Actuarial Consulting Gets A Makeover

Virtual Actuary has created a platform that allows its team members to escape the rat race and be their own bosses.

- Glenneis Kriel

After working as an actuarial recruiter for more than eight years, Adi Kaimowitz wanted to do something with the network of actuaries that he’d built up. He considered four business models, until he finally came up with one that would appeal to him and actuaries generally.

“Actuarial service is an advanced industry dominated by a handful of very big and a few boutique-type consultancies,” Kaimowitz says. “Professionalism and integrity are at the core of how the industry operates. In both cases, the actuaries are salaried staff members who get a bonus at the end of the year should they reach particular targets. The long hours and continuous stress of ever-increasing performance targets can get to most actuaries and possibly be associated with burnout. I realised what was needed was a new remuneration model.”

As a result, Kaimowitz and a group of actuaries launched Virtual Actuary in January this year.

“We’re not saying that the old way of doing business is wrong,” he says. “We are merely introducing a new take on a consulting model. Instead of taking the bulk of the fees for the company, all our actuaries have been made share partners. Earnings made doing a particular job are in effect shared between the actuaries, while only a small percentage is kept by the company.”