TIA’s G&H-DP Blog

Greetings from the big bang generation!

So - we made it to September and as exam students - its money time. It’s get your hands around the material during September - and then memorize, work problems, memorize, work problems during October.

I am here with Ben now in the studio - I just wrapped up Section I and it will be mixed by Day shortly. Ben is putting his finishing touches on Sections J,K,L and then I do my work to those sections - and the part 1 (videos) of the mission will have been completed. Part 2 is the live seminars. Part 3 is providing support to you all after the seminar.

Its time to turn it up a notch - exam day is in our sights.

Have a good week

Colin and Ben 

Hello Future Fellows!

Greetings from the Blogisphere!

In the studio taking a break from recording section D (the care management papers) - hope you are all viewing the videos that have been posted and getting a lot out of them!!

Will be recording until sections D, E, F are complete and then I will come up for air. Day is currently mixing the remaining sections of part B and well as part C - which has been completed as well.

Then its the final push - sections G - L - sometime, somewhen - not to distant into the future.

Have a good week!! 

Hello all!!!

August - these months are rolling by and looking at the chatter- things are beginning to heat up on the study front.

1.

Important announcement. We may be adding a 3rd seminar because the first 2 (which are a 100% go) fall on holidays. My apologies to those of the jewish faith. It was more a function of getting conference room space in choosing the first 2 dates.

Anyway - if we get enough students - the 3rd one will be held in CT as well. If not, it will be held at an insurance company in New York City. Anyone interested, please email Day for details. 

 2. 

Section B is in the can. 22 sections in total. My colleague Ben Brandon will be completing the 3 other sections for Section A and A and B will be in the can. Day is mixing the remainder of part B and it will be up as soon as ’humanly’ possible. Warning - one of the sections in B has 8 subsections.

Section C is credibility who I, as your humble correspondent, will be in the studio tomorrow recording. A nasty viral infection has subdued my voice which is why I am giving it another day to recooperate before going behind the mike. Good thing you dont have to see my face or you would not like what you see!

Ok - Section D is the claim management good stuff including the DM papers.

Section E is predictive modeling. 

Sorry to wallop you folks with A and B. That is a lot of sections. I think 19 for A and 22 for B and thats not including the 8 in one section. Big Ben has just completed a huge section in A that had 7 sections in it. Day is mixing.

3. 

 What I pretty much did was throw you folks right into the deep end from the gate. After E - we can exhale - tread water a little bit as we go back to some of the more basic material - and it will be easy to swallow as we kinda covered a lot of it in A and B, and then I throw you folks back into the deep end for regs and the employee benefits related topics.

4.

Ben Brandon. My apologies to you folks as you have not seeing him much so far. You’ll all be hearing from him on video real soon. He recently was hired as a Principal at Mercer - so he is giving new meaning to the phrase - ‘under pressure’.

5. 

Hopefully, I have given you all some good looks at some questions as well as hopefully talking you through the material.

I am trying to keep each video segment at around 10 minutes give or take. After 10 minutes, get up, and do something else. Some of this info is brutal, and I am trying to keep your heads into it by splitting it up this way. Same with the live seminar. I have been at the seminars that at day 3 - everyone is grumpy and have blood shot eyes and are zoning out. I will do everything possible to make sure that doesnt happen in september. I think you can tell by the schedule that thats the plan.

Talk to you next week!

Colin

“Health Actuarial Knowledge is Power!!!” 

Hi future fellows!

CSP scores will be released either thursday or friday. Good luck to all of you!

The Infinite Actuary will be having a special promotion shortly in which an i-phone will be given away. Hopefully, it will be a DP health student that takes the prize!:)

Ok - here’s the deal:

1. Section A (one of the longer sections) is nearing completion. You will be hearing my colleague, Ben Brandon, on a few of the remaining Section A videos.

Speaking of Ben, I am happy to announce to you that he has accepted a position as a principal at Mercer Consulting. It’s a big move for him and he’s definitely up for the challenge!On the video front, Ben will be doing videos from the Rosenbloom text and Yamamoto text as well as Managed Care material.  

2. After section A, we go to section 1 (based on the SOA syllabus), then we go to underwriting (the heart of the syllabus and another very lengthy section), and then on to credibility. The logic being credibility is used in pricing.

 The overall idea is - we are going right to the core of the material right from the start. Its longer than the rest of the material - which is why you are seeing long sections as well as long videos as well as slow video releases. The pace will pick up once we get away from this and hit some of the other readings - which you will welcome with a sense of relief compared to the material that we are handling now.

