Council of U.S. Presidents Highlights

The Council of U.S. Presidents (CUSP) is an Academy board of directors committee established in January 2007. It is composed of the Academy's president and president-elect, plus the presidents and presidents-elect of the American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries (ASPPA), the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS), the Conference of Consulting Actuaries (CCA), and the Society of Actuaries (SOA) (the Academy's special directors).

CUSP's purpose is twofold:

• As an Academy board committee, CUSP is assigned responsibility for certain board functions appropriate for profession-wide supervision, such as oversight of the Actuarial Standards Board (ASB) and the Actuarial Board for Counseling and Discipline (ABCD), and
• CUSP serves as a vehicle where actuarial leaders can discuss issues of importance to the entire U.S. actuarial profession, such as international strategies.

In 2010, CUSP focused its efforts on development of a proposal to reform the disciplinary process. Under the proposal, a disciplinary recommendation by the ABCD would be submitted for determination to a single representative joint disciplinary panel and, in the event of an appeal, a joint appeal panel. The proposal would create a more efficient disciplinary process with greater consistency in outcomes. The proposed reforms will require bylaws changes and a vote of the membership at each of the member actuarial organizations. The timetable calls for the bylaws changes to be voted upon in 2011 with the revised disciplinary process to go into effect in 2012. On Oct. 1, 2010, CUSP adopted a statement of position on the disciplinary process of the U.S. actuarial profession.

In addition to the most recent statement of position, CUSP, since its formation, has adopted several other statements of positions. These statements, all signed by CUSP's individual members, can be reviewed on the CUSP page on the Academy website.