I am an actuary and I am looking to join a website where people ask
for free actuarial advice and actuaries may answer if it is within
their area of expertise.  The intent is to gain additional business
contacts when people follow the free questions up with billable
assignments.  There are services like this for legal questions - I
need to find one for actuarial questions.

Have you considered creating your own "Ask an Actuary" Web site?
Although there are several online discussion forums on actuarial
subjects, in reading through the threads on these boards I see many
more actuaries than potential clients. I would think a site where you
could list your credentials and answer questions by email or by phone
might be very effective. For example, I have found one actuary, Carl
Westman, who apparently does most of his business by email and over
the telephone:

"Carl Westman provides professional actuarial and financial analysis
services at substantially lower rates (50-70% less) than
nationally-known actuarial consulting firms.  Cost savings result from
two factors.  First, I have very low overhead costs, since fees do not
need to cover costs of senior partners, managers, etc.  [Also note
that your project will not be passed on to a more junior person.]
Second, I accept a lower fee in exchange for working with clients on a
telecommuting basis. That is, I generally do not work on site."

Actuary on Call
http://www.actuaryoncall.com/faq.htm

Here are some online discussion boards that I hope will be of use to
you.

The Actuarial Discussion Forum:

"A discussion board for actuaries, those who want to be an actuary,
and anyone interested in insurance, finance and business application
of math and economics. Everyone is welcome to participate.
Registration is recommended but not required. This forum is NOT
affiliated with the Society of Actuaries or the Casualty Actuarial
Society or any other professional organization. The participants are
individually responsible for their words and actions. "

Actuarial Discussion Forum
http://pub12.ezboard.com/bactuarial18384

The Rebel Outpost Actuarial Discussion Forum:

"Site of the Rebel Outpost Actuarial Discussion Forum. The internet's
busiest actuarial discussion forum. Featuring resources including free
downloads and a comprehensive links section. Now accepting sponsor
banner ads and job postings."

Rebel Outpost
http://www.actuary.ca/
http://www.actuary.ca/phpBB/?menu=11&PHPSESSID=8d4a6b564406265f9a17debe3c1d0d70

The Financial Advisors Forum has threads on investing, insurance,
financial planning, and other subjects that may be of interest:

Financial Advisors Forum
http://www.voy.com/90922/

The Casualty Actuarial Society Discussion Forum may be of interest to
you, for purposes of peer contact. Only members of the CAS (and
candidates for membership) may post here, however:

"The Discussion Forum provides you the opportunity to tap the
knowledge and experience of peers worldwide by creating an on-going
roundtable discussion on a topic that interests you. The Forum
contains separate categories for examination-related topics and
actuarial research topics, as well as for non-actuarial discussion."

Casualty Actuarial Society Discussion Forum
http://www.casact.org/forum/intro.htm

Here are two excellent collections of links on actuarial matters:

Actuarial Science at Insurances Quotes.com 
http://www.insurances-quotes.com/Other_Insurance_Sites/Actuarial_Science/

American Academy of Actuaries
http://www.actuary.org/links.htm

These next two are rather "iffy," for the reasons mentioned below, but
I thought I should include them in case you would like to try them at
a later date:

The Find Actuaries Discussion Forum seems to have been inactive since
August, but I include it here in case it may be revived:

Find Actuaries Discussion Forum
http://www.findactuaries.com/webforum/display_forum_topics.asp?ForumID=1&PagePosition=1

There are several discussion forums at Actuary.com. This evening when
I visited the site, the only forums which were functioning were the
forums on Health, Pensions, Entry Level Discussion, and Internship.

Discussion Forums Casualty - General Discussion Forum 
Health - General Discussion Forum 
Life - General Discussion Forum 
Pensions - General Discussion Forum  
Entry Level - General Discussion Forum 
Actuarial Internship Discussion Forum 
Software & Technology Discussion Forum 

Actuary.com
http://actuary.com/

My Google search strategy:

"actuary" + "forum"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=actuary+forum

"forum" + "actuaries"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=forum+actuaries

I also searched Yahoo groups using the keywords "actuary,"
"actuaries," and "actuarial." Most of the groups I found were very
small, and most were oriented toward students, not established
professionals seeking clients. If you would like to browse through
these groups, the links below will be helpful:

http://groups.yahoo.com/search?query=actuary
http://groups.yahoo.com/search?query=actuaries
http://groups.yahoo.com/search?query=actuarial

I hope this information helps. If anything further is needed, I'll be
glad to assist if you request clarification before rating my answer.

