Is it a factoid that the word factoid means a small, interesting fact? Yes it is. Unfortunately you and I have likely not yet effectively communicated. The Wordle answer a few weeks back was “aster”. I immediately thought of “star” in ancient Greek. Not because I studied ancient Greek or was preparing for 19th century…
Nothing is certain except death and taxes. Except taxes aren’t certain. Not the amounts, not the timing, not the rules. And once you start pulling on that thread, the list of things we treat as certain, in our models and in our heads, gets uncomfortably long. This is that list. It is not comprehensive, and…
[Last updated 15 July 2026] For both funeral policies and life microinsurance policies, the original sum assured benefit cap was set at R100,000. The rules say each escalates with inflation, but there is no consistent official source of the currently applicable amount. Is the CPI escalation really in force, enough that you can rely on…
A review of Yusuf Bodiat’s The Bottom Line. Yusuf Bodiat’s The Bottom Line asks a question that most South African policy writing tiptoes around: why does a state rich in talent and natural resources, with the formal architecture of a functioning country – constitution, treasury, reserve bank, courts, statistical agency – struggle so visibly to…
Every few years, someone in the room says it. Maybe it is the new CTO. Maybe it is a consultant. Maybe it is you, staring at a model that has been accumulating complexity since before the Global Financial Crisis. The words are always roughly the same: “We should rewrite this.” The sentiment is understandable. The…
Parametric insurance is often marketed as the “clean” alternative to traditional risk transfer. The pitch is compelling: if a hurricane hits a specific GPS coordinate at a specific intensity, a predetermined payment is triggered. No adjusters, no haggling, no years of litigation. But for many, this promise is being hindered by a foundational legal concept:…
It feels unfair. You did nothing wrong. Someone else drove into your car outside your house and now you’re paying more. Surely that’s just the insurer clawing back their loss? Maybe. But maybe not. Let me take the scenic route to explaining why. Driving my daughter to school, I occasionally spot someone tailgating or cutting…
I am an actuary, not an economist, although I hold economics in high regard as a field. It tackles questions that are fascinating, ambitious, and sometimes messy in ways that make me slightly jealous. Still, I remain an actuary, and perhaps that makes me a little more sceptical of certain techniques. Maybe it is because…
