Richard Fitzherbert
© Richard Fitzherbert, 2004, reprinted 2008
ISBN 978 0 85813 072 2
The actuarial profession has a long history of investment education as part of its qualification process. Understanding the key features of different types of investment is important in assessing assumptions used to value the liabilities of institutions such as life insurance companies and defined benefit superannuation funds. These key features also determine the suitability of particular investments as reserves for different types of liabilities. Although written to address the needs of actuaries, the text contains very few formulae and deals mainly with underlying investment principles and implicit assumptions rather than the mathematical side of finance. Such an approach necessarily involves different points of view which need to be openly discussed. Within the profession in Australia, Investment Principles for Actuaries is intended as a text for Part III (postgraduate or Fellowship level) and as a reference for Part II (advanced undergraduate level).