I was intrigued/amused to get an email from the CAS a few moments ago. Apparently this is my 25th anniversary of my being a CAS member…and I’ve automatically been added to the Seasoned Actuaries special interest group.
Yay. I’ve become a geezer.
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I suppose being seasoned for age is better than being seasoned by the Cannibal Actuarial Society.
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What are their fellowship requirements?
I am looking into a carbon friendly way to dispose of my body when I die
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I suppose that the Cannibal Actuarial Society would really be the SOA after all of that “merger” talk.
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Congratulations.
If you’re a geezer I am not sure what that makes me as it has been over 46 years since I got my FSA.
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You got your FSA when you were 10? Prodigy alert.
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Regarding “I’m old”:
I decided to preplan and prepay my funeral. The goal was to relieve my loved ones from having to make decisions at a difficult time.
It was awkward having a chat about this with the funeral director, but that is what he does. Once we agreed on the details of what I wanted, he started asking me a list of questions. Height and weight? I assume this was to be an approximation now for info he would need later on. Profession? I asked why he needed that, and he clamed it was some requirement. Actuary. Then he asked, “What’s that?”
A funeral director is asking me what an actuary is. I have been waiting for this one for fifty years.
With as straight a face as I could muster, I replied “A person who buries dead actors.”
I cannot describe the look on his face.
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When people ask what I do I say: I count dead people. They know they’re dead.
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Good idea. My mother did something similar, but without prepaying since she wants basically a no cost funeral. No official service, just cremated, a small get together at my sister’s house, then buried back near me.
The reason it was so important wasnt due to cost. It was because it hopefully eliminates strife. My other sister would’ve likely demanded a full service and a whole bunch of other things that my mother doesn’t want.
She wrote everything she wanted, and I had her include and specify things she did t want as well, so that my.othwr sister didn’t roll in and start making demands.in the end, I’m hoping my mother’s planning eliminates decisions and opinions that would lead to conflict.
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Here’s a true story. When my grandfather died, my grandmother paid for his funeral and then pre-planned her own with basically the same details. She lived another 6 or 8 years or so. When she died, my father went to the funeral home and said “she’s coming and everything should be paid for, right?” and the answer was “No.”
The scammer (my opinion) funeral director treated the pre-payment as a deposit that he credited that with like 1% interest but said prices have risen 5% per year, so my dad had to pay a couple thousand extra (out of her money, but it was his inheritance).
Then, within 5 years, that funeral home was out of business. I gotta believe that if she had waited a little longer to die, she would have gotten nothing for her pre-payment plan.
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Hi Deep,
Sorry to hear about your family’s bad experience.
I agree this prepaid funeral concept is an insurance-like contract without insurance quality regulation. Continuing care communities is another one. And I never understood how rental car companies offer you insurance without being regulated as insurance companies.
Meanwhile we have had a number of insurance company insolvencies in Florida despite regulation, actuarial reserve opinions, accounting sign-offs, etc. I don’t know how much the guaranty fund pays out.
For what it’s worth, my prepaid funeral deal is supposed to have my money sitting in a trust, and the price is supposed to be fixed. But we’ll see. Well, I won’t see …
What they’re selling isn’t insurance. They’re offering optional side-contracts wherein if you damage their property, or cause a third party to make a liability claim against their commercial auto policy, they will not seek recovery.
The rental companies may, however, have a contract with an insurer to transfer some of the risk created by those side-contracts.
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I always get the full coverage “Insurance” with the rental car. Otherwise I get nervous driving a strange car in a strange place. Worth it to not have to worry about it.
Not doing any of that, fish food.