by
Jeyaraj Vadiveloo, Center Director
The
UConn Center for Actuarial Studies and Risk Management, which is
substantially funded by Deloitte-Touche, had a very busy year and is actively
engaged in a variety of projects. Here are some of these projects:
1.
Mortality study for Phoenix Life Insurance Company on an acquired block of
universal life policies. This project partially supported one actuarial
graduate student, Nikolai Kovtunenko, for the spring semester, 2004, and helped
Phoenix Life make some key strategic decisions on how to manage the
deteriorating mortality experience on this block of business.
2.
Integrated pricing model for excess-of-loss short-term liabilities for Best Re,
a Property & Casualty reinsurance company domiciled in Tunisia. This
project partially supported two actuarial graduate students, Hui Shan and Jaya
Trivedi for Spring 2004, and was managed by Anita Sathe, who earned her MasterŐs
in actuarial science at UConn and is currently a P&C actuary at Deloitte.
Best Re will use this pricing model for all its branch offices in Asia and
Africa, and Anita and I will be doing a workshop on this pricing model for Best
Re in Tunisia and all its client companies in the Far East this summer.
3.
Life Settlements project spearheaded by Mass Mutual and supported by several
other major insurance companies. This project will provide partial summer
support to five graduate students (4 actuarial and 1 from the School of
Business) and three faculty members (1 MATH and 2 SBA). The project will be
supervised by a team of professionals from Deloitte, several of whom are former
UConn graduate students in actuarial science. This is a highly visible project
and the research paper we will be doing should become the authoritative
actuarial analysis on the Life Settlements industry.
4.
Education and training project with the Insurance Supervisory Department (ISD)
of Tanzania. The UConn Actuarial Center hosted a high-ranking delegation from
Tanzania in Fall 2003, and they want to enlist our help to set up an Institute
of Risk Management at the University of Dar Es Salaam. This project will be
funded by the ISD and besides providing financial support for students and
faculty in the Mathematics Department, it will establish a relationship between
UConn and the University of Dar Es Salaam. The Institute is expected to be in
place in late 2004.
5.
Professional training center at Wuhan University in China. Based on a visit to
China in Spring 2004 by the Director of the UConn Actuarial Center, Deloitte is
interested in enlisting the help of the Center in setting up a professional
training center in actuarial science and risk management at Wuhan University.
This training center will be geared towards the insurance industry in China and
will also incorporate applied research projects involving actuarial science
students in China and UConn, supervised by Deloitte professionals.