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Recent Academy Activity, Mar. 17–21, 2014

Reminder

  • Academy President Tom Terry invites every member to participate in the Academy’s member value survey. Participation requires only 10 to 15 minutes and is important to our continued efforts to better understand and meet your professional needs. Your response is confidential and no personally identifiable information will be associated with it. Click here to participate. The survey is open through March 24.

Public Policy Activities

  • The Casualty Practice Council sent a letter to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ (NAIC) Casualty Actuarial and Statistical Task Force commenting on its request for educational measurement criteria (needed to be a P/C qualified actuary). The letter noted that the Academy’s established process for evaluating Academy members who are not Casualty Actuarial Society members and who seek approval to sign NAIC statements of actuarial opinion “can be used immediately to evaluate all” such Academy members “irrespective of whether they have completed none, part, or all of the exams comprising the SOA’s GI track.” It also noted that the process can easily be adapted to meet future needs.
  • The Life Practice Council’s Actuarial Opinion and Memorandum Discussion Group released a report on ideas to improve the communication of issues within the appointed actuary’s memorandum. Read the alert under “Life Alerts.”

Recent Events

  • More than 200 registrants learned about the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) mission, the role of the actuary within the agency, and some of its selected work areas from GAO Chief Actuary Frank Todisco during the March 20 “Academy Capitol Forum: Meet the Experts” webinar, “Actuary Serving Congress: A Conversation With GAO’s Chief Actuary.” Todisco also praised the Academy as “a tremendous source of expertise and a great help in our work.” If you missed this webinar, click here to listen to the audio recording and here to download the slides.

International Congress of Actuaries (ICA): Welcome Reception

  • This diverse meeting comes to the U.S. for the first time in over 50 years, bringing more than 100 sessions and offering up to 27 hours of continuing education. The 30th annual ICA meeting is just over one week away! The event will kick off with a Welcome Reception on Sunday evening (March 30) at the Smithsonian Museum of American History for those attendees who have registered for the full week or the first half week of ICA 2014. Take this opportunity to network with actuaries from all over the world and explore the museum’s various exhibits. We look forward to seeing you there!

Opportunities to Learn

  • Save the date for next month’s “Academy Capitol Forum: Meet the Experts” webinar. The webinar, “Disability Insurance Trust Fund: Behind the Numbers with SSA’s Chief Actuary,” will take place on April 23 from noon to 1 p.m. Eastern.
  • Academy experts will present pre- and post-meeting seminars in connection with the Enrolled Actuaries Meeting that takes place this week in Washington. Registrants may earn up to 2.9 EA core and up to 2.5 EA core/ethics continuing education credits at the March 23 “Professional Standards/Ethical Dilemmas Seminar” and up to 8.4 EA noncore credits at the March 26-27 “2014 Pension Symposium: Retirement Security in the U.S.—What’s Working, What’s Not, and Where Do We Go From Here?” Learn more and register online.
  • Registration for the 2014 Life and Health Qualifications Seminar is now open. The seminar is the primary source of instruction for actuaries who wish to be qualified to issue actuarial opinions for either the NAIC Life and A&H Annual Statement or the NAIC Health Annual Statement but may not have met the basic education requirements set forth in Section 3.1.1 of the U.S. Qualification Standards. This is a great opportunity to earn continuing education credit! The seminar will be held Nov. 10–13 in Arlington, Va. Learn more and register now.

Academy in the News

  • The Academy responded on March 19 to remarks made by the chairman of the Republican National Committee that mischaracterized actuaries’ work related to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The response, which noted the valuable actuarial analysis that individual members and the Academy provided during congressional deliberations on the law, was covered by The Hill, Politico, Life and Health Advisor and other media outlets.
  • The Pension Committee’s comments to the Internal Revenue Service regarding temporary nondiscrimination relief for closed defined benefit plans were cited in a Bloomberg BNA Pension & Benefits Daily story.
  • A USA TODAY story about Superstorm Sandy referenced Academy historical research on borrowing for the National Flood Insurance Program.
  • A graphic from the Health Practice Council’s fact sheet on the ACA’s risk-sharing mechanisms was included in a Yahoo! News story on 2015 insurance premiums.

Note: Some links in this email go to external websites and may require registration. The Academy is not responsible for the content of these websites. Links may expire.