Prophet Modeling Support for a US Life and Annuity Insurer

Objective

A US life and annuity insurer engaged Graeme Group to place an experienced Prophet modeler inside its actuarial model development team. The client was consolidating its US actuarial models onto FIS Prophet under a multi-year program, and its in-house team needed additional build and testing capacity that could be productive immediately and redirected as the program’s priorities moved.

The requirement was capability rather than a fixed deliverable. A model consolidation program generates a long sequence of product builds, migrations and reporting changes, and the order in which they arrive follows the client’s reporting calendar. The client needed a modeler who already knew Prophet at production depth, who could take on implementation work as well as builds, and who could be retained for as long as the program required.

Prophet modelers with production experience are thinly supplied in the US market and expensive to hire permanently for a program with a finite horizon. The brief was therefore specific: an experienced modeler, available quickly, at a cost that a multi-year program could sustain.

Scope of Work

The placement covers Prophet model development and testing within the client’s model consolidation workstream. Four areas of support are in scope:

• Product model builds and enhancements at the direction of the client’s project team.
• Model implementation, including data systems, assumption management, model migration, and results and reporting procedures.
• Model design, technical review and build-process improvement.
• Participation in the client’s working sessions, testing cycles and production calls.

The scope was written as areas of support. On a consolidation program the work moves between product lines, and between build, migration and reporting tasks, as each phase completes. A fixed deliverable list would have been superseded within the first quarter.

Services Provided

Evidence-Based Candidate Matching

“Prophet” on a CV covers everything from running production batches to designing a model from an empty workspace. Our screen tested what the candidate had personally built, which production processes they had owned end to end, and how recently. The placed contractor is a qualified actuary based in Eastern Europe with more than fourteen years of Prophet modeling and production experience, including IFRS 17 model changes, end-to-end Prophet production process design and automation, and experience analysis, supported by strong SAS, SQL and VBA skills.

Delivery Inside the Client Team

The contractor works inside the client’s environment as a member of the development team, under the direction of the client’s modeling leads, with the client approving hours weekly. The client owns the work program and reprioritizes it as its reporting calendar and program pressures move. A contractor held at arm’s length from the team, reporting through an intermediary, is slower to become useful and harder to redirect when priorities change, and the arrangement was structured to avoid that.

Cross-Border Delivery at a Sustainable Cost

The contractor delivers remotely from Eastern Europe into the client’s US team. Graeme Group’s Eastern European actuarial bench has supported US life insurers and Big Four practices on Prophet for several years, and the cost basis allowed the client to retain a senior modeler across a multi-year horizon.

Continuity of Delivery

On a placement the deliverable is continuity. Graeme Group manages the contractor relationship, extensions and renewal terms, and maintains a bench of Prophet modelers with comparable profiles, so that a change in the client’s needs, or in the contractor’s availability, does not become the client’s problem.

Deliverables

This engagement is structured as contractor support, so the outputs are the client’s own model artifacts. What we provide is:

• A Prophet modeler matched on evidence against the platform, product range and implementation tasks in scope.
• Continuous contractor capacity inside the client’s model development team, working to the client’s direction and priorities.
• Management of the contractor relationship, extensions and renewal terms, with a single accountable counterparty for the client’s actuarial team.
• Access to a bench of Prophet modelers with comparable profiles.

Outcome

• Two Years in Seat: The placement began in the second half of 2024 and has run continuously since, first on quarterly terms renewed at the client’s request and, from 2026, on an annual term.
• Redeployed as the Program Moved: The contractor has moved between product builds, model implementation and reporting work as each phase of the consolidation completed, and the client has continued to find new workstreams for the seat as earlier ones closed.
• The Benchmark for Further Hires: In 2026 the client asked Graeme Group to source additional Prophet modelers of the same caliber and cost profile for a further modeling program planned for 2027, and its team interviewed a shortlist drawn from Graeme Group’s Eastern European bench.
• A Standing Relationship: The relationship has since extended to staffing requests from adjacent actuarial teams at the client, including capital management and risk analytics.

This engagement reflects the placement side of Graeme Group’s practice: a scarce Prophet modeler, matched on evidence, working inside the client’s team, and retained across renewals at a cost basis a multi-year program can sustain.