On Vacation

I will not be blogging this week as I will be spending time with my family in Florida! I'm very thankful that my managers gave me time off!

I GOT THE JOB!!!!!!!

Today at Western & Southern I accepted an offer to become an Actuarial Analyst starting August 30, 2012! My final day of class at the University of Cincinnati will August 3rd and my final day of my Actuarial Internship will be August 7th. 


I never could have achieved this without the love and support from my family, friends, mentors, and a lot of other people along the way. THANK YOU to everyone who believed in me and took the time to share their knowledge or wisdom with me in some way.


My advice to any student would be to take risks -- especially ones that will help you grow and develop in any way. Some risks that I taken in the past 3 years (since high school graduation) have been moving and working completely on my own to Spain for two months after high school graduation; taking undergraduate / graduate level statistic courses at the beginning of my second year at UC (lowering my Math GPA); committing to work over 65 hrs/week as Student Orientation Leader last summer instead of pursuing actuarial exam progress; and deciding to work full-time as an actuarial intern at W&S, while being a full-time student and also being an RA at UPA.


These risks allowed me to graduate in 3 years and position me for a career at W&S but more importantly, they allowed me to learn so much, develop, and discover who I am really am. Getting this job offer makes me feel so blessed and relieved: all my risks have finally paid off.

Responsibilities at Internship To-Date

My internship has been nothing but a blessing. I will be an actuarial intern at W&S for two quarters: spring and summer. Since today marks the end of the Spring Quarter, I thought I would write about my work to-date.

Summary of Responsibilities:

My first and foremost responsibility at this point is to assist in the conversion from Lafayette’s software for organizing reinsurance treaties (Quasar) to Western and Southern’s (TAI). Lafayette was acquired by Western and Southern about 6 years ago, but they operated independently until this year. A few months ago, Lafayette’s operations completely moved from Lafayette IN, to Cincinnati. Since Lafayette moved to Cincinnati, converting Lafayette’s practices to match W&S has been a major project for the majority of departments within the W&S Insurance Company.

My role in the reinsurance conversion includes:

• Understanding the structure and fields of data on the Quasar operating system; ability to extract and reference data as needed.
• Organize all data in a methodological, easy-to-understand way in Excel. Reorganize and manipulate this data as our understanding of this data continuously grows and changes.
• Understand the structure and fields of data on the TAI operating system and the method for importing the data into TAI
• Create a quick and easy way to pull Quasar’s relevant fields of data from where it is stored in Excel to the specified format and structure needed to import the relevant data into TAI
• Discover and consolidate Quasar’s current treaty entries, as Lafayette was required to create several different treaty entries on Quasar per paper treaty.
• Run error-checking tests on the TAI system by repeatedly importing data into TAI and fixing discovered errors
• Update head managers of the Actuarial Department on the conversion’s progress, possible future challenges, etc.

My next most important responsibility is performing monthly valuation reporting for Western & Southern’s traditional line of business. While monthly reporting work can be tedious and lackluster, it’s work that is universal for any company in any field of insurance. I assume that any actuarial position in the insurance industry would include this work, making it as valuable on my resume as it is to the company. My role in the valuation department’s monthly reporting work includes:

• Update fluctuating parameters in ARCVAL, the software used by Western & Southern for valuation, financial reporting, and making projections for various lines of business.
• Run calculations on ARCVAL and generate reports, or print-vals, to be exported into Excel
• Embed relevant data from print-vals into comprehensive financial reports on Excel
• Create and implement macros using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) to automate and expedite monthly reporting for the traditional line of business. 

Finally I also am working on a case study concerning market value adjusted annuity policy-holder behavior. These Responsibilities include:

• Run queries in Access to pull all Market Value Adjusted Annuity policy data that is nearing the end of its surrender charge or guarantee period.
• Analyze policy holder behavior and determine the shock lapse rate and any other interesting characteristics of the data

Social Responsibility at W&S

I think all-in-all, Western & Southern is a great corporate citizen. My company has committed itself to being a great corporate citizen by providing great health care, job security, and by participating in charity events. Since they take a firm and consistent stance on being a great corporate citizen, both their employees and the surrounding communities experience more security and stability. Further, Western & Southern’s corporate image steadily improves. As all parties benefit, this forms a natural alliance. Of course, the extra time and resources used creates more costs for the company. Overall, I really appreciate being a part of a company that looks beyond themselves to help others.

Three major examples of how Western & Southern acts as a great corporate citizen is by providing a nurse for their employees, by having an absolute no lay-off policy, and by participating in community service, such as the MS Walk. Western & Southern is committed to the well-being and health of their employees: by having a nurse available for W&S’s staff, employees can receive medical attention and expertise when their symptoms begin to decline, instead of after the individual’s health plummets. Further, job security does not just offer a steady income, but peace of mind as well.  Finally, W&S contributes to charity events. Just last week, over 300 W&S workers participated in the “MS Walk.” Hundreds of others contributed the campaign as well. Having only worked for Western & Southern for a month, I have already seen many ways the company is a great corporate citizen.

Having high standards of corporate citizenship has a great impact on my employer and society, but at a cost. I have heard more than once that W&S isn't always competitive because our costs are too high – we have too many workers, and not laying people off has a price. I believe it’s all worth it: I’m really blessed to work at a company that strives to do the right thing and to continue to do the right thing over and over again.

Ethics at the W&S

The main ethical standard is honesty. Western and Southern believes that acting with integrity shows our clients, customers, and employees our high standard of customer service. It is this honesty that allows Western & Southern to continue to offer products of quality. This customer service and policy of integrity is recognized as a valuable resource in the company allowing individuals assistance in a variety of issues that may arise.Actuaries also have a professional code of conduct that is specific to the actuarial profession. This code of conduct is instilled "to require Actuaries to adhere to the high standards of conduct, practice, and qualifications of the actuarial profession, thereby supporting the actuarial profession in fulfilling its responsibility to the public" (SOA Webiste). Knowing and following this code is required in order to become a licensed Actuary.