Description: An article that offers a reinsurance professional's perspective on re-engineering which resulted in strengthened and improved service to their clients as well as net improvement to their bottom line.

Description: Article Why He's Who He Is - A Conversation With John O'Connor in The Actuary, June 1979, Volume 13, Number 6

Description: As the pace of consolidation accelerates and competition increases, profitability pressures are intensifying. Life insurers must continually search for new ideas and techniques to gain marketplace advantage. An issue facing insurance organizations is who should develop and perform the customer profitability analysis. Perhaps the best people to address this issue are the actuaries. This article discusses four major issues actuaries must consider in defining an appropriate customer profitability metric.

Description: This article is about how innovative use of technology will be a key differentiator for future success and maybe even survival, and how technology will switch from a defensive to an offensive tool, aimed principally at driving revenues. The article addresses the question: How will successful leaders in the insurance industry use technology in the future?

Description: In this article Deborah Adler Poppel interviews Patrick L. Townsend, author of the book Commit to Quality. Mr Townsend defines quality process, advises what the components are and explains why quality is hard to achieve.

Description: Reengineering has become a corporate buzzword of the 1990s. This article addresses why companies decide to reengineer and explores the risks, as well as the benefits.

Description: This article examines the trends facing the life and health insurance industry which consulting actuaries will need to address such as downsizing, outsourcing, technology and the need to be flexible.

Description: With the convergence and consolidation of the financial services industry, the advent of new technologies and the Internet, and increased focus on the customer, actuaries are facing a brand new set of challenges. This editorial prefaces the articles in this issue that point out some key challenges and opportunities facing today’s actuaries.

Description: This article examines conglomerate management, the need for planning, and examples of effective acquisitions management.

Description: Among the most outspoken of the life insurance industry’s authorities is Ronald Butkiewicz, president and CEO, Irish Life of North America ILONA. In speeches to industry groups, including a 1995 presentation to the Actuarial Society of Greater New York, Butkiewicz makes the challenging statement, 'American society doesn’t need the life insurance industry. I am also quick to add that I don’t think American society needs banks, either.' However, said Butkiewicz in an interview for this article, 'It does need our products.' The article goes on to explain how Butkiewicz sees life insurance becoming part of one, big financial services industry.