Aalia has been asked to put together data for a regulatory submission, looking at an international insurance group’s (headquartered in the UK) exposure to various potential catastrophe events around the globe. She discusses their difficulties with colleague Jools, whilst being pestered by Cliff who is the Compliance Manager to ‘just put together whatever they can’ to meet the regulatory submission deadline.

A reliable Insurance company is considering the best option for a tranche of its business. Colette (Actuarial Director) puts Marco (Senior Actuary) in charge of the project but indicates the answer she’s looking for. Marco’s team does the analysis and despite him knowing that it doesn’t give the result Colette was looking for, feels compelled to follow his professional instincts regardless.

Rachael was promoted to Head of Valuations 2 years ago at the firm she joined as a trainee some 8 years earlier. She has a good rapport with the Chief Actuary, Brian, who is about to retire and helps him produce key reports for the firm. Things change however once his successor, Harry, is in place and Rachael struggles to adapt to a new style of leadership and approach.

Clyde has been with the company for four months and has just been added to the client team for a large, important client, Massomax, headed by team-leader Danica. To date Clyde has also been working for smaller clients which earn less in fees, including TiniMicro, with team-leader Susan. Clyde has a statutory deadline approaching for TiniMicro and there will be a fine if he misses it. However, Danica urges Clyde to prioritise work for their bigger paying client Massomax, hinting that prioritising her work will be good for Clyde’s career progression. See what happens when Clyde attempts to resolve the competing pressures.

Marcus and Alison are both actuaries and a married couple work at competing firms. Here they describe, via phone calls and video diaries, the pitfalls of working from home, sharing a makeshift office and having to manage confidential processes in a confined space. Confidential information on screens and Marcus’s inquisitive mother make balancing work and two young daughters at home much more challenging than necessary.

Niels, a partner in the firm, has set a multidisciplinary project team a deadline of one week to come up with a best estimate price for a particular project. The team are set to work long hours and get off to a good start. However the following day, things start to look less clear and the team are under pressure to meet the Friday deadline. On Wednesday Niels bursts into the project room looking for a result as he still needs to get approval and deliver the report by Friday. The team are taken aback that the deadline has now shrunk by two days and they are under pressure to come up with a recommendation.

Susan, a Risk Actuary, is faced with a dilemma when asked to deputise for the Chief Risk Officer, Don, in his absence, at a proposal meeting the following day. Susan learns that Ian, the Financial Director, has submitted a proposal to get the go-ahead for a new insurance product at the meeting and knows that the Sales Director, Raymond, will be keen to launch the product the following month. Susan has concerns about the short timescale to thoroughly review the risks and is worried about the potential impact on the company's profitability and audit. However, she comes under considerable pressure from Ian to support the product launch at the meeting.

Chief Reserving Actuary, Peter, presents a range of reserves at an annual meeting. After being challenged he suggests a narrower range. However the Finance Director, Stephanie, is clearly not happy and seeks advice from an actuary friend. Armed with this information, at a subsequent meeting she then proposes setting the reserves at a much lower figure which is even below the bottom end of Peter's earlier recommendations and puts pressure on the Board to swiftly agree. Let's see how Peter reacts.

Jolyon, (one of our trusted corporate training duo 'Clive and Jolyon') joins forces with Lewis Price, a pricing actuary to form the team 'The Invincibles' representing their client 'Hook Insurance' in tight negotiations with 'The Challengers' on behalf of brokers 'X-Change'. Each team is out to get the best price. Clive leads us through the action with a boxing themed analogy.

Sara has been providing advice to pension scheme client, Tremwell, who want to make medium to long-term plans to bring their scheme into a funding position. The team has been developing a new model 'Project Gemini' which is relatively untested. With rumours of a proposed company sale, Tremwell is keen to use the software to produce the company valuation, but doesn’t want to pay for testing or controls. Des, the project Manager is under pressure and doesn't think the model is ready, especially with so much riding on the model outputs, and of course he needs it to be fit for purpose for all clients, not just Tremwell.

