SAIF chief actuarial officer wins prestigious Dorweiler Prize
Diss and SAIF Board Appointed Actuary Richard Sherman recently co-authored an actuarial paper describing and calculating the tail of workers’ compensation payments.
Using information from SAIF’s database (some of which stretches back to the 1920s), Diss was able to show that many of the assumptions used by insurance actuaries may not be completely accurate. Diss found that medical payments actually rise and fall for the life of the claim and experience another rise at the end of life when the worker is in their 70s or 80s.
The paper also found that if a chronically injured worker survives 40 years after the date of injury, the worker is likely to live longer than the general population, perhaps due to receiving frequent medical care.
Sherman created an original model that can be used by insurance companies to more accurately quantify the future medical payments as injured workers age.
On November 14, 2006, Diss and Sherman presented their research paper in San Francisco to a crowd of over 100 actuaries. This research paper was the winner of the prestigious Dorweiler Prize, which was presented to Diss and Sherman in front of 1,500 of their fellow actuaries.
“It was a great honor and the pinnacle of my career,” says Diss.
The Dorweiler Prize is awarded to the best eligible research paper submitted by an associate or fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society who has had their designation more than five years. The prize is designed to stimulate original thinking and research. The paper must show evidence of original research and offer a solution to an advanced insurance problem.