Actuaries and insurance buyers, whether they're brokers, organizations or individuals, may be on opposite ends of the insurance industry spectrum, but we all have a common goal — securing the best benefits and coverage while keeping costs low. Buyers reduce expenses by understanding what benefits they're likely to need and what they're not. Actuaries help insurers keep the costs of benefits down by accepting risks from many groups and sharing the risk reduction that comes with economies of scale.

Even if you're on the buying side of the insurance industry, awareness of emerging risks can help you foresee the positive and negative effects of future trends. It may sound abstract, but in practice it's not hard to see how it impacts the bottom line of the companies you interact with every day.

To help professionals assess the future risks to their organizations and manage their benefit selections accordingly, the Joint Risk Management Section (JRMS) of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries, Casualty Actuarial Society and Society of Actuaries conducts an annual Survey of Emerging Risks.