by Paul Sweeting | Feb 2, 2016 | All, Longevity
The United Kingdom is an ageing country. This doesn’t just mean that people are living longer, which they are; it also means that the birth rate has dropped significantly in recent decades. These two factors are important when considering issues like state...
by Paul Sweeting | Jan 26, 2016 | All, Investment, Pensions
A while ago I co-wrote a paper that looked at the interaction between a pension scheme’s investment strategy and the financial strength of its sponsor. As an example, we looked at a pension scheme whose sponsor was an oil company. We argued that such a scheme...
by Paul Sweeting | Jan 20, 2016 | All, Investment
Efficient frontiers are a great way of comparing investment strategies. The way they typically work is to show the trade off between some average or expected value, and the uncertainty around some estimate. So, for example, you might be comparing portfolios in terms...
by Paul Sweeting | Jan 12, 2016 | All
Actuaries in fiction tend to get a bad rap. To an extent, this is understandable. In any story it can be helpful to use some sort of shorthand to describe a particular individual. Confident, responsible, chiselled good looks? Let’s make them an airline pilot;...
by Paul Sweeting | Jan 6, 2016 | All
As I’ve just published my first novel, Figures of Death, I wanted to write something about it – or rather about writing it. At first sight, it might not look like an obvious follow-up to my last book, Financial Enterprise Risk Management, and the two...
by Paul Sweeting | Jul 15, 2015 | All, Articles, Library
The funding position of a defined benefit pension plan is often closely linked to the performance of the sponsoring company’s business. For example, a plan sponsor whose financial health is dependent on high oil prices may struggle during periods of oil price...
by Paul Sweeting | Mar 1, 2013 | All, Articles, Library
In this paper we examine two aspects of extreme events: their calculation and their communication. In relation to calculation, there are two types of extreme events that are considered. The first is the extent to which extreme events in two or more variables occur...
