In my address to new members at the 2016 Spring Meeting, I offered three emerging trends that new members should consider as they pursue future career opportunities.
- Disruption in our industry will continue and will do so at an exponential pace.
Some of these disruptions will take the form of technology firms entering the insurance space. Nearly $3 billion was invested in such firms last year alone. Disruption will also continue from consolidations, alternative sources of capital and larger data pools. Disruption in our traditional arena includes the increasing use of analytical tools in all areas of our industry, including pricing, reserving and documenting portfolio diversification benefits. Analytical tools are evolving, and we have to evolve with them so we can continue providing meaningful insights to our businesses and clients.
We must be resilient in the face of these disruptions for ourselves as individuals, for the CAS, and for our firms.
- Risks are evolving.
From severe storms to drought to rising sea levels, we are seeing more and more risk associated with climate change; this risk is occurring gradually. Cyber risk, on the other hand, changes every second. Actuaries are not only challenged with pricing and reserving for policies now entering the market, but we also have to determine how to measure aggregate exposure. Increasingly, actuaries will need to be innovative and adaptable.
- The best opportunities may be outside the traditional actuarial focus.
We can’t all be the chief actuary, but we can use our training and technical skills to add value in underwriting, claims, risk and data management, human resources and other functional areas. New members can strive to achieve leadership levels in these areas and use their technical and communication skills to become the decision makers. Doing this expands opportunities for our new members, as well as for future members.
While I presented these trends to our new members, they are certainly applicable to all of our members. What other considerations should we be paying attention to as we seek future career opportunities?
Editor’s Note: This blog is culled from the July/August issue of the Actuarial Review.