Clive and Jolyon, corporate training duo, take a light hearted look ('David Attenborough style') at the application of APS (Actuarial Profession Standard) X2 Review of Actuarial Work - but have a serious message. Make sure you understand what is required and be prepared to challenge if others are intent on cutting corners.

Tina and Peter are both experienced actuaries and middle managers in their respective departments of underwriting and pricing in a life company. They are seen discussing how the world has changed so much in the last few years with the introduction of new professional and technical standards as well as their employer’s own policies, standards, sign-off processes and procedures. Later that day, a challenge arises over who can authorise an urgent deal quotation for 'Tobacco4U' in the absence of the Senior Manager who is attending a senior manager's conference and is apparently not contactable.

An Insurance company, led by Ellen, has a strategy to grow by acquisition. Project 'Silver Bullet' is the due diligence phase on their number one target, who have put themselves on the market. They have been given access to a 'data room', within which they think is the important information for a buyer to assess the company. It's highly market sensitive, so only a very small team is allowed to know the work is going on and as with most due diligence, it is being done under extreme time pressure, with information being made available for only a few days before a final decision has to be made! Nathan, an actuary, is tasked with carrying out the valuation and expresses doubts about the acquisition at the anticipated acceptable price, amidst concerns that some areas of the business are high risk.

Chen, a Financial Director, is given shocking news that the Chief Actuary is in hospital and is likely to be there for weeks. He phones Maria, an actuary, and asks her to fill the Chief Actuary role and sign-off the annual returns as they are due out imminently. Maria makes Chen aware that she hasn’t got the necessary certificate but Chen says not to worry about that just now and that it can be sorted after the submission deadline. What should Maria do?

Maya is an actuary trying to understand how climate change might affect her work. She has read the IFoA’s climate change statement from January 2021 which says that tackling climate change risk is urgent and she is frustrated at what she sees as the slow response to climate change in her community, at her work, and in her country. She has therefore joined a citizens’ group taking direct action on climate. She has just been arrested and convicted of an offence for blocking a main road in the capital city.

Li, an actuary, has the unenviable task of explaining her approach to develop a predictive model for pricing new health insurance products to the company's Strategy Committee.

You notice that the spreadsheet you are working on has an error but that another error reverses the first error so there is no net impact on results. Do you keep quiet or speak up?

Marcus, the first in his team to undertake a course on machine learning techniques, has concerns when he hears that Elizabeth, the Senior Actuary, is proposing that she carries out an internal peer review of his work.

Bea, a salaried Partner in a large consultancy, is considering whether she has any obligations under the IFoA Actuarial Profession Standard (APS) X5: Compensation for Professional Shortcomings.

Ning, an actuary, works within a team of actuaries and data scientists which has developed an underwriting tool which uses machine learning from a variety of data sources. The results are used to calculate customer premiums based on a risk score. What are the implications?

You have been investigated in relation to your volunteer role for a local charity. The case is closed with no further action - what are your professional obligations here?

You are approached by a friend to volunteer with a charity which provides advice to small businesses on various issues. The work is unpaid. What are your professional obligations should you decide to volunteer?

As a sole practitioner specialising in expert witness reports, you have been asked to provide a complex report at short notice, which could have significant financial consequences. Given the deadline, you won’t be able have the report independently reviewed before submission. What are your options?

You complete an application form for a promotion at the firm you have worked at for the last 10 years but fail to disclose a criminal conviction from 5 years ago, after all 5 years is a long time. Is this acceptable?

You discover what you believe to be a mistake which has resulted in some pensioners being overpaid pensions for the last decade but when you mention it to the Scheme Actuary, they are not inclined to rectify the error and to simply adjust pay-outs going forward.

You discover that data you are working with has not been correctly anonymised but if you report it you aren't going to make the project deadline.

You've come up with a brilliant idea how to improve a work task whilst reflecting at home on the task in hand. It's revolutionary and potentially lucrative - but are you free to market your idea?