Reserving Analyst

London, England, United Kingdom

11/21/2024

Job Purpose

JOB DESCRIPTION

This role presents a unique opportunity for an analyst to make a key contribution to the development of in-house reserving capabilities for an established and well-regarded syndicate. The Ascot syndicate reserving function has developed over the past two years into a team of four.

This role will work within the reserving team to contribute to the build out of Ascot’s own in-house reserving capabilities, which is currently outsourced. Over the course of 2025 the Ascot team will take responsibility for the setting and coordination of the quarterly reserves. The role will then adapt to support the ongoing analysis and reporting of reserves to benefit the wider business and regulatory requirements. The successful applicant will be expected to work closely with other Ascot functions, in addition to the current external reserving function. Reserving responsibilities cover the wide range of lines of business written by the syndicate.

The reserving team contribute to the Ascot actuarial function objectives, reporting up through the syndicate Chief Actuary and with close collaboration with the wider group reserving functions. The successful applicant would be encouraged to contribute to other syndicate actuarial workstreams when possible.

Detailed Duties

The role of the successful candidate may include the following:

Enhance The Capabilities Of The Reserving Function

• Contribute to the development of in-house reserving processes in collaboration with external consultants, embedded IT developers within the actuarial team and the wider Ascot Group reserving functions.
• Enhance downstream Syndicate and Group reporting, including Lloyd’s reporting, accident year view of syndicate reserves, PYD analysis, analysis of change, IBNR forecasting and liability durations.
• Enhance reserving diagnostics (including but not limited to the use of both Power BI and Excel) and the use of these to communicate reserves to other departments.
• Assist in development of other team members.
  
  

Wider Support of the Reserving Function

• Work collaboratively within the reserving function.
• Assist in producing the Ascot syndicate quarterly reserve estimates.
• Use appropriate actuarial techniques and analysis to calculate best estimate reserves and to identify and allow for trends and other changes over time.
• Set up and carry out deep dive reviews of individual classes of business and ad hoc reserving analyses using Arius reserving software. Communicate the results of these analyses with other teams.
• Monitor and analyse data sources to extract value and inform reserving assumptions. Monitor reserving metrics and MI to identify trends and early indicators to extract business value from reserving insights.
• Prepare regular reports on reserves, claims experience and other reserving metrics for both reserving team and wider use.
• Prepare papers for meetings with underwriters, consultants and Reserve Committee.
• Contribute to the feedback loop between reserving, pricing, business planning and capital modelling.
• Respond to requests of other departments for information on reserves, assumptions and data.
• Liaising with other Ascot functions as necessary, such as Finance, Claims, Underwriting and Reinsurance in order to further the objectives of the team.
  
  

Contribution to Actuarial Function

• Proactive and positive contribution to the (Group) actuarial function with respect to culture and teamwork, contributing to the overarching objectives of the team.
• Contribute to the development of Ascot group reserving reporting to increase consistency and synergies between entities.
• Provide support to the capital modelling and/or pricing functions as required, and dependent on skills and preference of the successful candidate.
• Assist with the production of the Actuarial Function report.
  
  

Other

• Demonstrate commitment to personal and team development.
• Identifying opportunities to work more efficiently and rigorously as the responsibilities of the team increase.
• Study towards actuarial qualification, if desired.
• Undertake relevant technical training to develop actuarial and business knowledge.
  
  

Skills

• Relevant London Market experience of reserving preferred, Lloyds reporting experience desirable.
• IFoA part or nearly qualified actuary preferred with relevant experience of actuarial reserving techniques.
• Proactive candidate that is able to prioritise and manage own workload.
• Critical thinking skills – problem diagnosis and problem solving. Ability to think ‘outside of the box’ to find a solution.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, including report writing and ability to summarise complex points in insightful management information.
• Good commercial awareness and ability to build and maintain positive relationships across functions.
• Ability to identify business challenges and propose and implement solutions to meet needs.
• Strong organisational, analytical and decision-making skills and attention to detail.
• Enthusiastic, proactive and pragmatic.
• Microsoft Office skills, especially in Excel.
• Transferable experience in reserving software or programming languages (e.g SQL, Python, R) is beneficial. Appetite to learn new software skills to advance capabilities and efficiencies of the team.