Best regards,
pinkfreud

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Request for Answer Clarification by loufilliger-ga on 13 Oct 2002 07:55 PDT

pinkfreud - thanks, good answer so far -  that guy Carl and I have
almost identical business approaches - please flesh out your idea of
the "Ask an Actuary" web site - would this be in addition to our
existing website www.demseyfilliger.com (just listed it last week so
the crawlers may not have found it yet) or would it be an extra page
on our website?  What sort of time involvement (hours/day) would be
invovled in maitaining the "Ask an Actuary" forum?  I actually had
thought of that but am worried that it would be too demanding.  Should
I hire a service to run it for me?  Thanks,
Lou Filliger

---

Clarification of Answer by pinkfreud-ga on 13 Oct 2002 09:06 PDT

Lou,

Here are a few of my thoughts on your questions:

1. Would this be in addition to our existing website
www.demseyfilliger.com (just listed it last week so the crawlers may
not have found it yet) or would it be an extra page on our website?

I can see good reasons for doing it either way. If you use the
existing site, and expand it to include an "Ask an Actuary" feature,
your site will get more exposure, and other sites will be more likely
to link to you (which will enhance your rank when search engines such
as Google do list you.) It is even possible that the web-based advice
service could become the main focus of your practice (as is the case
with Carl Westman, whose "Actuary on Call" site I mentioned earlier.)

On the other hand, your current domain name does not shout "actuarial
services" to the casual user who may be unfamiliar with your firm.
Perhaps a separate URL with a name such as "ask-an-actuary" could
funnel more potential clients in your direction. I did a brief search,
and ask-an-actuary.com is already registered (although no site has yet
been constructed using this name.) The names ask-an-actuary.org,
ask-an-actuary.net, and ask-an-actuary.biz are still available.

If you are interested in using a separate URL for your
question-and-answer service, you may get some creative inspiration by
scanning through a list of existing domain names containing the word
"actuary":

http://www.domainsurfer.com/ssearch.cgi?dom=actuary

2. What sort of time involvement (hours/day) would be involved in
maintaining the "Ask an Actuary" forum?  I actually had thought of
that but am worried that it would be too demanding.

The amount of time needed to maintain a forum or an email-based
service of this type would, of course, depend upon the volume and
complexity of questions that are submitted. I do not know anyone who
is operating an online actuarial answer service, but I do have a
friend who, for several years, offered a service answering
computer-related questions (software-based solutions only, not
hardware troubleshooting.) My friend sells her own "Hints and Tips"
books and CD-ROMs on her Web site, and for several years she
maintained a free "Ask an Expert" section on the site. This brought
her many new customers (and also many freeloaders.) Initially she
spent about ten hours a week on this, but as the answer service became
more popular, it became unwieldy in the amount of time and attention
it required, and my friend finally jettisoned it, since she did not
want to outsource the service. She is a "lone wolf" kind of
businesswoman, and the concept of sharing her projects with anyone
else did not appeal. Obviously, since you have a partner, you do not
fall into this "lone wolf" category, and you therefore have many more
options than my self-limiting friend had with her project.

3. Should I hire a service to run it for me?  

That is certainly something to consider for the future, but at the
beginning I would suggest as much involvement from yourself and your
partner as possible. You may want to hire someone on a contract basis
to construct the Web interface which enables the service to function,
but I would be cautious about farming out the questions to anyone
outside your firm. In doing so, you run the risk that business may be
siphoned off by an unethical individual. If you and your partner are
too busy to maintain a hands-on relationship with your online clients
(and potential clients,) you might want to hire an actual employee,
either full-time or part-time, rather than a service whose activities
would be difficult to monitor.

~pinkfreud

pinkfreud was very thorough and helpful.  It may turn out to be a
five-star answer if the advice works (too soon to tell.)  I easily got
my money's worth.