Me and My Job!

Hello, welcome to my blog! This is my first post, so I thought I would tell you a little about me.

Name: Zachariah Muhlenkamp

Graduation Date: August 2012

Major: Statistics

I am working as an Actuarial Intern in the Valuation Department of Western and Southern. W&S is a fortune 500 company based in Cincinnati, that develops life insurance products (i.e. life annuities). An actuary is a person who compiles and analyzes statistics to calculate risk (typically associated with insurance), to help determine what a customer should pay so that the company will be likely to make money. I work in the valuation department, which is a sub-group of the actuarial department. The valuation department typically requires a greater knowledge in accounting and finance as we determine how valuable the products W&S offers are to the company as market conditions change over time. For example, in 2000 W&S may have sold your father a life annuity. Perhaps your father agrees to give W&S $100 a month until 2015, when he is 65 years old. Then your father will receive $150 dollars each month for the rest of his life. As an actuary, I would determine when your father is likely to die, and what is the chance that my company would make so much money on the deal. However, I wouldn't ever look at just your father's information, instead I would look at the information of all the people like your father, who bought the same annuity as your father and I would only determine if the company will make money overall. 

I'm so excited to gain some actuarial experience! Some of my goals for my internship include:

1) Have career options at the end of my internship (I am graduating the same time my internship ends).

2) Increase my overall knowledge of insurance and actuarial sciences

3) Sharpen skills that will make me more valuable as an actuary