Paul Marsh

Workplace Research Practice

Okits time to get some practice with real-world research. This is something you will be doing
with a small group of people in the near future, so getting a bit of experience will be good for
this assignment and your next project.
Using the web, answer the following questions. Provide the URL of each site you mention.

1) What are three large or important professional organizations in your field? (Remember
what type of job you created your resume for.)
This information was gathered from
http://www.math.purdue.edu/academic/actuary/what.php?p=what
Society of Actuaries https://www.soa.org/
Casualty Actuarial Society http://www.casact.org/
The American Society of Pension Actuaries http://www.asppa.org/
2) What are three important journals read by people in your field?
The North American Actuarial Journal https://www.soa.org/naaj/
Actuarial Review http://www.casact.org/pubs/?fa=actuarialreview
Journal of Actuarial Practice http://www.jofap.org/
3) What are three important online discussion lists or blogs read by people in your field?
Actuary.com discussion forum http://www.actuary.com/actuarial-discussionforum/forum.php
Actuarial Outpost Discussion forum
http://www.actuarialoutpost.com/actuarial_discussion_forum/
SOA official blog http://blog.soa.org/
4) What are the date and location of an upcoming national or international professional
meeting for people in your field?
SOA https://www.soa.org/pdcalendar.aspx?type=meeting
Casact.org calendar http://www.casact.org/calendar/index.cfm?fa=main
International calendar http://www.actuaries.org/calendar/
5) Name and describe, in one paragraph for each, three major issues being discussed by
practitioners or academics in your field. For instance, nurses might be discussing the
effect of managed care on the quality of medical care delivered to patients.

One discipline of actuaries is insurance. This includes health insurance and life
insurance. Actuaries calculate premiums to cover expected losses and

Paul Marsh

determine what rates to charge. http://www.actuaries.org.uk/becomingactuary/pages/what-does-actuary-do

Another discipline is casualty. Actuaries calculate the probability of loss of life or
an event. They again calculate rate charges for particular jobs. They can write
opinion letters for companies and insurance departments. Largely, they
determine coverages for victims and victims families. They forecast potential
losses. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actuary)
Thirdly, they deal with pensions. Actuaries determine, once again, what rates to
pay for their employees and how much to withdraw from the employees pay to
match the benefit plan. They largely design and advise pension schemes.
http://www.actuaries.org.uk/becoming-actuary/pages/what-does-actuary-do