eLibrary resources available while IFoA Libraries are closed
The IFoA has a policy in place in response to the Coronavirus outbreak, please read it regarding IFoA offices, operations and events during current changing circumstances and following new government and public health advice.
Both IFoA Edinburgh and IFoA London member lounges and library areas are currently closed, and the Libraries is not lending printed books, with apologies for the inconvenience. Please consider existing books on loan issued to 31 March 2021.
Please read below for access to the IFoA eLibrary and Actuarial Knowledge Hub and routes to online resources for study, professional development and research. Follow links to 'eBook collection' and 'eBook Central', two providers of eBooks, or search the Hub for topic keywords to retrieve articles from subscribed journals.
e-book resources newly added for 2021: IFoA members who login to the Actuarial Knowledge Hub at http://discovery.actuaries.org.uk can now read Risk.net Academic’s published resources online on PCs and laptops. After member login, find Risk.net then ‘Institute and Faculty of Actuaries’ on its institutional sign-in and follow the Risk.net site's links to chapters of Risk Books or to articles of Risk Journals.
Also after member login, the Hub currently offers a link for trial access to the Ebsco ‘Business Core’ collection of ebooks on management and business skills until April 2021. Please contact libraries@actuaries.org.uk with enquiries.
Library resources for IFoA exams
The Curriculum from 2019 guides students to supporting resources for respective subjects as they prepare for IFoA examinations in the new syllabus. For most examination subjects, the IFoA Library offers 'Resources' pages listing suggested additional reading and references. These can complement subject syllabus study and there are also some textbooks that form core reading for examinations CB2, SP6 and SP9:
Resources for: CB1 -- CB2 || CM1 -- CM2 || CS1 -- CS2 || CP2 ||
Resources for: SP4 || SP5 || SP6 || SP7 || SP8 || SP9 ||
Resources for: SA1 || SA2 || SA3 || SA4 || SA7 ||
After member login to the Actuarial Knowledge Hub, IFoA members and students can follow 'Access ebook' links to book titles listed on the Resources pages for each exam subjects. eBooks of more titles suggested to complement IFoA exam study are being added where available to help students while we, unfortunately, cannot lend our printed books from the library closed under pandemic measures.
Staple Inn Actuarial Society papers. The SIAS website also offers a news page for students to find these SIAS papers suggested for additional reading for SA exam subjects. Click on the exam subject to reveal SIAS papers of interest.
The Economist country reports
By licence with The Economist Intelligence Unit, the IFoA Library offers access to the latest EIU country report for the United Kingdom, France, Germany, United States, China and Japan to support students preparing the IFoA SA7 exam with background reading on recent trends. All members can access the latest country report as issued after member login first to the IFoA website, and following the links to the respective reports that will show on the 'Resources for Subject SA7 Investment and Finance Advanced' page. There is no access to archived or previous country reports so it is advised to login regularly for the latest monthly or yearly report.
IFoA eLibrary and new 'Actuarial Knowledge Hub'
The eLibrary is now available to members and affiliates who login via the IFoA website with their IFoA member credentials here. Upon login, IFoA members open the 'Actuarial Knowledge Hub', an integrated research portal. The Hub brings together several distinct sources of research in actuarial science in one search:
- The online journals and ebooks available to IFoA members;
- The valuable catalogue of over 30,000 abstracts and references from journals worldwide built up over many decades by library staff;
- The IFoA library catalogue and its 20,000 records of hard copy holdings;
- A complete index of Actuary magazine features;
- The catalogue of historic rare books collected by the Faculty and Institute since their formation and added to this day on the history and development of actuarial science;
- Thousands of relevant references from research databases across the world.
Among the journal collections available are archives of the Annals of Actuarial Science and British Actuarial Journal and also the European Actuarial Journal, the Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance, Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, the Journal of Risk and Insurance, the North American Actuarial Journal, and the Scandinavian Actuarial Journal.
Members also have access to over 300 eBooks, from titles to support exam reading to insurance, pensions, risk management and general business books.
Upon request, the IFoA Library Service can set up individual 'Athens' accounts for non-members registered to sit the IFoA's next CM1, CS1 or SP9 exams for a limited period.
To find out more contact the library service at libraries@actuaries.org.uk or access the Knowledge Hub as a guest user at http://discovery.actuaries.org.uk. to find references for research on your subject enquiry.
IFoA Library catalogue
The Library Service now offers an upgraded online library catalogue which covers all library resources and now includes historical holdings published before 1901 that can be viewed at the Library by arrangement . Members and affiliates can send a 'Request' to the IFoA Library Service to borrow selected results of those printed resources available for loan or export selected catalogue references into a reading list. Access the Library catalogue at: http://library.actuaries.org.uk
The library offers search links to new additions to its catalogue by broad subjects. Alternatively this search of the catologue finds added books and ebooks published since 2018.
External study: Arrangements for IFoA students to use external university and other local library facilities
IFoA students seeking alternative library study space can apply to local university libraries for a non-university library card subject to their admissions policy. The IFoA Library can provide a letter of introduction to support your application to a university or another library facility - please contact libraries@actuaries.org.uk.
Please note that university libraries prioritise access and study spaces for their students especially during busier university exam periods.
International Actuarial Association, Actuaries Without Borders – ‘Book drive’ donation scheme
Do you have textbooks no longer used from past exam study? The IAA has a ‘Book drive’ scheme inviting those wishing to pledge book titles listed as requested by overseas universities for their actuarial courses. Financial donations to the scheme are also welcome.
Contact Details
For any library enquiries please contact:
We try to respond to email queries within one working day. Researcher access to historical resources may require notice in advance of visit in order to retrieve items from storage.
