General insurance, which consists of certain policies such as motor and household insurance policies, provides payments after a financial event to cover the loss a client has faced. Within the insurance industry, anything that doesn’t fall under life insurance is considered to be general insurance.

This is a fast-growing area for actuaries, both within insurance companies and consultancies. General insurance actuaries can also be found in reinsurance and broking operations, and bring a great deal of value to the general insurance sector.

This is done by providing their expertise in the below areas;

• Reserving – actuaries apply statistical techniques to assess the likely outcome of general insurance liabilities and the provisions that are needed for reporting purposes
• Pricing – actuaries assess the frequency and average amount of claims to estimate premiums
• Capital modelling – actuaries project both the liability and assets of insurers to assess solvency and future capital needs.

General insurance companies will employ actuaries to assist with their financial management, in particular in connection with premium rating and reserving. Actuaries also analyse different types of risk depending on the different groups of people and circumstances to help design and price policies correctly.

For more information, visit the IFoA’s website here.

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