Information Matrix

Actuaries are long used to using standard tables. In the UK these are created by the Continuous Mortality Investigation Bureau (CMIB), and the use of certain tables is often prescribed in legislation. As actuaries increasingly move to using statistical models for mortality, it is perhaps natural that they should first consider incorporating standard tables into these models. But are standard tables necessary, or even useful, in such a context?

At some point you may be challenged to decide whether to use survival models or the older generalised linear models (GLMs). You could be forgiven for thinking that the two were mutually exclusive, especially since some commercial commentators have tried to frame the debate that way.