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Recent Academy Activity, Nov.18–22, 2013

Academy Examines Different Measurements of Pension Obligations

  • The Academy’s Pension Practice Council published an issue brief that examines two common measurements of the obligations of defined-benefit pension plans: solvency value and budget value. Read the news release or log in to read the alert.

Academy in the News

  • A reporter asked White House Press Secretary Jay Carney to comment on actuaries’ warnings about the potential consequences of plans meant to address health insurance cancellations in a Nov. 15 White House Press briefing. The Health Practice Council’s warning continued to receive wide media coverage, on CNN, Fox Business Network, WAFF (Huntsville, Ala.), and in The Motley Fool, Kiplinger, The Christian Science Monitor, Politico and other outlets. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., cited the HPC’s warning in an opinion piece for the Nov. 19 edition of The Wall Street Journal.
  • Academy Senior Health Fellow Cori Uccello commented on the effects of Affordable Care Act rules and exchange enrollment patterns on health insurance premiums for a story that ran on NBC News, Yahoo! News, and elsewhere.
  • The Group Long-Term Disability Work Group’s work on the 2012 Group Long-Term Disability Valuation Table was cited in a LifeHealthPro article.

Academy Addresses State Legislators at NCOIL Annual Meeting

  • Academy Senior Life Fellow Nancy Bennett presented on the lifetime income needs of retirees.
  • Audrey Halvorson, who chairs the Academy’s Rate Review Practice Note Work Group, made a presentation on the Affordable Care Act’s effect on premiums.
  • William Hines, VP of the Academy’s Risk Management and Financial Reporting Council, discussed international insurance regulation by the International Association of Insurance Supervisors and the Financial Stability Board of potential global systemically important insurers and global systemically important financial institutions.
  • Susan Pantely, member of the Academy’s Models of Care Delivery Subgroup, is scheduled to speak on Sunday, Nov. 24, on new models of care delivery.

Opportunities to Learn and Earn CE

  • Dec. 3, Up to Code: Are You Keeping Up to Code? Join us at this professionalism webinar to hear Nancy Behrens and Janet Fagan, vice chairpersons of the Actuarial Board for Counseling and Discipline, discuss important professionalism topics such as the importance of documenting your work, meeting CE requirements, avoiding strained interpretations of the Code of Professional Conduct and ASOPs, and other issues covered in recent “Up to Code” articles in Contingencies magazine. With more than two dozen archived articles, actuaries in all practice areas can benefit from an in-depth review of the best of “Up to Code” in this webinar.
  • Dec. 4, Winning the Oregon Medicaid Lottery: A Case Study on Medicaid’s Effect on Utilization, Finances, and Health Outcomes: Find out what researchers learned from Oregon’s efforts to expand its Medicaid program and get an inside look at the utilization, finances, and health outcomes of those who were selected in the lottery compared to those who were not. This webinar is part of the Academy Capitol Forum: Meet the Experts lunchtime webinar series and will feature the co-author of the study, Katherine Baicker, PhD, Professor of Health Economics in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Harvard School of Public Health, who will provide an overview of the study, including methods, assumptions, and data received. The study led to some interesting conclusions—register to learn more!

Recent Events

  • The Academy hosted the U.S. meeting of the North American Actuarial Council Nov. 14–16 in Miami, Fla., bringing together more than 30 attendees representing the nine national actuarial member organizations of NAAC in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. The meeting was an opportunity for the organizations to discuss issues affecting the actuarial profession in all three countries. NAAC serves as a forum for sharing information on issues affecting North American actuarial organizations and their members and for identifying opportunities for collaboration. Read its just released annual report, which outlines NAAC’s work and highlights its accomplishments for the year.
  • Speakers from the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) Committee presented at an Academy webinar on how actuaries can implement the ERM discipline within insurance companies. The webinar, “The Practice of ERM in the Insurance Industry,” included topics on ERM policies and procedures, U.S. ORSA and Solvency II, risk identification and evaluation, and risk models and tools. Download presentation slides and audio recording.

No Membership Dues Increase in 2014

  • Renew your membership by clicking here to conveniently pay your dues without logging in. If you prefer, you may also log in to pay and make changes to your account. Remember to renew your membership by January 1 to avoid late fees.

New Membership Director

  • Darryl Walter has joined the Academy as the new director of membership. In this role, Walter will lead the Academy’s initiatives to enhance member value and benefits, and to expand membership to all eligible actuaries.

Publication Notice: Due to the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, the Academy will not publish This Week on Friday, Nov. 29.

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