Insurance mathematics and financial mathematics have converged during the last few decades of the twentieth century and this convergence is expected to continue in the future. New valuation methods are added to the traditional valuation methods of insurance mathematics. Valuation and decision making on the asset side and the liability side of the insurance companies are, to an increasing extent, being considered as two sides of the same story.

The development has two consequences. Demands are made on practising actuaries, whose education dates back to when financial mathematics was not considered as an integrated part of insurance mathematics. By considering the convergence as it applies to their daily work, such actuaries should be kept abreast of this convergence. From this starting point, the ideas, concepts and results of finance should be brought together to construct a path between classical actuarial deterministic patterns of thinking and modern actuarial mathematics. This is where stochastic processes are brought to the surface in payment streams as well as in investment possibilities.

At the same time, present students of actuarial mathematics need to apply financial mathematics to classical insurance valuation problems. These students will typically, and should, meet financial mathematics in textbooks on pure finance. However, to receive the full benefit of financial mathematical skills, these skills need to be integrated and proven beneficial for classical problems of insurance mathematics already on a student level.

International accounting standards have developed over the years.