In this blog, Khushil Modi, Actuarial Consultant at Deloitte, talks about his day-to-day role in more detail.

As cliché as it sounds, there really isn’t a typical day! It depends on what kind of project you’re on and the department. Over the last 4-5 months I have been working on a couple of Mergers and Acquisitions within the Insurance world so it’s very fast moving at times. My typical activities as an Analyst have included analysing and interpreting client data, performing reserving analysis on various loss triangles, and coming up with suitable estimates of company liabilities using a range of projection methodologies.

I have also worked on share options pricing (using stochastic modelling to price options for clients), supporting pension and investment fund valuations and roll-forwards, audit advisory in pensions and life insurance, and using the statistical software R to analyse large amounts of UK motor accident information as part of Deloitte’s Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence team. It’s been great to get such a variety of experience within the different areas that an Actuary can work in, and having the mindset to learn and adapt to new situations is key to the nature of the tasks we do.

Many companies require an Actuary to legally review work or provide a professional opinion, and so I think we have a very specific skillset which is highly sought after. Our abilities to perform complex analysis on data and provide solutions to very real problems are demonstrated through the rigorous exams and professional training, and I enjoy seeing the impact of my work in the bigger picture of the project and how it helps our clients.

Maths skills aside, communication is also one of the most important traits to be successful. It is one thing to be academically talented, but to be able to break down complex ideas in simple terms to a non-technical audience is, in my opinion, what being an actuary is all about.