I work in Health, in the US, a famously hated industry. I know that a lot of the hate is misguided, and that there’s a lot of nuance. And that as a cog in the machine I’m not exactly responsible anyway.
All the same, sometimes I think I should quit.
Other times, I consider what specific actions I can take to improve the lives of–members, customers, providers, coworkers, tax payers, etc.
What kind of things do you do?
What kinds of things should I do?
I’m going to start with the simplest, which is just: don’t be a fucking crook.
And try to be quietly vigilant of other crooked behavior.
It’s a low bar, but it comes up from time to time.
I work in capital modelling but also do PRT. Validating deals of varying sizes. That sort of thing.
If we do our jobs right, you can generally feel good about executing a good deal for members of an old company DB scheme that we bought (and can then run more efficiently)
Beyond that though, its mostly all about optimising how we deploy capital and maximising shareholder value.
Most people zzzz when I go into details. Just not very interesting to the average person.
Advancing actuarial practice in my specialties helps a lot.
Explaining actuarial principles in terms that nonactuaries can understand can help individuals in their choices of risks, and can influence policymakers in making best choices for others.
My bit is to start talking about my job and then pretend to fall asleep. Then I wake up and say, “Wow, that is boring, even for me!”
Nope.
I get paid for 40 hours of work, and I don’t care what others think of me.
Then, I pay the mortgage, etc., and volunteer at something I like to do, which is helping the kids of middle-upper class families get out in the sun, breathe heavily, and sweat. Because that is better for them (and for me) than sitting in front of a screen.
And I also use my brain to think of better ways for my volunteer organization to operate, to get more kids doing those things and more people volunteering.
Sorry, there is no individual action you can take to improve lives through your work. Just do it honestly.
Definitely, I do more good outside of work than inside of work. Charities and helping friends, neighbors, and family get by. And basically all of that comes from making actuary money.
But I don’t think it’s impossible to make a difference. The farther I get in my career the more I’m likely to have some hand in deciding what kind of business we sell, what initiatives we take, how we control costs, how we market things, product and benefit design, etc.
If you’re up the chain that far, then try.
I am not up the chain. I do actual work (not managing and stuff like that), which is what I prefer after doing those things in the past, which the “sorry, we don’t need this many middle managers anymore” shit happened to me once.
Watching some doctor/insurance social media, it seems like getting your company to stop auto rejecting all claims seems like a good starting point.
Yeah, great place for hard data. /s
If you truly want to make a difference as an Actudonk I would go into a Climate Change related policy role in the wider fields actuarial space.
They usually look at how investments impact climate change, as well as the costs and benefits of transitional measures. That sort of thing. Its interesting on the modelling side as well.
My take on this is from the life insurance industry side of things. The entire point is to deliver a cheque to mom or dad that lets them keep the house and put the kids through university - instead of selling the house and living in poverty. It’s that direct.
Everything else, everyone else in the industry, is just a brick in the wall supporting that outcome. My admin person who does the background work that lets me sell policies. The profs at the universities teaching the students, the admin people supporting the actsci profs. And the actuaries crunching the reserve numbers to make sure theres the financial stability to pay those claims.
So I’m pretty direct cause and effect, individual jobs all just contribute to that goal.
I used to find value in my work. I work in a pension adjacent field and that affects everyday people’s lives. Keeping that promise matters.
Most of the other products my company sells are to high net worths who want to defer taxes. I don’t GAF about that and don’t really want to be involved in it.
But more and more I find myself resentful of capitalism and where it’s taken us. There is no such thing as enough in business, it’s important to grow bigger, get more, squeeze the life out of workers in order to do it and reward the wealthy. And I don’t even work for a public company.
I really want to quit my job and start a nonprofit. Or do something that actually matters. But I feel stuck and forced to settle for finding meaning in life outside of my job. Maybe “I’m not making the world worse” is good enough for now.
I was recently listening to Dave Ramsey go on a rant about taxes and telling a caller what to do so that they could avoid paying millions in taxes. I can’t remember if it was a particular account or owning properties a particular way, but the gist of it was they could use a step up in basis when the kids inherited to avoid the capital gains on decades of growth.
I struggled to understand how he could argue that the US tax system was unfair to the wealthy when he’d just described how a wealthy couple could legally avoid taxes on more wealth than dozens of his callers would collectively earn in their lifetimes.
From a US P&C perspective, our work makes it possible for people to live and transaction business with less risk of financial disaster. Not every average person sees the value in that, but there is value.
My work in capital modeling helps by trying to ensure that my company can meet its obligations when the 
hits the fan with as efficiently as possible, minimizing the cost of capital burden passed along to the customers.
Or, if that’s too capitalism-y for you…one could seek work as a regulator, striving to prevent evil insurers from funneling money from consumers’ pockets to CEOs’ bonus checks.
“You can be a millionaire and not pay taxes. [pause] You can be a millionaire and not pay taxes. You say, 'Steve, how can I be a millionaire and not pay taxes?” Two steps. First, get a million dollars…"
The obvious answer is be honest and “first do no harm.” That applies to everyone.
Disclaimer: I haven’t been in the actuarial profession for over 20 years. My impressions of the profession may be out dated.
The best part about the actuarial profession is the actuarial governing bodies. An independent outside organization from a business controlling standards across all industry players benefits everyone.
As an actuary you can:
Health actuaries make the world a better place because health insurance enabled the amazing breakthroughs in medicine that we’ve had in the 20th and 21st centuries. So just keep doing your job.
Don’t pension actuaries protect regular people by keeping the funds solvent?