The Meaning of Your Membership

Membership in the American Academy of Actuaries means that you recognize yourself as a member of a profession—a profession that holds itself to high standards of conduct, practice, and qualification and strives to serve the public as well as the U.S. actuarial profession. The Academy’s work in professionalism and public policy provides valuable benefits to every member of our profession. As a professional, you know that your reputation is important—and you help maintain your individual reputation for being impartial, nonpartisan, and unbiased by being part of a membership that is known collectively for being impartial, nonpartisan, and unbiased through the policies, procedures, and culture that the Academy embodies in its work.

New in 2019

• The Academy Board of Directors adopted an updated Academy Strategic Plan this year. The plan has been revised to reflect the changes in emphasis and governance over the last several years that more closely adhere to the Academy’s mission and vision, including the updated International Strategy.
• The Academy’s Professionalism First initiative brings professionalism to life, showing how it resonates with daily relevance to the U.S. actuarial professional and to external audiences.
• A series of briefings provided a comprehensive look at the multiemployer pension crisis. Together, the three-part “Multiemployer Pension Crisis 360” series equipped attendees with a solid foundation of the past, present, and potential future of multiemployer pension plans.
• The Academy undertook a membership survey about how the Academy’s mission and fundamental role in the self-regulation of the profession are understood by the membership as a whole.
• The Academy launched a podcast series in 2019. Actuary Voices brings listeners thoughtful conversations on the journey some have taken to becoming an actuary, and the role of professionalism and public policy.

Professionalism

Your membership reflects the profession’s self-regulatory structure that is housed at the Academy. Through important professionalism resources, bodies, and activities, the Academy enhances the value of your credential and the recognized professional independence of the actuarial profession that creates credibility for us individually and collectively.

Academy membership also provides you with the ability to support and maintain the high level of professionalism we expect of each other:

• Code of Professional Conduct
• U.S. Qualification Standards
• Actuarial standards of practice (ASOPs), developed by the Actuarial Standards Board
  • In 2019, the ASB has adopted one new ASOP, approved five exposures of proposed new or revised ASOPs, and issued one request for input.
• Applicability Guidelines for ASOPs
• Requests for guidance and investigation of potential violations of the Code through the Actuarial Board for Standards and Discipline
  • The ABCD in 2019 is providing significant numbers of RFGs as it did in 2018. This 1:1 resource is
    easy to access and receive.
• Other professionalism resources, such as webinars and discussion papers

As it does each year, the Academy has held quarterly professionalism webinars in 2019 to help members stay current with developments in the world of actuarial professionalism—and earn necessary professionalism continuing education (CE) at the same time. This year, the Academy presented the following  webinars:

• Promoting Ethical Decision-making: Rules, the Human Brain, and Cognitive Biases
• Big Data: Professional Standards Provided by Actuaries and New Research on Regulatory Views
• Reliance: “… A Little Help From My Friends”
• Friday the 13th: More Tales from the Dark Side (scheduled for December)

Each month in Actuarial Update, members can read “Professionalism Counts,” a column that contains news and information germane to actuaries in all practice areas. Throughout the year, “Professionalism Counts” offers tips and reminders that help members keep professionalism front and center. Recent examples include:

• “Time for a CE Check” (September 2019)
• “Are You Experienced?” (May 2019)
• “Professionalism Resources Are at Your Fingertips” (April 2019)
• “Sharing Expertise: The Academy’s Speakers Bureau Gives Professionalism Outreach” (March 2019)

Public Policy

The Academy is dedicated to assuring that public policy is developed amid the sound application of objective actuarial principles. In 2019, Academy committees and work groups offered policymakers and regulators actuarial perspectives on:

• Casualty issues including wildfire, cyber risk, and terrorism risk
  • A new issue paper—Wildfire: Lessons Learned from the 2017-2018 California Events—received widespread attention.
• Health issues including telehealth, surprise billing, and long-term care insurance
  • The Health Practice Council released issue briefs on these topics and more in 2019.
• Life issues including tax reserve methods and assumptions, and principle-based reserving
  • Just ahead of the PBR deadline, a new resource outlines the critical elements of PBR for life insurance.
• Pension issues including pension plan maturity, national retirement policy, and multiemployer plans
  • A new issue brief, Essential Elements paper, and Capitol Forum webinar outlined the considerations that must be weighed in any potential national retirement policy.
• Risk management and financial reporting issues including International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 17, and own risk and solvency assessment (ORSA) reporting
  • A new practice note, Model Risk Management, was released in May.

The Academy is invited to testify before congressional committees and state and federal regulatory bodies, assuring that the actuarial perspective is a part of important policy development considerations. The Academy’s credibility on public policy issues reflects positively on and to its members.

The Academy and the Society of Actuaries (SOA) have updated the jointly developed Actuaries Longevity Illustrator, a web-based tool that allows users to quickly generate an estimate of how long they might live in a few simple steps. Results can be useful for individuals or couples for retirement planning purposes, and to retirement advisers.

The Actuaries Climate Index™ (ACI) is an educational tool designed to help inform actuaries, public policymakers, and the general public about climate trends and some of the potential impacts of a changing climate on the United States and Canada. The index is an objective measure of observed changes in extreme weather and sea levels.

The Life and Health Valuation Law Manual and the Property/Casualty Loss Reserve Law Manual, updated annually, help actuaries comply with NAIC regulations.

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Publications

The actuarial profession is constantly challenged to be current—and Academy membership provides you access to informative and insightful membership publications to help you stay abreast of the latest trends in all areas of actuarial practice, not just the area in which you practice.