Ann Postolowski is a junior at the University of Connecticut in Mansfield, Connecticut. She is majoring in Actuarial Science-Finance and is the current VP of UConn’s chapter of Gamma Iota Sigma. Ann is graduating in May 2020. We spoke with her in April 2019.
Tell us one thing about you that’s not on your resume.
My family and I have lived all over the world. Currently, my parents are living in Saudi Arabia. My dad works for a petrochemical company, so it gives me the opportunity to travel to Europe, the Middle East, Asia, all over. I’ve actually been to over 20 different countries, so I feel as though I have a very global view of the world.
What has your experience at the University of Connecticut been like?
I’m actually from Kentucky, so when I first came to UConn, it was kind of a big shock for me, being in the Northeast. But I think the thing that surprised me the most was how friendly everyone was here. People always say, “Oh, everyone’s very cold and mean in the Northeast, and they’re always looking out for themselves,” but I didn’t really see that. I genuinely thought that everyone was trying to help everyone else, and it wasn’t cutthroat or anything, especially in our program and in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Everyone tries to work with you and help you do your best.
If you’re looking for something where you’re constantly learning and constantly being challenged, this is the profession for you, and this is the major for you.
One of the unique things about UConn is that you don’t just have professors that are teaching you material that they think is going to be useful in the industry, we also have adjunct professors that are from the industry. It’s really cool because as our professors are teaching us, they’ll go on a side note and mention, “Oh, I was actually doing this today in my job.” I think the students really appreciate having that kind of experience in the classroom.
We also have a lot of after-school activities that students can be involved in. I’m part of Gamma Iota Sigma, which is basically our actuarial science club on campus. We bring in insurance companies once or twice a week to talk about what’s going on in the industry. It really helps our members to see the application of what they’re learning in the classroom in real life. UConn also has a research center, the Goldenson Center for Actuarial Research, that students can participate in and do case studies.
There are tons of opportunities for actuarial science majors at UConn. Another great thing about the program is the diversity. I know that one of the major things that’s been talked about in the actuarial science industry is how there have been significantly more males than females in the field, but I don’t really see that at UConn. I think it’s pretty much a 50/50 split.
What other schools were you considering, and why did you choose UConn?
I was looking at all the midwest schools, the Big Ten schools—University of Illinois, Wisconsin, and Ohio State. Ultimately, when I got my acceptance letter from UConn, I thought I should check it out, but I didn’t really think I’d go that far for school. But when I visited and talked to the program advisors and professors, I saw just how passionate everyone was about the program. I also talked to people around the Hartford area—this is such a huge place for insurance professionals in this area—and saw that everyone was so focused on helping me achieve my goals and helping me do the best I can in the insurance industry. That was ultimately the deciding factor for me to go to UConn.
What influenced you to pursue an actuarial science program?
During my senior year in high school, I took AP Statistics, and one day my professor randomly came up to me and asked if I knew what an actuary was. And of course, I didn’t know what it was. When you’re in high school, no one’s ever heard of an actuary. Especially where I was from, insurance wasn’t really a big industry in Kentucky.
So I did my research on actuaries, and I thought the profession was really cool. You’re basically predicting the future. The more research I did, the more I found that you’re learning not only about statistics, but you’re also learning about finance, and about programming and modeling.
There’s so much variety in this major. That was probably one of the biggest reasons that I wanted to pursue it. You’re not going to be plugging and chugging on a computer, or simply programming, or doing math. You’re combining all of it together. I also liked that while the major was very detail-oriented, there was also an element of big-picture thinking. You have to apply all of the math and statistics to something in the real world, not solely working in the theoretical. It had an application.
Why should other students consider a focus in actuarial science?
Number one, good job prospects. You can make a very good salary as an actuarial science professional. I also think that the projects can be really unique. I don’t think that you’re going to be doing the same thing every single day. From my past internships and talking to people that are working in the industry now, they say that they’re learning something new every day. Things are constantly changing. They have to be up-to-date on what’s the next big trend in the industry.
If you’re looking for something where you’re constantly learning and constantly being challenged, this is the profession for you, and this is the major for you.
Actuarial science is also really challenging. It’s not like a major where you’re just going to sit there, and you’re going to memorize something that happened in the past, or you’re going to be doing the same thing over and over again. This is something that you’re actually going to be challenged by, and I’d say it’s relatively new. They’re constantly coming up with new ways to reserve or new ways to price a product. It’s very cool.
What has been your experience with the actuarial science program at your school?
The classes that I’ve enjoyed the most are the classes where I can see the application of what we’re learning, and where there’s some sort of project. In one of my classes, we did a pricing project where we priced our own product for an insurance company. That was really cool because that’s actually happening in the industry. People are doing that day to day, and our professor really wanted us to understand that this wasn’t some project that was given to us to test and see if we knew what was in the textbook. No, this is what you’d actually be doing in real life.
I’ve also enjoyed the clubs that we have. I mentioned Gamma Iota Sigma, where we bring in industry professionals and they talk about their jobs. These events are great because you can see how what you learned in class actually applies to the industry.
What is your favorite class so far and why?
