OMART, a subsidiary of Old Mutual Limited, is a life insurance company that specialises in cell captive solutions for clients wanting to meet insurance and profit-share objectives. My responsibilities as part of the team include:

• Performing Financial Soundness Valuations, IFRS profit analysis of surplus, providing insights into results and drafting valuation reports,

• Assisting with SAM regulatory solvency calculations,

• Assisting with Market Consistent Embedded Value (MCEV) calculations,

• Performing calculations for dividend declarations, board reports and ad-hoc requests,

• Reviewing regular and ad-hoc financial reports,

• Supporting the OMART team with new cell and product launches,

• Translating market, client and financial data analysis results into client-friendly reports and presentations,

• Assistance in process improvement through the development and implementation of a data management system,
• Automating various manual tasks and processes,
• Assisting in the development and testing of a system of REST API's for both internal and external stakeholders.

I also received the 2019 Old Mutual Corporate Excellence Award in the Innovation category and was the runner up for the same award in 2020.

OMART provided a great opportunity for me to develop my knowledge and skills in the insurance industry. As a vacation student, I spent a great deal of my time meeting new people, exploring various roles and gaining insight into the operations of the business as well some of the challenges faced. I was taught about life insurance and how cell captives work, as well as how various products and benefits are structured. I also assisted with some ad-hoc administrative tasks such as the testing of a bank reconciliation system and provided support to the actuarial and accounting teams where needed.

The Old Mutual Product Solutions team provided an opportunity for me to gain valuable insight into the behind the scenes operations of major life insurance products. I engaged in meaningful conversations with industry professionals about their functions in the organisation as well as the various opportunities that were available to an actuarial graduate. I was taught about how various life insurance products are structured, specifically funeral products, and was allowed to sit in on claims committee and project management meetings. I also assisted with various ad-hoc tasks such as the comparison and visualisation of mortality rates.

Assisted with various administrative tasks such as:

• Capturing of invoices and bank statements,
• Drafting of financial reports,
• Filing of SARS tax returns.