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Australian School of Business > Schools
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Anthony
Asher
B Bus Sc, Cape Town
Ph D, Witwatersrand
FIA, UK
FIAAust
FASSA
Associate Professor
Ethics officer
Anthony believes that the actuarial profession fulfils its social role by creating financial security for people. He has attempted in his career to contribute to this at different times by:
- Developing products that more closely meet people's needs for it, which he has been able to do in life insurance companies, as a trustee of a retirement fund and as an consulting actuary
- Focusing the role of the actuarial profession on it, by university teaching and research
- Contributing to government policy that affects it by research and through participation in actuarial profession and government committees
Living in Australia from 2003, he first served three years in the policy and research division of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and then five as a consulting actuary with Deloitte. He joined the University of New South Wales in mid 2011.
Prior to that, he was the Professor of Actuarial Science at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg for 14 years. He also served as non-executive director on the board of a life insurer, retirement fund, unit trust management company and micro-lender - serving as chairman of the last three. Before that he worked for in life insurance, culminating with four years as Chief Actuary of the Prudential Assurance Company of South Africa, and a member of its senior management, board and investment committees.
His service to the actuarial profession, and on a variety of government advisory committees and enquiries, was rewarded by the Murray Medal, the highest award for service given by the Actuarial Society of South Africa, in 2002.
As a consultant and researcher, he has worked on a variety of issues relating actuarial aspects of accounting, capital management, investment, social security and superannuation issues, often from the perspective of social justice.
Publications
Refereed journal articles
- 2011. Salary Linked Home Finance: Reducing interest rate, inflation and idiosyncratic salary risks. Australian Actuarial Journal
- 2010. Actuaries and the GFC. Guest editorial, South African Actuarial Journal. pp.77-83
- 2008. With Simon Webb and Andrew Doughman. The management of liquidity risks. Monash Business Review. 4(3), pp.26-29
- 2007. Pension Benefit Design and the Integration of Insurance Benefits over the Life Cycle. South African Actuarial Journal. 7, pp.73-115.
- 2007. Mean Reversion in investment markets: the implications for investors and regulators. Australian Actuarial Journal. 13(2), pp.721-770
- 2006. Unfinished accounting issues in financial institutions: modelling fair value and prudence. Annals of Actuarial Science. 1(2), pp.271-290
- 2005. The Relative Investment Performance of the Community Growth Fund. South African Actuarial Journal 5, pp.1-26
- 2005. Book Review: Developing an Annuity Market in Europe. Eds. Elsa Fornero and Elisa Luciano. Journal of Pension Economics and Finance. 4(3), pp.331-333
- 2002. What actuaries might learn about Life. The South African Actuarial Journal. 2, pp.53-68
- 2001. The Fight against Poverty: Social Security, Job Creation... and Responsibility. Praxis - Journal for Christian Business Management. 9(4), pp.2-8
- 2001. On the Virtue of Serving the Public Interest. Guest Editorial, British Actuarial Journal. 7(III), pp.313-317
- 2000. Fiduciary duties and Good Faith in the Management of Retirement Fund Surpluses. The South African Actuarial Journal. 1, pp.1-33. (Awarded prize for best paper at 2000 convention)
- 1999. Loading members with Investment Choice. Journal of Pensions Management. 5(1), pp.76-85
- 1998. Effective and Ethical Institutional Investment. British Actuarial Journal. 4(V), pp.969-1027
- 1994. Managing the Financial Costs of Housing. Journal of Actuarial Practice. 2(1), pp.125-144
Chapters in books
- 2009. The Financial Management of Life Insurance. In: Wickens. The Law of Life Insurance in Australia. Thomson Lawbooks
- 2008. Conflicted super structures: Are Australian Investors being Short-changed. In: Pension Fund Governance. J. Evans, M. Orszag and J. Piggott and E. Elgar, eds.
