The Academy’s “Wildfire Lessons Learned and State of Wildfire Risk Modeling” webinar held Thursday looked at the state of wildfires in the past few years in several areas of the country, following on the P/C Extreme Events and Property Lines Committee’s recently published Wildfire: An Issue Paper—Lessons Learned from the 2017 to 2021 Events. Speakers including committee member and Academy Past President Shawna Ackerman, and committee members Dave Evans and Howard Kunst, reviewed recent regulatory actions, potential public policy responses, and data availability. Slides and audio will be available soon.
New Webinar Platform: The Academy is now using ON24 for its webinars. This new webinar experience incorporates speaker video, attachments for downloads, and offers an easier way for attendees to submit questions, with audio streamed through your computer or device speakers.
‘Actuary Voices’ Features Pension VP Sherry Chan
The latest episode of “Actuary Voices” features a conversation with Sherry Chan, who became vice president of the Pension Practice Council in November. A first-generation Asian-American, Chan traced her journey from Ohio to New York City, where she worked as the city’s chief actuary. “The actuarial profession has provided me a great springboard to analytics work that I use currently in my job,” she said, referencing her extensive volunteer work for the Academy and other actuarial groups. Last year, Chan co-founded Abacus Actuaries to assist Asian actuaries in their professional work, which she presented about at the Academy’s Annual Meeting and Public Policy Forum last November. Listen to the episode here or on your preferred podcast platform—and don’t forget to subscribe so you can listen to new episodes as they are released.
Academy Webpage Spotlights Public Policy Research
Visit the Academy’s Public Policy Research webpage, a new page on the Academy’s recently revamped website. It includes papers from the Climate Change Joint Task Force, Climate-Related Financial Disclosures Work Group, and on aggregating regulatory capital requirements across jurisdictions, published under the direction of Steve Jackson, the Academy’s assistant director for research, public policy.
Public Policy in Focus
The Economic Scenario Generator Work Grouppresented an update Thursday on Model Office Economic Scenario Generator (ESG) Testing to the NAIC’s Life Actuarial (A) Task Force. The presentation provided actual model office results for the economic scenario sets that have been selected by NAIC’s ESG Drafting Group.
Visit the Public Policy page to stay on top of the latest news and activities.
Three actuarial standards of practice (ASOPs) have been recently revised. Actuarial Standards Board (ASB) committee and task force members responsible for overseeing these ASOP revisions will present the key changes practitioners need to be aware of as these standards take effect.
April 5: “ASOP No. 2, Nonguaranteed Elements for Life Insurance and Annuity Products”
April 22: “ASOP No. 4, Measuring Pension Obligations and Determining Pension Plan Costs or Contributions”
May 12: “ASOP No. 11, Financial Statement Treatment of Reinsurance Transactions Involving Life or Health Insurance”
All webinars will start at noon EDT. Registration will open soon.
In the News
Insurance Journal covered Thursday’s webinar on wildfire risk and modeling.
A Think Advisor column discussed raising Social Security’s normal retirement age, prompted by the Social Security Committee’s recent issue brief on the topic. A web posting on the American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries website also discussed the issue brief.
A Plan Sponsor article detailed four types of plan design discussed in the Retirement System and Assessment Policy Committee’s recently released final issue brief in its retirement policy and principles series.
Coming Soon
Look for slides and audio soon on this week’s Volunteer Onboarding Webinar, which will be posted for logged-in Academy members. This is a valuable resource for current volunteers and those considering that path.
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