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 | Apr 5, 2012 | All, Industry News
The way in which investment returns behave when movements are more extreme has been a focus of financial modellers for some time. Approaches such as copula theory allow such features of returns to be modelled. However, it is also important to consider how the risk of...
by Paul Sweeting | Jun 21, 2011 | All, Industry News
Why did you choose to become an actuary? Initially, it was the challenge that attracted me, but I then found that I actually enjoyed the job. I wanted to work in an area that required maths, but I soon found that being able to do the numbers was only a small part of...
by Paul Sweeting | Jan 17, 2011 | All, Longevity
I went to a fascinating conference at the start of the year organised by the Society of Actuaries. It’s a triennial conference entitled “Living to 100”, which looks at actuarial, epidemiological and medical developments in longevity. Apparently, this...
