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Recent Academy Activity, May 18-22, 2015

The Academy joins the rest of the nation in honoring the men and women of our armed forces who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. In observance of Memorial Day, the Academy office will be closed on Monday, May 25.

Recent Events

  • Over 3,500 attendees participated in the Academy’s professionalism webinar providing the first analysis of the results of its survey on “Key Ethical Concerns Facing the Actuarial Profession: Perceptions of Members of the American Academy of Actuaries.” Attendees asked thought-provoking questions and shared insights on the top perceived ethical issues and means of mitigating such issues as they interacted with seasoned panelists—Vice President of Professionalism Kenneth Kent, former VP of Professionalism Karen Terry, and Academy Assistant General Counsel Sheila Kalkunte. For those Academy members who missed this engaging webinar, slides can be downloaded here, and an audio recording will be available at no cost to Academy members on our website next week.
  • Deputy Secretary General of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) George Brady provided Academy members with a comprehensive and witty “crash course” on international insurance standard setting in today’s Capitol Forum webinar, “International Insurance Regulation 101.” Brady reviewed the history of the IAIS, described its important standard-setting mission and how it works with external organizations like the Academy, and provided insights into its goals and major initiatives, including ComFrame and global capital standards. The IAIS is responsible for developing and assisting in the implementation of principles, standards, and other supporting material for the supervision of the insurance sector internationally. Slides of the webinar can be downloaded here, and an audio recording will be available shortly.
  • Eric Keener, chairperson of the Academy’s Forward Thinking Task Force, was one of the speakers for the Canadian Institute of Actuaries’ May 19 webinar, “The New Brunswick Model Pension Plan.” Keener discussed why the model plan earned its high grade based on the Academy’s AGES (Alignment, Governance, Efficiency, and Sustainability) principles. Other speakers discussed why reform was needed and how the shared-risk plan was developed.

Alerts

  • FSOC Annual Report released: This week, the U.S. Department of the Treasury released the 2015 Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) Annual Report, describing significant financial market and regulatory developments, emerging threats to the financial system, and recommendations for addressing them. The report covers international and domestic accounting standards changes, FSOC non-bank systemically important financial institution designations, and a range of insurance-related issues. Read more here or in the member section under “Cross-Practice Alerts.”
  • Financial regulatory system overhaul: On May 21, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee passed a bill that would require congressional consultation on international insurance capital requirements and make other changes to the financial regulatory system, including the operation of FSOC and the Federal Reserve Board. Read more here or in the member section under “Cross-Practice Alerts.”

Upcoming Events

  • ASB hearing on public pension plans: The Actuarial Standards Board’s (ASB) hearing on public pension plan issues will take place on July 9 in Washington. The ASB intends to use information obtained through this hearing as it considers next steps in the evolution of actuarial standards of practice (ASOPs) applicable to actuarial work regarding these plans. For the hearing, the ASB is accepting both written comments and requests to present oral testimony. Learn more about the hearing, including the comment and submission guidelines, and pre-register here. 
  • Casualty Loss Reserve Seminar: The 2015 Casualty Loss Reserve Seminar (CLRS) and Workshops, jointly sponsored by the Academy and the Casualty Actuarial Society, will be held Sept. 9-11 at the Omni Hotel at CNN Center in Atlanta, Ga. Attend the 2015 CLRS to stay current and learn from expert analysis of innovation in reserving. For more information on attendee registration, please email arc@casact.org or visit the CLRS website.
  • Registration continues for the 2015 Life and Health Qualifications Seminar, to be held Nov. 9-12 in Arlington, Va. (metropolitan Washington, D.C.). See why so many of your peers find this seminar the most succinct and effective way to acquire the required basic education and continuing education (CE) to assist in being qualified to sign NAIC annual statement life and health actuarial opinions for those who may not have met the basic education requirements set forth in Section 3.1.1 of the U.S. Qualification Standards (USQS).

Public Policy Activities

  • The Health Solvency Work Group submitted a comment letter to the NAIC’s Investment Risk-Based Capital Working Group on the evaluation of asset risk factors for the health risk-based capital formula.

Earn CE at Your Convenience Through the New Actuarial eLearning Center

  • The Academy’s Actuarial eLearning Center provides members with an opportunity to earn CE credit described in the USQS at their convenience through a unique, substantive online course, “Understand the Code of Professional Conduct,” which includes an optional final examination to test your knowledge. Once members have registered at the center, they may return at any time for up to a year to review the course at their leisure and may obtain a certificate of achievement after successfully taking the exam.

Nominate a Deserving Member

  • The Academy reminds you to submit nominations of members for our two highest awards, the Robert J. Myers Public Service Award and the Jarvis Farley Service Award, as well as for the Outstanding Volunteerism Award. The Myers award recognizes actuaries in public service who have made an exceptional contribution to the common good. The Farley award is given to Academy members whose volunteer efforts on behalf of the Academy have made significant contributions to the advancement of the profession. The Outstanding Volunteerism Award honors Academy volunteers who have made a single, noteworthy volunteerism contribution that is above and beyond what is reasonably expected of an Academy volunteer. The Academy will present the awards during its 50th anniversary Annual Meeting and Public Policy Forum, Nov. 12-13, in Washington.

In the News

  • Articles about health insurance rate filings in Employee Benefits News and healthinsurance.org cited the Health Practice Council’s letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in examining the possible complications caused by the forthcoming Supreme Court decision in King v. Burwell.
  • A Third Way blog post recommending legislative and regulatory changes to mitigate health insurance rate increases for medium-sized business drew from the Academy’s March 2015 analysis of the effects of the ACA’s redefinition of the small group market.

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