk and pricing leads, you will use your pricing and stakeholder management experience to manage the risks to the pricing function, and ensure robust governance and business standards.
STAR5387
Use your significant stakeholder management skills to contribute to our client’s product roadmap design and strategy, whilst helping to drive growth and supporting the product development workstream.
CL
STAR5730
Entrepreneurial Consultancy
NON-LIFE LONDON
EX
NON-LIFE GREATER LONDON
E
Leading Insurer
Qualified
STAR5717
IV
US
CL
Qualified
STAR5628
ACTUARIAL SPECIALIST
Lead the next stage of pricing development in this key role, with a focus on delivering complex price optimisation models, managing price changes, monitoring performance and tracking market position.
EX
PRICING - RISK AND COMPLIANCE
Specialty Insurer
NON-LIFE LONDON
Join a leading team, providing capital and reserving support for a variety of business lines. Solvency II or reserving expertise will enable you to carry out a wide range of crucial tasks, including reinsurance arrangement reviews.
NON-LIFE SOUTHERN EUROPE
Take this great opportunity to develop your career within a broad role in a thriving location. You must be a highly-motivated team player, with excellent leadership, communication and timemanagement skills, and Solvency II experience.
Part-Qualified
STAR5737
In this key role, you will manage the independent reserve review and provide a second opinion on reserve recommendations. You will also oversee the development of tools and methods, ensuring an efficient, robust and up-to-date process.
Qualified
NON-LIFE RISK SOUTHERN EUROPE
Major Insurer
NON-LIFE LONDON / EAST OF ENGLAND
Fast-growing AI consultancy seeks an entrepreneurial leader with a strong track record to develop its UK and EU business, utilising Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence solutions to solve business problems.
Qualified
CAPITAL AND RESERVING ACTUARY
Technology Player
NON-LIFE LONDON
STAR5704
Are you looking to take a step up? Do you enjoy building tools for pricing and analytics? This is an amazing opportunity for a candidate with a passion for coding, data and technology who also has experience in portfolio analysis and pricing.
RESERVING STARS IN THE CITY Qualified
Market Leader
NON-LIFE LONDON
STAR5698
Our client has multiple roles for technically strong reserving actuaries with commercial awareness and the ability to influence and challenge. Contact us now for further information.
Is your next role one of the
116
NON-LIFE & HEALTHCARE
VACANCIES on our website?
Lance Randles MBA
Paul Cook
Satpal Johri
PARTNER +44 7889 007 861 lance.randles@staractuarial.com
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR +44 7740 285 139 paul.cook@staractuarial.com
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR +44 7808 507 600 satpal.johri@staractuarial.com
Clare Roberts
James Harrison
Diane Anderson
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR +44 7714 490 922 clare.roberts@staractuarial.com
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR +44 7591 206 881 james.harrison@staractuarial.com
SENIOR CONSULTANT +44 7492 060 219 diane.anderson@staractuarial.com
Antony Buxton FIA
Louis Manson
Joanne O’Connor
MANAGING DIRECTOR +44 7766 414 560 antony.buxton@staractuarial.com
MANAGING DIRECTOR +44 7595 023 983 louis.manson@staractuarial.com
OPERATIONS DIRECTOR +44 7739 345 946 joanne.oconnor@staractuarial.com
P LE A S E CONTACT US AT ANY TI M E TO D IS C USS Y OUR RECRU I TM ENT NEEDS
+44 20 7868 1900
staractuarial.com
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