Description: Discusses developing an investment strategy for new products, inconsistencies between pricing and financial-reporting models, and total return on the investment portfolio versus total return to the company. These topics are addressed from the perspectives of [1] a corporate actuarial department head, [2] a consultant to life companies in these areas, and [3] a preeminent risk-management actuary. From the 1987 Record of Society of Actuaries, Vol. 13, No. 3.

Description: The December 2013/January 2014 edition of The Actuary magazine—the Society of Actuaries’ flagship publication.

Description: The October/November 2015 edition of The Actuary magazine—the Society of Actuaries’ flagship publication.

Description: The article provides a general description of the DISC assessment, and how it can be used in your professional and personal life.

Description: Applying Agile Methodologies to Manage Work and Drive Value is intended as an overview of the SCRUM, Kanban, and Lean methods of managing work in constantly changing environments. The value it provides is to draw awareness to the various methods that exist when the goal is to perform work with agility. There are three main sources of information within this version: scrumalligance.org, kanban.university, and lean.org for reference.

Description: This article focuses on actuaries’ self-perceptions regarding their strengths and weaknesses and the implications of these perceptions on their effectiveness as leaders.

Description: Executives often tell subject matter experts such as actuaries, “You should think more strategically!” But, the executives never define what they mean by “thinking more strategically”. This article defines the skills actuaries need to be perceived as being more strategic. It will provide practical steps actuaries can take to gain more strategic influence and escape the trap of being perceived as only a subject matter expert who provides limited strategic value.

Description: The June/July 2014 edition of The Actuary magazine—the Society of Actuaries’ flagship publication.

Description: The article describes principles for optimal sub-tasking of a project goal. Two experiments each one comparing different approaches are presented. A summary of principles for optimal goal setting presents seven key points: i)levels of outcome goals should be recognizable and lack ambiguity; ii) each subtask should be atomic, i.e. not be capable of being broken up into further subtasks, iii) the subtasks should be uniform, lacking ambiguity, so that any new trainee could master it without the need for further guidance; iv) each subtask should be attainable in a reasonable amount of time; v) mentor feedback should be provided during the initial stages of learning or training; vi) upon mastery of each subtask trainees should be encouraged to maximize their overall score; vii) after mastery of individual subtasks, while attempting to maximize scores, trainees should be provided with a mixture of easy, intermediate, and difficult tasks.

Description: The April/May 2013 edition of The Actuary magazine—the Society of Actuaries’ flagship publication.