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Recent Academy Activity, December 29, 2014-January 2, 2015

Former SOA President Files Lawsuit Against U.S. Profession’s Counseling and Discipline Structure

In the December Actuarial Update, read about the immediate past Society of Actuaries president serving the Academy with a lawsuit filed in Cook County (Ill.) Circuit Court seeking to halt the Actuarial Board for Counseling and Discipline (ABCD) from considering complaints against him.

Also in this issue, the Academy testifies before the Senate Finance Committee on how Social Security affects women; answers to member questions about the U.S. Qualification Standards; and the outgoing head of the ABCD discusses how revised actuarial standards of practice (ASOPs) affect year-end disclosures for pension actuaries.

Public Policy Activities

  • The Committee on Property and Liability Financial Reporting released its 2014 practice note on statements of actuarial opinion on property and casualty loss reserves.
  • The Financial Reporting Committee sent comments to the International Accounting Standards Board on its treatment of participating contracts in its insurance contracts project in a follow-up to a November conference call.

Upcoming Events

  • ORSA webinar next week. Join us on Jan. 6 for a webinar providing an actuarial overview of what is needed to complete an Own Risk and Solvency Assessment (ORSA) report and help reviewers understand what an ORSA report would contain. The presenters will describe the basics of enterprise risk management as they relate to each section of the ORSA report, including examples of key ORSA content covering life, health, and property and casualty.

News from the Actuarial Standards Board (ASB)

Pre-order the 2014 Property/Casualty Loss Reserve Law Manual Now

  • You can now pre-order the 2014 Property/Casualty Loss Reserve Law Manual. Updated annually, the Property/Casualty Loss Reserve Law Manual is scheduled to be released soon. The manual is designed to help appointed actuaries comply with NAIC Annual Statement requirements for statements of actuarial opinion. It can be ordered online or by mail/fax.

Announcements

  • Drake University is searching for an executive director of the School of Actuarial Science. The university is looking for someone who has had a successful career outside of academia, and who has an interest in collaborating with the faculty on applied research. Details are available in a description on Drake University’s website.

Newly Released

  • The January/February issue of Contingencies is now available online. It features the latest research on genes and their role in aging from scientists at Duke University’s Center for Population Health and Aging, a discussion of the possible upper limit of the human lifespan, timely coverage of how businesses are handling the risk of data security breaches, and a new feature about the Academy at age 50. Look for the issue in your mailbox soon.
  • The new issue of Enrolled Actuaries Report includes coverage of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.’s 2014 annual report; Academy testimony in Congress; updated IRS pension limits, Social Security amounts, and covered compensation; and the latest step in the Academy’s ongoing Retirement for the AGES initiative—graded assessments of several retirement income systems and public policy proposals.
  • In the Winter 2014 edition of Retirement Account, read about pension-specific sessions from the Academy’s Annual Meeting and Public Policy Forum; an issue brief on the 2014 Social Security Trustees Report; and Academy comments on hybrid retirement plans, the application of ASOPs to public pension plans, and more.

Academy in the News

  • A story in The Motley Fool expands on recent testimony by Janet Barr, former chairperson of the Social Security Committee, to the Senate Finance Committee regarding potential gender bias within Social Security. The article builds on three key points made in Barr’s testimony: 1) Women are more likely than men to have gaps in employment or never to have entered the workforce at all. 2) Women’s average earnings are lower than men’s. 3) Women tend to live longer than men.
  • Senior Health Fellow Cori Uccello provided an actuarial perspective to the subscriber-only publication Inside Health Insurance Exchanges, after Congress enacted legislation to make the Affordable Care Act’s risk corridor program budget-neutral. Uccello noted that uncertainty persists because online exchange enrollment has yet to reach equilibrium, and the composition and health spending of the entire market may still be unknown. “When setting premiums, therefore, insurers need to consider not only the risk profile of enrollees in their own plans, but also the risk profile of enrollees in the market as a whole,” Uccello said.

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