What actuaries might learn about life

This paper presents the author\'s view that the professional life assurance courses for subjects 302 and 402 fail to consider a number of important technical and ethical elements of management and economic theory. These include the marketing concept, the financial life cycle, macro-pricing and public relations, which are important in the management of a life office. They also fail to engage the debates that surround questions of profit, market prices and modelling, especially that between actuarial practice and financial economics. Their failure leads to some incoherence in the courses, and could mean that students are inadequately prepared for professional practice.KEYWORDS Education; life assurance; marketing; profit; modelling; financial economics (South African Actuarial Journal: 2002 2: 53-68)