Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
At a given time I had to create closed and locked software libraries in order to have secured tools.
I could have searched classic languages like I had done in my previous professions,
however, these classic languages were not accessible to an actuary population, because the team I had just knew how to do math in general.
By surveying the existing software I found Mathematica, a tool that I had heard about, but had not used before.
I am an engineer by training. I went to the school of Arts and Metiers and the Ecole Polytechnique,
which gave me both a scientific and a vocational background.
I diverted to computer science very early, since computer science is at the heart of all the fields of engineering.
I have come to the field of insurance, and particularly to the field of reinsurance, by chance through the job market.
I am currently the director of a small company of about 20 people.
I have several responsibilities in this company, which include data processing, management control, actuary, finance, results and balances.
In this company, I do almost everything with Mathematica.
Another possible way to use Mathematica for an insurer is pricing, of course.
Pricing is very important because we deal with car racing in France,
which is very complicated to price since the risk is very volatile; therefore, we need to control it.
Mathematica is very practical for that because it allows you to put in place complex and heavy tools--
even if the final user doesn't have Mathematica, which will happen--
because we plan the calculations, which will be checked by our staff.
We will prepare a sample of actuary pricing, and the results will be put in a Excel spreadsheet,
which will be given to the final user, who will sell the contract and do the pricing.
Most of the calculations are done through Mathematica.
That is to say, we are some of the few people to continue in this domain, because the calculation was very complex.
As far as I know, all the other insurance companies that tried it lost a lot of money.
We are lucky not to lose money, but we don't earn a lot. At least we don't lose money,
because we have a calculation tool powerful enough to control a complex model.