Description: A discussion of alternative meanings to “Best” in best estimate. When one is trying to estimate a result that is normally distributed, the mean, median and mode will all equal one another. However if the results are not normally distributed, different variance metrics will result in different “best” estimates. When different parts of a financial statement use different criteria for measuring best estimates and different processes for handling variances, the results can be volatile, unpredictable and perhaps unreasonable.

Description: This paper introduces a conjecture as to a method for estimating how much has to be added to the probability of ruin by n claims to obtain the probability of ultimate ruin. From the Actuarial Research Clearing House 1994 Vol. 2 .