Darrell Knapp Inaugural Remarks

Inaugural Remarks of 2024-25 Academy President Darrell Knapp at the American Academy of Actuaries' Annual Meeting on Nov. 13, 2024

As I celebrate the twenty-seventh anniversary of my first Academy volunteer assignment and near the fortieth anniversary of becoming an Academy member, I am honored and thrilled to become the Academy’s new president.

I could never have imagined all those years ago being in a position to say that, but I’m so glad I took the journey and arrived at this moment. The difference actuaries make through our work—for policyholders, employers and clients, the public, the profession, and others--was always appealing to me. It was definitely a major motivation to follow the rewarding career path of being an actuary. It was also a big reason to engage in the Academy’s important volunteer work and encourage others to do so as well. Through our Academy work, we make an even bigger difference than we can individually, and I look forward to working with many of you this year. I urge you to join the ranks of our volunteers if you have not already at actuary.org/volunteer.

Helping the public understand the value of our expertise as actuaries hinges on one critical fact: Being an actuary is much more than a job—it’s being part of a profession that is accountable to others in a way that requires us to stay current and ethical in our practice.

Our self-regulation is rooted in the Code of Professional Conduct, which sets expectations that assure the public, regulators, employers, and even other actuaries that they can rely on our work. Just about a month ago, the Academy released a new short video, “Actuarial Professionalism and the Academy,” which provides a glimpse into the meaning of our professional standards. It’s less than two minutes long, available on our YouTube channel, and worth a watch.

The Academy will continue to promote this public trust, the value of the actuarial profession, and the MAAA designation through a wide range of activities. These include continuing to house and staff professionalism functions and entities and putting our professional perspective forward objectively, which our volunteers will do at the NAIC later this week and, next year, to the new Congress and the incoming Trump administration. We will continue to research how the MAAA is referenced in federal and state laws and regulations and the steps needed to align these references with the Academy’s role as the voice of professionalism. We never stop working for the profession and for you by providing independent and objective expertise and insights. This includes objectively analyzing equity and bias issues in our public policy work and, as Lisa mentioned, supporting our membership through our commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion in all that we do, including enhanced training and resources for our volunteers and staff in fulfilling the Academy’s mission.

We will continue to educate members and prospects about the Academy Competency Framework and to prepare for the new membership requirements that will take effect January 1, 2026. Next year’s continuing education and engagement opportunities will include enhanced offerings on relevant U.S. legal and regulatory topics in line with the framework. We will also continue offering professionalism and public policy webinars and seminars, populating and promoting the new Academy Learning portal, and again conduct Hill visits and stakeholder symposiums that take on special importance with the incoming Congress. Some changes are on the way as well, including a new Investment Symposium focused on life insurance that is planned for the spring, and the evolution of the Envision Tomorrow conference as the Academy plans for new educational approaches and offerings in 2026 and beyond.

We will also be working on new projects and discussing strategic changes so we can plan for 2026 and beyond. As President-Elect this past year, I had a chance to lead some of the Academy’s strategic discussions about the future as chairperson of our Strategic Planning Committee. Topics included:

Changes in conditions that could contribute to major insurance company insolvencies.
Climate change and its impact on the availability and affordability of insurance.
Demographic shifts that affect retirement and life insurance programs.
And artificial intelligence.

As we move forward into a world of new uncertainties, the Academy will continue to invest in targeted resources for members on current and emerging issues like AI to help members meet their professional responsibilities and provide an objective perspective on the public policy impacts of these challenges. The Board decided at its meeting last month to create a cross-practice Disruptive Events Task Force within the Council on Professionalism and Education, whose role will be to develop a framework for identifying disruptive events and to provide actuaries with the resources to appropriately address the professional aspects of disruptive events when they occur.

The Academy supports our profession, its credibility, and its self-regulation in myriad ways as we move toward celebrating our 60th anniversary next year with an issue of Contingencies focused on this milestone.

One more thought—during our Strategic Planning Committee discussions this year, we talked about Strategic Goal 3.1., which is to make Academy membership attractive, compelling, and universal for U.S. practicing actuaries. My first thought was that in a world of voluntary membership and increasingly tightening corporate budgets, this objective was unattainable. As we discussed it further, however, I became convinced that all U.S. practicing actuaries should be members of the Academy. You will most likely hear me say this again in the coming year. I realize that, considering the likely audience of this webcast, I am probably preaching to the choir. As such, a slightly modified message may be more appropriate—in the coming year, we want to carry out the Academy’s mission so well, serve the U.S. actuarial profession so well, serve the public so well, and communicate our efforts so well that all U.S. practicing actuaries will want to be members of the Academy.

Thank you all for continuing to be Academy members; we could not accomplish what we do without your support.

Before we conclude, I would like to highlight the information about this year’s Board composition on our website, which you can find on our Board Selection Center. I also encourage you to take a look at our robust set of policies in our Academy Governance Center. Finally, should you ever wish to reach me, please feel free to send an email to president@actuary.org.