Interim Chief Actuary — Life Insurer Reserving Transition

The mandate

The appointed actuary resigned during implementation of a revised valuation basis, before the impact on participating products and guarantees was fully reconciled. The insurer has capable functional heads, but none can independently sign the statutory position or explain the earnings bridge to the board.

The interim must be available within three weeks and remain for twelve months, covering two year-end valuation cycles. The board has already commissioned a permanent search; regulatory approval timing is protected by an eight-week overlap, and the term will not convert.

Handover will be accepted after both valuation cycles close without material post-sign-off adjustment, assumption governance is independently reviewed, product-level reserve movements reconcile to finance, and the successor has presented the second results bridge to the board. Every material judgement must remain reproducible from retained working papers.

The interim can set actuarial assumptions within approved policy, sign required opinions, redirect the actuarial workplan and commission specialist review up to ₹3 crore. New product guarantees, bonus declarations, reserve releases above ₹75 crore and permanent appointments require the relevant board committee; investment decisions remain outside actuarial authority.

This assignment does not include distribution strategy, claims operations or wholesale replacement of the policy administration system. Pricing support is limited to ensuring new business does not compromise the repaired valuation basis.

Why this seat is open

The resignation arrived at the point when continuity of actuarial judgement matters most. Deputies have deep technical skills but participated in designing the assumptions now under challenge. The board therefore wants a temporary statutory leader who can validate the position and transfer clean accountability to the approved appointee.

What you will own

• Decide the valuation basis and document each material assumption against experience, policyholder fairness and board-approved risk appetite.
• Reconcile product reserve movements to finance, capital and source models through a signed cross-functional bridge.
• Challenge participating-fund and guarantee outcomes before recommending any bonus or management action to the board.
• Approve the scope and conclusions of independent actuarial review and close every high-impact methodological exception.
• Sign statutory opinions only after data, model change, controls and judgement papers meet an explicit evidence standard.
• Develop a two-cycle results narrative that explains earnings, solvency and assumption movement without masking volatility.
• Induct the permanent appointee through a complete model inventory, judgement archive, regulatory calendar and live assumption decisions.

Candidate qualifications

• Qualified actuary eligible for the relevant Indian statutory appointment, with executive life-insurance valuation experience.
• Personally signed or led statutory reserving and solvency work across at least two reporting cycles.
• Managed participating business, long-duration guarantees and experience-driven assumption changes.
• Reconciled actuarial and finance results under board, auditor and regulator challenge.
• Directed pricing, valuation and experience-study specialists while maintaining independent professional judgement.
• Has transitioned a statutory actuarial seat with complete model and working-paper continuity.

Non-negotiables

• Able to satisfy fit-and-proper and professional eligibility checks before appointment.
• Available in Mumbai within three weeks for a full-time, exclusive mandate.
• No recent role with the statutory audit firm or independent actuarial reviewer.
• Will not advocate reserve release to manufacture a target earnings outcome.

1. 49 words maximum. Confirm your statutory eligibility, notice position and earliest available date.
2. 49 words maximum. Describe one reserve assumption you changed against management preference and the experience evidence supporting it.
3. 49 words maximum. How did you reconcile a material actuarial movement to finance before board sign-off?