At various times from 1856 to 1972 funds were set up to provide permanent income to be devoted to the award of prizes or grants by the Institute of Actuaries. In 1972 these funds were amalgamated into two funds, the Institute of Actuaries Memorial Prize Fund (the Prize Fund) and the Institute of Actuaries Memorial Education and Research Fund (the Research Fund).

The income and, if appropriate, the capital of the Prize Fund are to be applied in awarding prizes in connection with the examinations of the Institute or for meritorious contributions to actuarial science.

The Burn Prize

The Burn Prize is awarded for special merit in passing the examinations.

The Charles M Stern Award

Inaugurated in 1999, this award is made annually to the Institute student from a non-UK centre who completes the examinations and is deemed to have performed outstandingly in the 300/400 series examinations.

The Worshipful Company of Actuaries Prize

The Worshipful Company of Actuaries has kindly donated prizes in recent years to students who obtain the highest mark in individual examinations.

Prizes awarded to students for exam performance

Prizes for outstanding papers

From 2007, the prize for best paper is known as the Peter Clark prize. In recent years prizes for outstanding papers have been awarded to the following:

2007/2008

Andrew Adams and James Clunie
Risk Assessment Techniques for Split Capital Investment Trusts 
This was published in Annals of Actuarial Science Volume 1 Part 1 (pages 7–36). The Committee felt that it was a strong and topical paper, relevant and very well written, covering in a short space of time the troubles with the current methods of measurement, looking at alternatives of option pricing and finally suggesting use of stochastic techniques.

Two papers were highly commended:

Credit Derivatives - The report of the Working Party comprising Martin Muir, Andrew Chase, Paul Coleman, Paul Cooper, Gary Finkelstein, Paul Fulcher, Chris Harvey, Richard Pereira, Albert Shamash and Tim Wilkins.
This was presented to the Faculty on 15th January 2007 and was nominated by Mike Kipling and the Life Board. The Committee felt that it was a well delivered, well written practical reference paper that would inspire others.

Modelling and Managing Risk by Paul Sweeting.
This was presented to the Institute of Actuaries in Manchester on 30th April 2007 and was nominated by the Finance, Investment and Risk Management Board. The Committee felt that it was a good summary of what was out there and covered a wide subject matter.

2006/2007

The Faculty prize for the best sessional paper was awarded to:
John Ellam, Jennifer Hartley, Joseph Lu, Stephen Makin, Keith Miller, and Stephen Richards
Two-dimensional mortality data: patterns and projections
presented on 1 October 2007

2005/2006

The Faculty prize for the best sessional paper was awarded to:
David Blake, Andrew Cairns and Kevin Dowd
Living with mortality: longevity bonds and other mortality linked securities
presented on 2 October 2006

2003/2004

Richard Willets, Adrian Gallop, Tony Leandro, Joseph Lu, Angus Macdonald, Keith Miller, Stephen Richards, Neil Robjohns, John Ryan and Howard Water
Longevity in the 21st century
Presented in April 2004 at sessional meetings of the Faculty and Institute

Tim Sheldon and Andrew Smith
Market consistent valuation of life assurance business
Presented at a sessional meeting, February 2004

The following papers were highly commended:

Philip Booth and Gianluca Marcato
The measurement and modelling of commercial real estate performance
BAJ 10(1) (2004): 5-73

Michael Tripp, Helen Bradley, Russell Devitt, George Orros, Gregory Overton, Louise Pryor and Richard Shaw
Quantifying operational risk in general insurance companies
Presented in March 2004 at an Institute sessional meeting.

The Faculty prize for the best sessional paper was awarded to:

David Wilkie, Mark Owen and Howard Waters
Notes on options, hedging predefined reserves and fair values
presented in December 2004 at a Faculty sessional meeting

2002/2003

Angus Macdonald, Richard Willets, Adrian Gallop, Tony Leandro and Rajeev Shah.
Mortality improvements and the cohort effect
Presented at the Life Convention, 2002; and to a SIAS meeting, March 2003

Howard Waters and David Dickson.
The distribution of the time to ruin in the classical risk model
ASTIN Bulletin 32(2) (2002): 299-313

2001/2002

Christopher Joseph HAIRS, David John Belsham, Norval MacKenzie Bryson, Christopher Michael George, David John Paterson Hare, David Alan Smith and Stuart Thompson.
Fair valuation of liabilities
BAJ 8(2) (2002): 203-340

2000/2001

Richard John CHAPMAN, Timothy John Gordon and Clifford Andrew Speed.
Pensions, funding and risk
BAJ 7(4) (2001): 605-686

1999/2000

Richard Guy Thomas and Stephen Paul Whitten.
A non-linear stochastic asset model for actuarial use
BAJ 5(5) (1999): 919-953

1997/1998

Gary Steele Finkelstein.
Maturity guarantees revisited: allowing for extreme stochastic fluctuations using stable distributions
BAJ 3(2) (1997): 411-482

1998/1999

No prize awarded