IAI Actuarial Core Principles · Business Management · Using data, company functions, people skills, influence and clear communication
A pension consultancy in Chennai has been asked by a client's trustees to explain the results of a mortality experience study. The trustees are not technical. Which approach to the written summary best reflects clear communication?
The best approach is to lead with the conclusion and its implications, support it with simple charts and key figures, and put technical detail in an appendix. This suits a non-technical audience while still allowing the work to be checked.
- ALead with the conclusion and its implication, then give key figures in simple charts and place technical detail in an appendixCorrect
- BBegin with the full derivation of the statistical tests so trustees can follow the logic
- CInclude every table produced so that nothing is omitted
- DUse specialist terminology throughout to show rigour
- Give only the final number without explaining its limitations
Explanation
Non-technical readers need the message and its consequences first, supported by simple visuals. Detail can sit in an appendix for those who want it. Omitting limitations would mislead, and overloading with tables or jargon hides the message.
Did you get it right without looking?
One question tells you little. A timed set on Using data, company functions, people skills, influence and clear communication shows your real accuracy, how long you take and where you lose marks.
More Using data, company functions, people skills, influence and clear communication questions
- An actuary leads a project to change a valuation process. The operations manager, whose team is affected, publicly supports the project but …
- When an actuary presents a pricing recommendation orally to a sales team that is sceptical of the proposed premium increase, which behaviour…
- Ritu, an actuary, presents a reserving result to the board. A director who dislikes uncertainty asks her to give a single figure without ran…
- In a Bengaluru reinsurer, two actuaries, Karthik and Neha, disagree strongly on a lapse assumption. Each insists on their own figure and the…
- A health insurer in Pune wants to show its board how claim costs have changed over the last 36 months and whether there is a seasonal patter…
- Kaveri Insurance's valuation actuary needs policy-level data from the operations function to complete the year-end reserve. Operations deliv…