Filter or search events
Events calendar
-
Behavioural Science Series with Keith Grint - Wicked Problems, Clumsy Solutions and Leading Change
19 April 2021
Wicked Problems, Clumsy Solutions and Leading Change -
Dr Catherine Donnelly will present the basics of the structures for pooling longevity risks and summarise recent research results in this area in addition to outlinging future research around this topic. This is work under a research programme funded by the IFoA's Actuarial Research Centre, called 'Minimizing longevity and investment risk while optimising future pension plans'. -
Professional Skills Training Webinar - 21 April 2021
21 April 2021
Climate-Related Risk - This free to view webinar on Climate-Related Risk is the first in a series focusing on some of the ‘Hotspots’ identified in the JFAR Risk Perspective bringing the Risk Perspective to life with practical illustrations and insights from subject experts from the IFoA and other Regulators -
Recent decades have seen institutions, such as employers and financial services, give people more choice and flexibility, but these freedoms have come with more responsibilities. Individuals are now responsible for managing more of their own financial risks, from ensuring they put enough money into their pension to securing affordable protection to be financially resilient.
-
Actuarial Innovation in the COVID-19 era
This event is online.26 April 2021 - 7 May 2021
Join us for this brand new IFoA webinar weries comprising of a fortnight of webinars, panel sessions and a hackathon, that showcase the range of ways in which the actuarial profession has added value, in the public interest, to the understanding and management of the current and future pandemics through insight and learning. -
This event is now temporarily closed on Monday 26 April, but the session will be repeated on Tuesday 27 April, 09.00-10.30. Please click here to register your place.
Actuaries have a lot to offer biodiversity management over the next decade as the world develops more depth to its response to this global challenge. This sessional offers an opportunity to learn about this emergent risk, to contribute to our thinking as a profession and help us develop the next steps forward.
-
Western Europe Town Hall
28 April 2021
IFoA Immediate Past President John Taylor would like to invite you to the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries’ (IFoA) virtual Western Europe Town Hall, hosted by John Taylor with IFoA Council Members Alan Rae, Jennifer Hartley, Maribel Vasquez Flores and IFoA Chief Executive, Stephen Mann.
-
Mis-estimation risk is a key element of demographic risk, and past work has focused on mis-estimation risk on a run-off basis. However, this does not meet the requirements of regulatory regimes like Solvency II, which demands that capital requirements are set through the prism of a finite horizon like one year. This paper presents a value-at-risk approach to mis-estimation risk suitable for Solvency II work -
Finance & Investment Virtual Conference 2021
Available to watch globally in May.10-12 May 2021
This year's Finance and Investment Virtual Conference takes on the timely theme of ‘resilience’, something we have all learnt a lot more about in the last year! Our diverse range of talks will explore the theme of resilience in a variety of ways including in building robust investment portfolios, in the incorporation of ESG factors, in govern -
Central and Eastern Europe Town Hall
14 May 2021IFoA Immediate Past President John Taylor would like to invite you to the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries’ (IFoA) virtual Central and Eastern Europe Town Hall, hosted by John Taylor and IFoA Chief Executive, Stephen Mann.
-
Wearables in insurance: a win-win opportunity
14 May 2021
This talk will explore the potential benefits that wearable tech can bring to health & protection insurers and their customers. The traditional approach of integrating wearables into insurance has largely focused on measuring steps and using rewards-based incentive programs to encourage more activity. -
Join us for this talk with Professor Sir Adrian Smith as part of the 'Dr Patrick Poon Presidential Speaker Series'. Professor Smith joined The Alan Turing Institute as Institute Director and Chief Executive in September 2018. In November 2020, he became President of the Royal Society, in addition to his leadership of the Turing. He is also a member of the government's AI Council, which helps boost AI growth in the UK and promote its adoption and ethical use in businesses and organisations across the country. He received a knighthood in the 2011 New Year Honours list. -
CILA 2021
Available to watch globally in May.19-21 May 2021
We continue to live in a world of global uncertainty. Survival depends on our ability to simultaneously navigate through the diverse root-causes, ranging from: the consequences of Climate Change; on-going financial consequences of the COVID pandemic; or self-imposed changes in regulatory requirements and accounting standards.
Wicked Problems, Clumsy Solutions and Leading Change
Dr Catherine Donnelly will present the basics of the structures for pooling longevity risks and summarise recent research results in this area in addition to outlinging future research around this topic. This is work under a research programme funded by the IFoA's Actuarial Research Centre, called '
Climate-Related Risk - This free to view webinar on Climate-Related Risk is the first in a series focusing on some of the ‘Hotspots’ identified in the 
Join us for this brand new IFoA webinar weries comprising of a fortnight of webinars, panel sessions and a 
Mis-estimation risk is a key element of demographic risk, and past work has focused on mis-estimation risk on a run-off basis. However, this does not meet the requirements of regulatory regimes like Solvency II, which demands that capital requirements are set through the prism of a finite horizon like one year. This paper presents a value-at-risk approach to mis-estimation risk suitable for Solvency II work
This talk will explore the potential benefits that wearable tech can bring to health & protection insurers and their customers. The traditional approach of integrating wearables into insurance has largely focused on measuring steps and using rewards-based incentive programs to encourage more activity.
Join us for this talk with Professor Sir Adrian Smith as part of the 'Dr Patrick Poon Presidential Speaker Series'. Professor Smith joined The Alan Turing Institute as Institute Director and Chief Executive in September 2018. In November 2020, he became President of the Royal Society, in addition to his leadership of the Turing. He is also a member of the government's AI Council, which helps boost AI growth in the UK and promote its adoption and ethical use in businesses and organisations across the country. He received a knighthood in the 2011 New Year Honours list.