For those that have expressed concern about the timeliness of the video releases - rest assured that we understand your anticipation and concerns - at the same time - we are really trying to hit a home run on everyone of them - and the heart of this syllabus that we have tackled right on is a monster. We simply didnt throw all the material at you - but made sure to include problems, problems, problems. Those going to the live seminar will also be bombarded with problems (as well as candy!!). You can blame Mike Carmody of JAM fame for the candy as well as the seminar schedule:)!We are following his format as its works!!

 Regarding your studying - keep in mind every video that you are seeing - you would normally see it in a live seminar which is 2 months away. So, in that sense, you are getting a head start. But, I do understand that you really want to get hold of all these videos right now!

My advice would be to use your study resources you are using - but then make sure you check here for each video that comes out. It will begin to really solidify materials in your head. In addition, the power of video and audio is pretty strong in that these images and voices begin to stick in your head.

Hi everyone!,

Just a few things to pass along:

1. The remainder of the Group Insurance Group Disability chapter videos will be posted shortly along the videos for 2 Group Disability Study Notes. Then we move onto Dental and then trends.

2. We updated the format of the outline for the videos. Previously, we had it separated according to syllabus section and textbook. The SOA did this for ease of presenting the material. We have adjusted it a little bit to have it not separated by textbook - but by topic. For example, in section A, disability is discussed in 2 study notes as well as in the group insurance text. So, in the outline - you will see it presented by topic. Also, it will help you a little bit in organizing this material so it will not seem so scattered.

3. More details on the Group Insurance 5th edition text. In the Gross Premium chapter in the 4th edition, it had an extensive reading on expenses - to the point that you may have been scratching your head wondering how it would be posed as an exam question. In the 5th edition, much of the expense discussion has been removed.

Enjoy your weekends!

Hi,

Here is a more formal schedule for the video rollouts that will be coming soon.

 (based on SOA syllabus document edu-catfall07-health-dp.pdf)

1. #10: Developing medical manual rate

2. #1:   Single ER Group

3. #2:   Individual & Multilife Coverages

4. #12: U/W: Pricing, Ben Design, Funding

Enjoy your weekends!

 Colin 

hi all!

Here is the latest:

1. I would recommend purchasing the 5th edition of Group Insurance. I was not sure about this until I saw a medical claim cost example in the text updated and when that happens - that is a pretty serious change.

2. Here is the immediate future schedule for the video rollouts. Thank you for your comments about this issue.

a. within the next few weeks, the remainder of the section that you are beginning to see on the site will be out.

b. This will be folllowed by the first section of the syllabus on the soa site.

c. This will be followed by the section that includes the group insurance chapters on underwriting small and large groups.

The idea is to hit these major portions of the syllabus early.

3. Regarding time frames in general, there will be a steady stream coming every week until september. We will post schedule updates on a regular basis so you all can gear your studies towards this schedule if you would like to.

Feel free to email or post any questions that you have!

Talk to you next week on the blog!

Hi all,

I wanted to give all of you an update on the exam dp videos. I think some of you are on a well deserved post exam csp summer hiatus, but there are others that are beginning to crank up the study machine!

A few of the initial lessons have been uploaded and more are in the queue being remastered for release. A couple of them are freeview for the general public to see - but most of the lessons will be for members only. The videos will be rolled out in a consistent basis throughout the summer. Also, we will be moving around the syllabus in order to cover certain major topics before others.

If anyone had any comments or concerns for me -either regarding the material or other issues, feel free to contact me at

colin@theinfiniteactuary.com

I am available all the time!

One thing of note to mention to you if you were not already aware of it. It looks like the Group Insurance text has a new version (5th Edition). I am looking at a pre-release of it and the changes between the 4th and 5th editions. Of the chapters I have reviewed, there are minor tweaks - such as making things more current and updating problems that may have needed updating. In fact, the chapter numbers have changed as well - so we will be updating chapter numbers on the videos that have already been released.

Colin

A special hello to all G&H DP Exam Takers!!!

Thank you for registering in one of The Infinite Actuary G&H DP exam products. We look forward to doing everything we can to assist in your exam preparations.

As you know, this exam sitting is unique in that it’s new. We have some of the older exams as a model to work from, but in reality, it is a new exam - so our exam preparation approach and materials will be designed to give you as much exposure to the syllabus material as possible.

This blog is open to all the registered students and it will serve as a great forum to quickly get information out there regarding announcements, updates, as well as to answer any questions that you have along the way about anything.

Look forward to corresponding with you!

Kind regards,

Colin Condie