The Brian Hey Prize was established in 1998. Brian Hey was a senior and respected actuary who worked in general insurance.
In his memory, his family and employer donated funds to further actuarial research and the IFoA has used this to establish a research-based prize in his memory. The Brian Hey Prize is usually awarded for the best paper submitted to each year’s GIRO Conference.
At GIRO Conference 2024, the prestigious Brian Hey Prize was awarded to Neil Gedalla, Adam Smylie, and Jade Lagrue for their paper ‘Parameterising Capital Modelling Volatility: Allowing for Changes in Volume’. The selection panel described it as an “excellent, technical paper with strong applicability to core general insurance actuarial practice.”
The panel praised the paper for addressing a gap in existing research with innovative new content, adding that it is “technically sound, and the improvements suggested are relatively easy to implement.”
Two papers received high commendations:
The prize has a great history in helping to highlight research that is practical and helpful for members of the IFoA general insurance practice area. Each year, it is awarded at the GIRO conference for the best paper.
Watch this space for the Brian Hey Prize 2025 open invitation, which we’ll be announcing soon.
Year |
Recent Brian Hey prize winners |
Author(s) |
| 2024 | Parameterising capital modelling volatility: allowing for changes in volume | Neil Gedalla, Adam Smylie, Jade Lagrue |
| 2023 | Reserving for climate change: 2023 Working Party Update: Litigation, Wordings and Qualitative Tools | Climate Change Reserving Working Party |
| 2022 | Asbestos Working Party 2022 update | By members of the Asbestos Working Party |
| 2021 | LocalGLMnet: interpretable deep learning for tabular data | Ronald Richman, Mario V. Wüthrich |
| 2020 | The Actuary and IBNR Techniques: A Machine Learning Approach | Ronald Richman and Caesar Balona |
| 2019 | No winner | n/a |
| 2018 | Self-assembling insurance claim models using regularized regression and machine learning | Gráinne McGuire, Hugh Miller and Greg Taylor |
| 2017 | No winner | n/a |
| 2016 | Analyzing the Disconnect Between the Reinsurance Submission and Global Underwriter's Needs | CAS International Pricing Research Working Party - Chair: John Buchanan |
| 2015 | Application of the Solvency II actuarial function to general insurance firms | The Actuarial Function Working Party |
| 2015 | Bias, guess and expert judgement in actuarial work | The Getting Better Judgement Working Party |
| 2014 | Towards the Optimal Reserving Process | Neil Bruce (Chair) and members of the Towards the Optimal Reserving Process Working Party |
| 2013 | Solvency II Technical Provisions for General Insurers | Susan Dreksler (Chair) and members of the Solvency II Technical Provisions Working Party |
| 2012 | Triangle-Free Reserving | Pietro Parodi |
| 2011 | Extending the Mack bootstrap | Joseph Lo |
| 2010 | Crop Micro Insurance | Agrotosh Mookerjee (chair) and members of the Working Party |
| 2009 | Winner's curse | Mark Rothwell (chair) and members of Working Party |
| 2008 | Integrating pricing and capital modelling | J B Crozet (chair) and members of Working Party |
| 2007 | Reinsurance counterparty credit risks | Mark Flower (chair) and members of Working Party |
| 2006 | Catastrophe modelling | Graham Fulcher (chair) and members of Working Party |
| 2005 | Periodical payments and the Courts Act | Anthony Williams (chair) and members of Working Party |
| 2004 | UK asbestos - the definitive guide | Julian Lowe (chair) and members of Working Party |
| 2003 | The cycle survival kit. An investigation into the reserving cycle and other issues | Nick Line (chair) and members of Working Party |
| 2002 | Pricing excess of loss treaty with loss sensitive features: an exposure rating approach | Ana J Mata, Brian Fannin and Mark A Verheyen |
| 2001 | No winner | n/a |
| 2000 | Underwriting cycles and business strategies | Sholom Feldblum |
| 1999 | No winner | n/a |
| 1998 | Financial pricing of insurance in the multiple line insurance company | J David Cummins, Franklin Allen and Richard D Phillips |