The Role of the Actuary in an Insurance Brokerage Firm

The 1992 Casualty Actuarial Society Yearbook has nineteen members who list their employer as brokers. This paper will discuss some of the many roles that a casualty actuary plays in an insurance brokerage firm, beginning with the role of the actuary with medium and large size accounts and examining the differences in the roles. This paper will investigate the extremely important role of the actuary as technical communicator and briefly discuss the role of the casualty actuary in new account solicitation and as a resource of actuarial information to the brokerage offices. As the market hardens, the role of the casualty actuary in an insurance brokerage firm takes on even greater significance. As the premiums increase, the client will need to examine increasing its loss retention limit. If the specific coverage is no longer available then the client will need to consider self-insuring. Both of these “hard market” issues could require extensive actuarial work.