Actuarial Consulting

“Every problem has a solution. You just have to be creative enough to find it.”– Travis Kalanick

APR’s core service since we were established has been the provision of interim actuarial resource; however, the measured way in which we have built up our high-calibre team of actuarial specialists has meant that over time we have developed the scale and capability required to provide more holistic solutions to clients.

Until recently we have not actively marketed such services, but over the years a number of clients have approached and engaged us to provide consulting solutions that make use of our core skillsets.  Our success in delivering these, combined with our size, quality and trusted relationships with our client base, has now led us to seek out more opportunities to support clients by taking greater ownership of the delivery of their actuarial projects.

Our consulting service

“I find my greatest pleasure, and so my reward, in the work that precedes what the world calls success.” – Thomas Edison

Although drawing on the same talent-pool as our more established resourcing provision, our consulting service differs from providing interim resource in some important ways:

• We look to be involved at an early stage in a project where we can provide advice and challenge, working with our clients to understand problems and shape solutions.
• An APR partner constructs a team and then manages the work.
• The focus is on reducing client workloads and delivering solutions, rather than providing resource for the client to manage.

In this way, we take away as much as possible of the burden of a problem from our client.

The delivery of this service is founded on our exceptionally talented team of around 100 actuarial staff, ranging from junior students up to our senior actuaries and partners.  We are highly selective in recruiting, and develop our employees to realise their potential though a combination of excellent training, variety of project work and entrusting them with responsibility from an early stage in their careers.

To supplement our in-house expertise, we are also able to draw on our long-standing relationships with certain experienced, high-quality actuarial contractors, giving clients access to niche subject matter expertise and experience where required.

Solutions built around client needs

“It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.” – Epictetus

Our clients know and trust us to provide high-quality solutions which match their needs rather than any pre-conceived ideas, and our consulting services are designed with this very much in mind:

• Our guiding principle is on channelling our actuarial expertise to ensure good outcomes for our clients, delivering value and quality whatever the project.
• We will deliver what we say we will deliver, when we say we will deliver it.
• We aim to keep things as straightforward as we can, understanding the needs of different stakeholders and being flexible to changing requirements.
• We will communicate clearly, transparently and regularly, so that there are no surprises.
• We continue to recognise that for some projects the right model will remain the provision of resource rather than a deliverables-based solution.

Our experience continues to demonstrate that there are many situations where we can deliver successful, high-quality consulting solutions to clients across a broader range of projects than some may have expected, and at a cost that is likely to be a very welcome surprise to those who have not previously used our consulting services.

Examples of projects already undertaken include:

• Working with multiple clients on Solvency II-related documentation projects. These have ranged from setting up the entire Solvency II documentation framework for one of the UK’s largest insurance groups (including shaping what was required, the programme of work and delivery of the internal model application), to drafting methodology documentation for major model change applications.
• Building a financial model for a new business line our client was developing, creating a very flexible tool to enable the client to test the impact of various operational strategies, including dashboards and visualisations for the senior management team.
• Production of an overarching model to produce Annual Benefit Statements for policyholders across our client’s entire product range, allowing for relevant legislation including new changes required by the Insurance Distribution Directive.

For further information, or to talk to us about how we may be able to help, please contact Roger Austin.