My favorite class so far has been Corporate Finance or Advanced Financial Mathematics. I’m an Actuarial Science and Finance major, and for the most part all of the classes leading up to that class had more been actuarial focused. Corporate Finance was the first time where I really got to combine the two concepts.
For example, I talked about the pricing project that we had to do. I could see how I could use this financial knowledge of discounting cash flows, use my actuarial knowledge for doing sensitivity testing and statistics, and understand how to combine those two ideas and see which product was the best product for the insurance company.
What has been most challenging about studying actuarial science? Is there anything you wish you would have known ahead of time?
Actuarial science is very detail-oriented and also very big-picture oriented, and you are working with a lot of data sometimes. It can be very easy to get tunnel vision and get so into trying to find this one single number, and then you find it, and you realize that it’s nowhere near what it’s supposed to be. And you have to figure out why it is. You have to use your judgment, and that’s really difficult. That’s really hard to do, especially with no prior experience or no knowledge of the industry.
For math majors, you always want to be right, and you always want to find that one precise answer that’s perfect, but that’s not what real life is like. You’re going to have to use your own actuarial judgment and figure out, “What’s good enough? What’s close enough?” I wish I’d known that going into my classes and also my internships.
Have you had any insurance-related internships? If so, how was your experience?
I was actually fortunate enough to have two internships. After my freshman year, I worked at Milliman in their health office. It’s a small consulting firm for healthcare companies. It was really cool because I was working with a lot of data, and I was trying to compile it and sort through it in order to come up with an answer and an explanation for this specific project.
My second internship was after my sophomore year. I worked at MassMutual in their pension buyout area. I was working on a specific product that was relatively new in my area, UK longevity swaps. It was great because I got to use a lot of my finance knowledge, and I was updating one of their pricing tools and one of their reserving tools. In actuarial science, you have to set up a reserve in order to pay out future claims. That was really cool because I actually had a class that taught me a lot about reserving right before I went to my internship, and I was using all of that knowledge.
It was also interesting to see how the industry professionals do some things the same, but some things a little bit differently. Specifically, my manager built his own tool for reserving. I got to see how he used his actuarial judgment to set up the proper reserve for this new product that MassMutual began marketing. That was really cool because I was kind of the subject-matter expert on that. Not a lot of other people in MassMutual knew about that area, so they were coming to me and asking me questions as an intern. That was kind of daunting because you think you’re not supposed to know anything as an intern, but I was the only one that knew about this one product.
It was a great experience because I didn’t think I would be given that much responsibility as an intern. They actually gave me a project to work on, and I owned it from start to finish. It actually had value.
What are the latest developments or trends in insurance?
At my first internship, which was in healthcare, my project had a lot to do with M&A and vertical integration. You see a lot of companies in the industry merging now, like Aetna with CVS and Cigna with Express Scripts. A lot of M&A is happening in healthcare, which is interesting because these companies are trying to combine best practices and make everything more transparent for the customers. That’s where the healthcare industry is going—focusing on protecting patients and making costs more transparent.
In my last internship in life insurance, the big trend is this whole concept of Big Data. Recently, at UConn, we had a speaker from the Casualty Actuarial Society come and talk to us, and he said something like 90 percent of today’s data was created within the past two years. Just think about that. We’re constantly getting more and more data. What are we as actuarial science majors and actuaries supposed to do with all this data? It’s so daunting, but it’s also so powerful.
If we can figure out a way to harness this data in order to create better products for consumers, that’s going to be key moving forward and driving the industry. Whoever can figure that out is really going to excel in this industry.
What are your future aspirations or career plans?
This summer, I’m working at The Hartford in their investments department. I think this is really cool because I kind of saw the actuarial side of everything in my last two internships, and now I want to see what goes into making all of those models and the pricing of all of these products.
I think my goal for the future is to really get a holistic perspective on the insurance industry and, from start to finish, know what goes into making all the products.
What advice would you give someone interested in the insurance field?
This is what I always say to the people on my officer team for Gamma Iota Sigma: “What are your goals? What are you trying to get out of this officer position or this job?” For people looking into the insurance profession: “Are you trying to protect people’s financial interests? Then maybe you want to work in life insurance. Are you trying to protect people’s health? Maybe you want to work in health insurance.”
I think you really have to ask yourself, “What do I like doing? How do I want to help other people? What do I want to do in my job?” I think that’s really key. If you know you want to work in insurance, if you want to work in this industry, how do you want to help people or want to help the consumer? I think that’s a big question that everyone needs to ask themselves.
Do you have any favorite books, websites, or media that you would recommend for someone interested in insurance?
Newspapers like The Wall Street Journal are key. If you know what’s going on in the markets, that directly affects insurance. There’s also a market data resource called S&P Global, which I actually used at both of my previous internships. You can tailor the application toward what you want, whether it’s healthcare news or life insurance news, and they’ll send you a daily or weekly newsletter with a bunch of articles for your specific interests.
Also, looking at the big four accounting firms’ webpages on insurance and other specific actuarial consulting firms, like Aon, Milliman, and Willis Towers Watson. They have a lot of really smart consulting actuaries there who are writing articles constantly about trends in the industry.
