The Actuary: the Role and Limitations of the Profession since the Mid-19th Century

Abstract

The history of any profession relates to the history of the division of labour in society. This is generally true and can also be attributed to expertise in the financial world - a world which generates with increasing complexity growing numbers of specialists offering know-how and expertise. The competition amongst these different specialists as to whose services are the more useful, valuable or promising is a phenomenon which is more than simply personal. Individuals with similar training and a common base of knowledge form groups which promote in corpore their competence in certain specialised services. Such a group, which also assumes the responsibility of guaranteeing the qualifications of its members, is usually called a "profession ". The profession of the actuary is one of the oldest in the financial world. There are also accountants, underwriters, statisticians, demographers, operations researchers and financial engineers to name but a few. Allow me now to attempt to place the actuarial profession in this area of professional conflict. There can be no doubt that we actuaries have constantly increased our area of competence since our professional beginnings in the last century. But to maintain that we are the only ones to have done so would be inappropriate.