Announcements

• Tell Us about Exceptional Academy Members! Nominations are now open for the Academy's annual member awards. The Robert J. Myers Public Service Award recognizes actuaries in public service who have made an exceptional contribution to the common good. The Jarvis Farley Service Award is given to Academy members whose volunteer efforts on behalf of the Academy have made significant contributions to the advancement of the profession. 
• We have lost a dear friend and colleague. Paul R. Fleischacker, who was the 2012 chairperson of the Actuarial Board for Counseling and Discipline (ABCD), died March 20 at home in Johnston, Iowa. Fleischacker also served as vice-chairperson of the ABCD in 2011 and 2010, as well as chairperson of the ABCD’s Health Committee.

Public Policy Activities

• The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) spring national meeting was full of life as four Life Practice Council subgroups presented to the Life Actuarial Task Force (LATF): 1) The Life Experience Subcommittee updated LATF on mortality table development of the 2014 Commissioners Standard Ordinary table, the 2014 Valuation Basic Table, and margins under VM-20 for determination of prudent estimate mortality; 2) LATF adopted the Life Reserves Work Group amendment proposal to VM-20 regarding treatment of due premiums in reserve calculation; 3) the Non-Elective Incidence Work Group proposed language for AG 33 to address the non-elective incidence reserve issue; and 4) the Nonforfeiture Modernization Work Group updated LATF on the gross premium nonforfeiture method.
• The Academy’s Medicare Supplement Work Group updated the NAIC’s Health Actuarial Task Force on initial results and next steps for the Medicare supplement review.
• A two-day seminar on retirement security in the United States centered on the Academy’s Retirement for the AGES monograph. The Pension Symposium, an annual extension of the Enrolled Actuaries Meeting, probed AGES’ four components—alignment, governance, efficiency, and sustainability—in open discussions in which pension actuaries talked about ways to improve the designs, policies, and practices governing today’s pension systems.

Newly Released

• Two new “Essential Elements” papers were released by the Academy in its growing series designed to make actuarial analyses of public policy issues more accessible to widespread audiences: Principle-based Reserving: A New Way to Insure for Life and Plugging Holes in U.S. Flood Insurance. Sign up for email updates and be the first to know when new papers are released.

Alert

• Pension Protection Act Exemption: The U.S. Senate passed a bill on March 25 to exempt certain charity and cooperative pension plans from the Pension Protection Act of 2006’s minimum funding requirements for private-sector defined benefit plans. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill on March 24. Log in and read the full alert under “Pension Alerts.”

News from the ABCD

• Count on the 2013 Annual Report of the ABCD, just released, to give a summary of the ABCD’s work last year, including statistics on cases it has considered and types of complaints it has received. Among report highlights this year are a breakdown of alleged violations by precept.

Professionalism News

• Leaders from the Academy’s Council on Qualifications (COQ), its Council on Professionalism, and the Actuarial Standards Board met today with regulators at the NAIC spring meeting. Look for full coverage in the March Actuarial Update, which will be published next week. One notable discussion centered on qualifications to perform and review actuarial work related to principle-based reserving (PBR). All agreed that a dialogue between regulators and actuaries is needed on this topic. Academy President-Elect Mary D. Miller said that, “the Life Practice Council is planning to engage in that dialogue, and plans to provide regulators with education on PBR.” The COQ also will be preparing a discussion paper on PBR.
• The Professional Standards/Ethical Dilemmas Seminar kicked off the 2014 Enrolled Actuaries Meeting. Bob Rietz, ABCD chairperson, and Patrick McDonough, executive director of the Joint Board for the Enrollment of Actuaries, joined Academy staff to provide participants with an overview of actuarial performance under current EA regulations and a behind-the-scenes look at how the ABCD functions. The event was highly interactive using case studies to explore ethical situations that can arise when performing actuarial work.

Opportunities to Learn

• This month’s “Academy Capitol Forum: Meet the Experts” webinar, “Disability Insurance Trust Fund: Behind the Numbers with SSA’s Chief Actuary,” will take place April 23 from noon to 1 p.m. Eastern. Speaker Steve Goss, chief actuary of the Social Security Administration, will provide an overview of the disability insurance program, and discuss its projected solvency and cost drivers, as well as policymakers’ proposed reforms to the program. Register online now.
• Registration for the 2014 Life and Health Qualifications Seminar is 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. The seminar will be held Nov. 10-13 in Arlington, Va. Learn more and register now.

Academy in the News

• Academy Senior Pension Fellow Don Fuerst was quoted in a guest opinion column, “Gaining some perspective on public pensions,” published in the Delaware County Daily Times.
• The Academy’s Retirement for the AGES initiative was mentioned in a PlanSponsor article on recent product introductions of interest to plan sponsors.

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