NAAC: Statement on the Importance of Longevity as a Public Policy Issue (February, 2008)
In this Statement, NAAC commits to educate actuary members, policymakers, and the public as to the implications of increasing longevity to move it into the forefront of public policy discourse.
This statement was approved at the February 2008 NAAC meeting.
NAAC: Statement on the Importance of Longevity as a Public Policy Issue
We, the undersigned leaders of the actuarial profession belonging to NAAC, recognize that:
- Human life expectancy has been increasing since records have been kept.
- The financial condition of retirement, health and many other financial-security and protection arrangements is affected by increasing longevity; this encompasses all actuarial practice areas.
- Failure to adapt these arrangements to increasing longevity imperils their long-term viability.
Actuaries have been in the forefront of longevity research for well over a century. No other profession is so closely identified with this topic. Actuarial concerns about the implications of failure to adapt need to be communicated to policymakers so that they can appropriately respond to long-term trends.
Accordingly, we will seek to educate our members, policymakers, and the general public as to the implications of increasing longevity in order to move it into the forefront of public policy discourse. We ask the American Academy of Actuaries to facilitate this effort within the U.S. and coordinate with the Canadian Institute of Actuaries and Colegio Nacional de Actuarios, A.C.
NAAC (the North American Actuarial Council) is comprised of the presidents and presidents-elect of the various North American actuarial professional associations.
William F. Bluhm
Cecil D. Bykerk
Christopher S. Carlson
Pedro Covarrubias
Stephen L. Dobrow
Mike Hale
Kenneth Hohman
John J. Kollar
José Luis Lobera
José Manuel Méndez
James Murta
John P. Parks
Jesús Zúñiga San Martín
Bruce D. Schobel
Sal Tripodi
Lance Weiss
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