OK, it’s Friday and we haven’t talked about actuaries in awhile. Did you know that there are people singing about actuaries now? It’s true. A few years ago, we brought you some mathematical musical hits, actuary style. Today, we are bringing you yet more actuarial ditties, including some love songs. Turn up your speakers and let down your hair.
Posts Tagged ‘actuaries’
Actuaries gone wild: a musical interlude
Friday, December 3rd, 2010Cavalcade of Risk, Picnic Edition, seasoned with a dash of risk management humor
Wednesday, July 14th, 2010Jaan Sidorov dishes up a summer smorgasbord of risk at the 109th Cavalcade of Risk Picnic edition over at Disease Care Management Blog.
Speaking of risk, yesterday Business Insurance twittered: Among the accomplishments of the legendary George Steinbrenner: making George Constanza learn about risk management. Risk management isn’t a topic that surfaces in TV sitcoms too often, so we thank them for the reminder – check out a You Tube clip of Seinfeld’s classic segment on risk management.
As long as we’re having a bit of fun with risk management, let’s up the ante a bit by throwing in some actuaries and accountants. A newly discovered blog that we are happy to recommend – Actuary Info – features many interesting and deliciously nerdy posts. For today’s purposes, we call your attention to these two:
Actuarial Risk Management Humor: During the pause of a Risk Management conference, a professional risk manager, an accountant and an actuary were in the gents room standing at the urinals …
Actuarial Risk Management Puzzle Joke: Three actuaries and three accountants are traveling by train to visit a ‘Risk Management Conference’. At the station, the three accountants each buy tickets and watch as the three actuaries buy only a single ticket…
Who said insurance isn’t fun? Dispelling myths about the humorless actuary, part 3
Monday, August 18th, 2008OK, we ended last week on a bit of a light note and we are going to start this week off in a similar vein. After all, if you are reading this, you are one of about one hundred twenty people who is not on vacation this week.
We chanced upon this video clip of an actuarial type (Gene from Humana?) channeling Marvin Gaye in a catchy ditty called Actuarial Healing – a command performance, I think you will agree.
And if you are nerdy enough to have found that hilarious (as I did), you might be tickled by this musical group of mathematical students — The Klein Group Four — singing Finite Simple Group (of Order Two), a clever a Capella number written in mathematical theorems.
And while we’re on the singing math geeks vein, we can’t overlook I Will Derive – no doubt destined to be a hit. And here’s a pretty clever four year old who seems to be on a scientific path rather than a mathematical path (styled after Tom Lehrer’s classic song), but the kid displays enough nerdy obsession that we should try to divert him to our industry.
Lastly, we have no idea what’s going on with the Australian actuaries, but their biannual meetings look fascinating.
We’ve featured actuarial humor once or twice before here on Workers’ Comp Insider, but let’s get serious. In the interests of doing our part to clear up any negative stereotypes about actuaries that might be out there, we quote a press release issued by the Society of Actuaries a few years ago in response to the film “About Schmidt” in which Jack Nicholson portrayed a math-obsessed, socially disconnected retired actuary with a bad comb-over:
“While highly humorous, the perception of actuaries — based on the character portrayed by Jack Nicholson in the film — is incorrect … to be more to the point (literally), the perception that actuaries are math-obsessed is 94.00632% incorrect, the perception that actuaries are socially disconnected is 98.34343% incorrect, and – most shockingly of all – the perception that actuaries tend to favor bad comb-overs is 99.67893% erroneous.”
New Overtime Regulations Impact Workers Compensation
Monday, October 4th, 2004[We are pleased to welcome as a guest blogger today our favorite actuary, Don Bashline of Bashline & Associates, based in Watertown, MA. Don has some interesting thoughts on the federal government’s new regulations pertaining to overtime, which have a direct impact on workers compensation.]
On August 23, 2004, the U.S. Department of Labor’s new regulations defining worker eligibility for overtime pay went into effect. In a possible attempt at subliminal spin, the program is called “Fairpay.” Let’s say it’s “fair” for some and not so fair for others. For a critical view of the regs, see the white paper at the Economic Policy Institute. Although the net effect of the new regulations won’t be totally clear for a while, no one disputes that some low-wage workers (earning less than $23,660 per year) will gain overtime protection, while many others will lose it. Among the apparent losers: sous chefs, childcare workers and a very large number of supervisors…
The regulations are complex and employers will have some flexibility in implementing them. There have already been cases where employers have given raises (good news?) to employees near the $23,660 threshold, resulting in those workers losing eligibility for overtime (bad news!). Others have chosen to preserve overtime eligibility for workers in high-demand occupations (for example, nurses) that theoretically could have been exempted under the new regulations.
What does this mean for workers compensation? The net effect of the new regulations is to lower the wages of many workers. This will impact workers compensation in two ways: First, overtime wages are included in the calculation of an injured worker’s average weekly wage. With changes in eligibility for overtime, average weekly wages for many workers will decline. As a result, the weekly workers comp indemnity payments for these “exempt” injured workers will also decline.
In addition, these changes will impact workers compensation premiums, which are calculated based on a rate per $100 of payroll. With payrolls declining due to the new regulations, insurance premiums will also decline. Insurers, particularly those who have a high percentage of premiums in affected classifications, will need to think about calculating the estimated impact of these changes on both premium income and claim costs. Employers, especially those who are self-insured, might also need to assess the impact of the new rules on their projected workers compensation costs.
The impact of these new regulations on workers comp calls for careful scrutiny in the coming months. LynchRyan will keep you posted.
