Norman Augustine, CEO of Martin Marietta, in his book Augustine＇s Laws,(1) observed that, ＇＇Cost estimating is the first professional activity to make practical use of the mathematics of a complex number. It is easy to see the imaginary component in these estimations. The difficulty is in finding the real part.＇＇ Over the years, I believe we have seen this form of math creep into reserve estimation. In that we are once again dealing with numbers that have no resemblance to reality, I think that the appropriate label for such reserves, in keeping with the terminology of modern technology such as virtual imaging and virtual memory, is to call them ＇＇virtual reserves.＇＇