Actuary & actuarial function

The actuarial function is anchored in Art. 48 of the Solvency II Directive (2009/138/EC): it coordinates the calculation of technical provisions, ensures the appropriateness of the methodologies, models and assumptions used, assesses data quality, compares best estimates against experience and informs management of the reliability and adequacy of the calculation. On top of that come the opinion on underwriting and reinsurance policy and the contribution to risk management.

That makes you the interface between data, model and supervisor — and thus the function that has to translate every regulatory change to assumptions, curves or reporting duties into numbers first. That translation pressure is exactly why continuous monitoring is not a comfort for actuaries but a tool of the trade.

The Solvency II review (Directive (EU) 2025/2) applies from 30 January 2027 and reaches right into your core calculations. Most visible: the reduction of the risk margin — the cost-of-capital rate falls to 4.75% with a time-dependent, decaying factor added (together roughly −21% on the level). Alongside it, the extrapolation of the risk-free term structure and several risk sub-modules are recalibrated. The accompanying delegated regulation was finalised in late October 2025 [1][2].

In parallel, the EU AI Act moves into your field: risk pricing and assessment in life and health insurance count as a high-risk use (Annex III), with duties on data governance, documentation and human oversight of the model — matters that hang directly off the actuarial function. And IFRS 17 remains the constant pacesetter for the measurement of insurance contracts [3].

The board needs no methodology debate but the assurance that the numbers hold: that provisions are adequate, assumptions current and regulatory changes demonstrably processed. A complete trail of which EIOPA publication was seen when and carried into which calculation is exactly the evidence the actuarial opinion and the supervisory dialogue rest on.