Long story cut short...I am qualified Actuary with experience in Life Insurance, Consulting and Banking. I have recently been hired by the CEO of a company in distress. I am very excited since it is very very hard, for a life insurance company to be under distress. I have had a look and I see most of the problems at the company can be solved by two things:
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Repricing existing products to increase Value of New Business (VNB, a term specific to Life Insurance for future profits of newly acquired policyholders)
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Introducing a new product that is highly profitable. This is a product I have implemented at the company I worked for in the same market and is a tried and tested funeral/burial product with negative liabilities.
The two things above will decrease year on year losses and ultimately turn the company around. But given the amount of work that needs to be done here, I don't see why I can't be given the CEO job if this plan works. The CEO is a sales guy and I am more than excited to make his job easier, but I feel the eyes are going to turn towards me since I'm an Actuary especially if I implement the above strategies; I will have to be pulled into Exco for example and of-course I want the CEO job (at the end)...
Any tips of what to do and not do? PS: I am 29, please rip me apart..
Going to be blunt: your abilities as an actuary do not qualify your ability to be a value added CEO at a life insurance company. I have covered insurance for years and I can't recall a single time I saw a mid market life insurance CEO with an actuary background, nevermind one that was 29 years old (in fact that would be a huge red flag for a financial buyer). The value chain in insurance from a high level: win business (sales), price the business (actuary), manage claims (operations). The downstream value chain can be outsourced, but the business depends on sales, guys with commercial relationships and a Rolodex of distributors that will maintain and grow the business.
Right now it sounds like the insurer you work for had a major hiccup in policy pricing that resulted in unsustainable loss ratios - you've been brought in to correct this hiccup for future business (congrats by the way, most mm life co's don't get a second chance when there is a pricing event, hence why very few mm life co's exist). Once this issue is solved, your job is no longer a value add (properly priced policies ought to be business as usual). On the other hand, replace the sales guy and there will be no future business.
TLDR: Sales is the value add in a healthy life insurance company.
Bad trolling or autism. Can't tell.