With regards to insurance, what is the difference between an actuary and an underwriter?

Question

I know they both assess risk, but not much more than that!

Answer 1

Actuaries define guidelines based on company information, expected profitability, and industry regulations.  Underwriters interpret guidelines based on individual circumstances to help company meet expectations.

Answer 2

The easiest way to explain it is actuaries study the law of numbers and set premium rates for each insurance policy by mortality rate, morbidity rates and so on.. creating tables.

An underwriter will look at each case (applicant) individually for coverage and decide where they fall into the tables that the actuaries created.

Answer 3

An actuary analyzes statistics and probabilities, which set guideline for risk classes and ratings. They are the ones that determine the "cost of insurance" per age/risk class/etc.

Underwriters analyze the applicants data and determines which class to put the applicants in, according to actuary guidelines.

For example, in life insurance, an actuary creates the cost of insurance by analyzing demographical statistics, data, probabilities. In life insurance, the underwriter will analyze the application, pull medical records, analyze the lab results from the physical....and then place the applicant in a certain risk category. The applicant will pay the cost of insurance for that class determined by the actuary.

Answer 4

An actuary calculates the probable loss of a risk - the payout potential and cost.

An underwriter assigns premiums. selects coverages and endorsements, etc.

The actuary is all about numbers.  The underwriter negotiates coverages.