- 2007. Smoothing Investment Returns. In: Retirement Provision in Scary Markets. H. Bateman and E. Elgar
- 2006. Pensions in Africa. Oxford Handbook of Pensions and Retirement Income. G.L. Clark, A. Munnell and M. Orzsag, eds.
- 2006. ICP23B: Assessing Solvency. In: A Core Curriculum for Insurance Supervisors. International Association of Insurance Supervisors and the World Bank
- 2003. Pricing. Meeting Consumers' Needs. In: C. Bellis, J. Shepherd & R. Lyon, eds. Understanding Actuarial Management: the actuarial control cycle. Institute of Actuaries of Australia, Sydney - chapter 5 revised and republished in the 2010 second edition
- Asher, A. and Olivier, M. 2003. Retirement and Old Age. In: M.P. Olivier, N. Smit & E.R. Kalula, eds. Social Security - a Legal Analysis. Durban: Butterworths, pp.231-299
- Asher, A. and Olivier, M. 2003. Finance and Tax. In: M.P. Olivier, N. Smit & E.R. Kalula, eds. Social Security - a Legal Analysis. Durban: Butterworths, pp.595-618
- 1998. A traditional theory of justice and the South African Constitution. E.H Raidt, ed. Ethics in the Workplace. St Augustine Publications, Johannesburg, 109-120
- 1992. Pension and Provident Funds: Taking Control. In: P. Benjamin, J. Campanella and I. de Villiers, eds. Trends in SA Labour Law: Selected Papers from the 4th Annual Labour Law Conference. Johannesburg: Centre for Applied Legal Studies, pp.121-128
Non refereed (selected)
- 2013. Developing actuarial judgment. 5th Australasian Actuarial Education and Research Symposium, Melbourne
- 2012. The lifetime harvesting plan: smoothed annuities with sharing of mortality, and averaging of investment. Actuaries Institute Financial Services Forum
- 2011. Developing a harvesting plan: optimising retirement spending in the face of economic, social and personal risk. Actuarial Society of South Africa Retirement Matters Seminar 6 June 2011, Stellenbosch and 19th Annual Colloquium of Superannuation Researchers, 14-15 July 2011, UNSW
- 2010. Innovation and Imperatives in Financial Security Systems. International Congress of Actuaries
- Asher, A. and Duncanson, T. 2008. Developing a Fair and Reasonable Unit Pricing Restitution Policy. Institute of Actuaries of Australia 4th Financial Services Forum
- 2007. Weaving the Social Fabric
- Asher, A. and Gale, C. 2007. Strategic Risk Management: Mapping the commanding heights and hazards. Institute of Actuaries Biennial Convention
- Asher, A. and Cham, R. 2006. Auditing Daily Prices: Administrative and Investment Errors. Macquarie University Department of Actuarial Studies Working Paper
- Asher, A. and Gale, C. 2006. In: T. Deloitte. Submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services
- Grenfell, C., Kapel, A., Paino, M., Ragell, K., Sherris, M., Wang, J. 2005. The Major Actuarial Challenges: a partly idiosyncratic view. Institute of Actuaries of Australia Biennial Convention
- Asher, A. with other Taylor committee members. 2002. Transforming the Present - Protecting the Future. Report of the Committee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System for South Africa. Pretoria: Department of Social Development
- 2002. Taylor Retirement Committee report
- 2001. The Fight against Poverty: Social Security, Job Creation... and Responsibility. St Augustine's College/Konrad Adenhauer Foundation seminar, published in Praxis - Journal for Christian Business Management 9.4:2-8 and again to the Actuarial Society of South Africa annual convention
Research interests
- Design of appropriate life and superannuation benefits, particularly
- Retirement incomes
- Disability insurance
- Implications of panel studies
- Management of institutional obstacles
- Smoothing investment returns
- Appropriate retirement funding investment – in particular housing finance and human capital contracts
- Practical investment modelling and implications
- Social justice and implications for institutional governance and regulation
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- ACTL3001 Actuarial Statistics
| - ACTL4001 Actuarial Theory and Practice A
| - ACTL4303 Asset and Liability Management
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