Actuarial Analyst Interview Questions and Answers

1. What is an Actuary?

Actuary is a professional who measures and manages risks and uncertainties. The field that corresponds to this profession is Actuarial Science.

These are the people who calculate the risks associated with property, life, health and help in working out the products that can help in providing a security to the buyer and profit to the business.

So, all the health insurance, property insurance, life insurance products that you see in the market are a work of actuaries. They analyze the data and estimate the likelihood & cost of an event like sickness, injury, death etc. They are the ones who calculate what the insurance company should charge its clients as a premium for every service.

There are two categories of actuaries -

i. Life actuaries - These include health, life and pension actuaries. They mainly deal with mortality, morbidity and investment risks.

The products that they usually work with are: Life insurance, health insurance, disability insurance, pension, health savings accounts, long term care insurance etc.

ii. Non-life actuaries - They are also called as Property and General insurance actuaries. They mainly deal with physical and legal risks that might affect people’s property.

The products that they work with are: auto insurance, commercial or residential property insurance, malpractice insurance, cyber insurance etc.

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2. What are the important skills required to be a successful Actuary?

The trick to answer this question effectively is, talk about the skills required to perform that role and then discuss how you possess them.

To be able to do this, you must read the job description carefully and make a list of all the skills and qualities required to perform that role. This is a very important step because the requirements of the role might vary with the employer’s business and domain. So, one list won’t always be sufficient.

Some of the skills that you can talk about are:

i) Extremely good sense of business - Including finance, economics and accounting with an interest in financial impact of various geo-political happenings - Because this is what creates the opportunities for you.

ii) Expertise in Mathematics - Calculus, statistics, probability because they let you quantify the business opportunities.

iii) Proficient analytical, project management and problem solving skills

iv) Expertise in working with the computers - Especially in formulating spreadsheets, statistical analysis programs, database and programming languages.

v) Effective oral and written communication skills - To be able to interact effectively with the team and the client. Writing good reports is an inseparable part of this profession.

vi) They are highly self-motivated, can work independently and with teams

vii) Well aware of social, political and economic environment & its impact on business

3. What are the main responsibilities of an Actuary?

This looks like a very simple question but is a very important one. Your answer to this question tells the interviewer two things about you:

i.) How aware are you about the requirements of the employer?
ii.) Your readiness to discharge the duties.

The main responsibilities of an Actuary include:

i) Compiling and reviewing statistical data - This is the most important task that an Actuary does. They analyze the data on mortality, disability, morbidity, retirement, sickness etc. and make it go through the statistical models to see the effect it would have on insurance beneficiaries and the company.

ii) Work on developing the insurance products based on this analysis

iii) Developing and implementing business strategies to increase the profitability of an insurer. For e.g acquiring or merging with any insurers, selling of a business, effect of converting the form of organization from mutual to share-holder-owned and vice versa on policy holders.

iv) Assessment of solvency and management of capital

v) Develop reports and presentations - To convert their analysis into documents understandable to clients and management

vi) Advising on company policies and contracts - to see if the policies and contracts take care of the risks that they calculated and their employers are sufficiently protected.

vii) Developing new methods of Risk Analysis - When existing policies need to be adapted to changed circumstances or when new insurance policies are to be designed. They may also need to do this increase the accuracy and efficiency of existing models.

viii) Analyze profitability and develop dividend & bonus scales for their clients and present their recommendations to the board of directors for approval.

ix) Communicating with clients, managers and stakeholders

x) Providing expert testimonies - In issues related to risk and insurance.

xi) Serve on ALM (Asset Liability Management) Committees along with investment managers, product line managers and financial officers.

4. What factors would you take into consideration while working out the premium for a policy?

There are many factors that affect the pricing of premium for the policies. Some of them are:

i) Costs of benefits provided by product design - It doesn’t mean just the basic cost but also the cost of any guarantees or options provided by the policy.

ii) Expenses - This includes commissions, underwriting costs, policy administration and overhead costs.

iii) Earning expectation of the insurer from investment of premiums.

iv) Then you also have to see the willingness of policy holders to pay the premium regularly to keep the policies alive

v) Sensitivity of profit margin to variations in cost factor

vi) A reasonable profit margin

vii) Competition