Softlogic Life produces Sri Lanka’s youngest actuaries
Rishikulya Gunasekera and Dilakshane Vijayakumar from Softlogic Life are the youngest actuaries, who are currently working in the insurance industry.
They obtained Fellowship and Associate Memberships, respectively from the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFOA) in the United Kingdom. The Fellowship is the highest level of qualification attainable with the IFOA and the members who achieve this Fellowship status are highly sought after as experts in their chosen field. The Associateship is the first level of qualification granted by IFOA at which individuals have the right to describe themselves as an actuary.
Actuarial science is applicable in any situation where risk and uncertainty are present. Actuaries performseveral diverse roles within the operations of life insurance companies, including pricing and designing of insurance products, actuarial valuation, profit testing, asset-liability management, experience analysis and reporting. The role of an actuary therefore requires extraordinary skills that relate particularly to the complex business of life insurance, where intricate assessments and workings need to be carried out in order to undertake key decisions relating to the portfolio of the company and its business model.
Rishikulya, who is a Senior Manager in the Actuarial Department at Softlogic Life, started her career at PWC in London, where she worked in the Actuarial and Insurance Solutions Management Department for four years. She has a B.SC. (Hons) in Mathematics from the University of Bath. She received her Fellowship this year, after completing her exams in 2018.
Dilakshane joined Softlogic Life as an intern to obtain first-hand actuarial industry experience in Sri Lanka, whilst completing her studies in the UK, where she completed a B.SC. in
Actuarial Science and an M.SC. in Applied Actuarial Science from the University of Kent. Dilakshane obtained her Associateship from IFOA and she currently is a Senior Manager in the Actuarial Department at Softlogic Life.
Congratulating both Rishikulya and Dilakshane, Softlogic Life Managing Director Iftikar Ahamed said, “With Sri Lanka’s insurance industry set to grow exponentially in the coming years, actuarial expertise, which is at the heart of the insurance business, needs to be significantly strengthened and is a big priority for the progression of the local insurance industry. Considering the need for scarce actuarial resources locally, both Rishikulya’s and Dilakshane’s recognitions are undoubtedly enormous achievements, not only to Softlogic Life but to Sri Lanka’s insurance industry.”
With Sri Lanka only having a handful of fully-qualified actuaries at present, actuarial support is necessary for the main functions in the insurance industry. The achievement of these young individuals will provide a significant competitive edge to Softlogic Life. As Sri Lanka’s fastestgrowing life insurer, Softlogic
Life has strategically identified the requirement for a top-class actuarial team and has invested in several training and development initiatives, which improve the performance of its actuarial team, enabling them to become more competitive in a sustainable manner by promoting and facilitating the transfer of knowledge and skills and thereby strengthening critical organisational capabilities. In 2015, Softlogic Life entered into a partnership with its international investors — DEG and FMO — to build expertise in the actuarial arena via a capacity development programme (Cdp)/business support services (BSS) programme of the respective institutions, to enhance the knowledge, skills and expertise of its team of in-house actuaries.
Softlogic Life has been able to attract crucial talent and this achievement is proof that its recruitment strategy and efforts of training and development are working well for the company. Attracting great talent as well as retaining them is one of Softlogic Life’s key objectives in ensuring sustenance of its winning momentum.