Chapter 30: Data

Question 1

Main uses of data

Answer 1

F - financial control
I - investment
R - risk management
E - experience analysis
S - statutory returns
P - premium rating 
A - accounting and administration
C - determining contributions
E - experience statistics

P - product costing,
I - management information
M - marketing
P - setting provisions

Question 2

2 Main sources of data

Answer 2

• publicly available data

- internal data

Question 3

Poor data can be due to… (2)

Answer 3

• poor management control of data recording or its verification processes
• poor design of the data systems

Question 4

The actuary’s data quality assertions will regularly be checked by looking at (11)

Answer 4

Using previous data and movement data, do RECONCILIATIONS of:

• total number of members/policies (m/p) and their changes
• benefit amounts and premiums and their changes
• where assets are held by 3rd party, reconciliation b/w beneficial owner’s and custodian’s records

CONSISTENCY between:

• contribution and benefit levels with the accounts and membership data
• average sum assured or premium compared with their values in the previous investigation
• of investment income implied by asset data and corresponding totals in the accounts
• between start and end period shareholdings

OTHER

• validity of dates
• full deed audit for certain assets (eg property)
• records picked at random for spot checks.

Question 5

Issues causing heterogeneous data in industry-wide data collection schemes

Answer 5

• companies operate in different geographical or socio-economic sections of the market.
• the policies sold by different companies are not identical
• sales methods are not identical
• companies will have different practices, eg underwriting, claim settlement
• the nature of the data stored by different companies will not always be the same
• the coding used for the risk factors may vary from organisation to organisation

Question 6

4 Additional problems with large data collection schemes

Answer 6

• data may be less detailed / flexible
• data may be more out-of-date
• data quality may be poor
• not all organisations contribute

Question 7

Assertions to be examined

Answer 7

• that a liability or asset exists on a given date
• that a liability is held or an asset is owned on a given date
• that the appropriate value of an asset or liability has been recorded.
• that when an event is recorded, the time of the event and the associated income or expenditure are allocated to the correct accounting period
• the data is complete (ie there are no unrecorded liabilities, assets or events)

Question 8

4 Causes for the lack of ideal data

Answer 8

• Data have not been captured at a sufficiently detailed level.
• There may be insufficient data to provide a credible result.
• Poor systems
• Practically difficult / impossible to capture good data

Question 9

Main aim of risk classification

Answer 9

-To obtain homogeneous data.
-The reduction of heterogeneity within the data for a group of risks so:
o The experience in each group more stable and
characteristic of that group
o Enables the data to be used more appropriately for
projection purposes.

Question 10

All sources of data

Answer 10

T - Tables
R - Reinsurers
A - Abroad
I - Industry
N - National Statistics
E - Experience from own contracts
R - Regulatory Reports & Company Accounts
S - Similar Contracts

Question 11

What do we mean by “good quality data”

Answer 11

• Complete
• Necessary level of detail
• Accurate
• Up-to-date
• Audit trail (crucial)

Question 12

Checks on data:

Checks

Answer 12

• Detailed Audit
• Reasonability Checks:
---- Averages
---- Impossible values
---- Outliers
---- Consistency over time
---- Check Asset data vs Liability data
• Spot checks
---- Particularly on the "big ticket" items
---- random

Question 13

Checks on data:

Valuations

Answer 13

Assets:

• • At the start of the period
• • Movements during the period
• • At the end of the period

Liabilities:

• • At the start of the period
• • Movements during the period
• • At the end of the period

Question 14

Proposal and claim form requirements

Answer 14

A well designed proposal form will contain unambiguous questions to help ensure correct answers are collected from policyholders.

The information on both the proposal and claim forms should be easy to enter into the system.

The system must be able to link across proposal and claims records.