Acttuary interview cheatsheet · updated August 2026
Investments interview cheatsheet
A one-page refresher of the key terms, common questions and easy mistakes to review shortly before your interview.
This one is for members. Below is the sheet itself, with most of each section held back, so you can see what you would be printing: the key terms, the questions that come up most and the mistakes that are easy to make, on one side of A4.
Key terms
| Term | What to remember |
|---|---|
| Benchmark | For a liability-driven investor, success is judged relative to the liabilities the assets are there to meet, not simply by absolute investment return. |
| Liability | The present value of future promised cashflows. Its value changes when interest-rate and inflation assumptions change. |
7 more on the full sheet
Questions to prepare for
| Question | What to cover |
|---|---|
| Explain LDI simply. | When rates fall, the value of long-term liabilities tends to rise. LDI aims to hold assets that respond in a similar way so the funding position is less sensitive to those moves. |
| Are rising rates good or bad? | Higher yields generally reduce the value of long-dated liabilities. Whether the funding position improves depends on the assets and the hedge ratio. |
3 more on the full sheet
Three things to remember
- A hedge ratio is about sensitivity, not just the amount of assets held. A 100% interest-rate hedge means measured asset sensitivity matches measured liability sensitivity for that risk.
- If asked for the duration of a 20-year gilt, first be clear which duration measure is meant. A coupon-paying bond's Macaulay duration is below its maturity; a 20-year zero-coupon bond has a Macaulay duration of 20 years.
1 more on the full sheet
The other areas are in there too
One subscription opens every practice-area interview sheet and every course, from £39.99/month.