An Old Dog with New Tricks - Recent Updates to Microsoft Excel for the Working Actuary

Beginning in the early 2010s, Excel, a widely used spreadsheet application, has received major updates that introduced modern data processing and business intelligence capabilities to a platform traditionally useful only for analyzing small data sets. Within its spreadsheet environment, additional changes have enabled intuitive and agile matrix- and vector-based computations and enhanced functional programming options.This paper surveys these features and includes workbook examples. Working knowledge of Excel is assumed, along with familiarity of basic data manipulation techniques and a willingness to independently investigate the examples and highlighted features. This paper provides interested actuaries jumping-off points to explore these updates and improve their processes.