SECTION NEWS

October 2017

AFIR-ERM

At the recent General Assembly held at the AFIR-ERM Colloquium in Panama City, the Section Committee welcomed new members and thanked some long-standing members as they competed their terms. Carla Angela, Pierre Devolder, Raimond Maurer and Elliot Mark Varnell have completed their terms, and Andrew Cairns will not be continuing to serve. László Hrabovszki and Miwaka Yamashita completed their terms and were re-elected for another. Jules Gribble (Switzerland), Ermanno Pitacco (Italy), Fernanda Salas (Mexico) and Malcolm Kemp (UK) have joined the committee after being elected. It is interested in hearing from other volunteers who would like to contribute to Section activities such as webinars, working groups and research projects.

The Bob Alting von Geusau Prize Winning Paper was announced at the General Assembly. This prize is awarded for the best paper on an AFIR-ERM topic published in the ASTIN Bulletin in the previous year. The winning paper was Consistent Yield Curve Prediction by Josef Teichmann and Mariov. Wuthrich,which was published in 2016. The prize comes with CAD 5,000 to be shared by the authors. There is also an invitation for one author to present the paper at the next AFIR-ERM Colloquium, which in this case will be part of the ICA 2018.

The AFIR-ERM Colloquium, held jointly with ASTIN in Panama City in August, was a success. There was a strong attendance from Central and South American participants and we hope they continue their involvement with the Section. A valuable development at the colloquium was the offering of educational workshops in addition to a program of scientific papers. The AFIR-ERM workshops were ERM—Process and Risks Management Techniques, presented by Stephane Loisel and Dave Ingram; Derivative Pricing, by Olivier Le Courtois;Term Structure Models, by Michael Sherris; and Longevity Risk, by Andrew Cairns.

The General Assembly confirmed the proposal by the Istituto Italiano degli Attuari and Ordine degli Attuari to host the AFIR/ERM Colloquium in Italy in 2019. The Section is considering a proposal from the Polskie Stowarzyszenie Aktuariuszy (Polish association) to host the colloquium in Warsaw in 2020 in conjunction with ASTIN and possibly other Sections.

ASTIN

Claim Development Report Available
The ASTIN Working Party on Individual Claim Development with Machine Learning has just released its final report, along with the Excel and R codes used for the modelling. It can be downloaded here.

Previous Working Party
The results of the ASTIN Working Party on Worldwide Non-Life Best Estimate Practices are still available.

Risk Management Working Party Launched
ASTIN continues to bridge the gap between practitioners and academics, and has launched a working party on Agent-Based Models, Networks and Cellular Automata in Risk Management.

If you want to join, e-mail us with your resume.

IAAHS

As planned, the Health Section is on track to bring to its members many webcasts on current and emerging topics in 2017.

On September 26, we held the third in a series of joint webcasts with the IAA Population Issues Working Group (PIWG), Global Perspectives on Long-Term Care (LTC), featuring Japan and Hong Kong. Professor Tomonori Hasegawa, Professor Peter Yuen and Alex Leung discussed global challenges facing LTC, and the potential solutions, including delivery methods, financing and program design, as well as the role that actuaries play. This series highlights the PIWG report on this topic. Tomonori Hasegawa is Professor of the Department of Social Medicine at Toho University’s School of Medicine. Peter Yuen is Dean of the College of Professional and Continuing Education of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He is also an editor and author of the recent book Sustainable Health and Long Term Care Solutions for an Aging Population. Alex Leung, an IAAHS Committee member, is the Co-founder and Chief Insurance Officer at BOLA, a full-stack insurance technology company in Hong Kong.

The IAAHS is focused on organizing international events covering various continents and was very pleased to present this webcast on this relevant topic.

In February, our Micro-Health Insurance Topic Team leader, Lisa Morgan, moderated the webcast Health Insurance for the Emerging Consumer, presented by Lorenzo Chan, President and CEO of Pioneer Life and Retail Organization and Head of the Pioneer Group; Eduardo Banzon, Principal Health Specialist at the Asian Development Bank; and Sanjay Pande, Executive Director of Finsall Networks. It was organized by the International Labour Organization’s Impact Insurance Facility and the United Nations Environment Programme’s Principles of Sustainable Insurance Initiative, and we were pleased to be able to bring it to our members.

The IAAHS will soon hold two more webcasts. On November 10, we will hold another with the American Academy of Actuaries, End-of-Life Care in An Aging World: A Global Perspective. On December 14, we will hold the fourth in a series of LTC webcasts, jointly with Singapore Actuarial Association, featuring Singapore and Australia.

All of the Section’s webcasts are recorded and available for replay to IAAHS members.

IACA

IACA raises the IAA’s Visibility
Cathy Lyn, IACA Chair and a past president of the Pacific Rim Actuaries Club of Toronto (PRACT), attended a PRACT barbecue, an informal gathering of young Canadian actuaries and students. Mercy Yan, another PRACT past president, and her husband host this function every year and Cathy used the opportunity to promote the IAA and IACA and provoke innovative thoughts that could eventually lead to more jobs.

The PRACT, formed by August Chow in 1993 for actuaries interested in the Pacific Rim region, has around 150 members and is run by an energetic executive. Its events are well attended and attract a cross-section of the industry.

This club has been a forum nurturing the younger side of the actuarial profession and forms a training ground in social settings to practice soft skills such as networking that can lead to business development and cross-fertilization of ideas.

Celebrating a prominent actuary: Daisy McFarlane Coke
The contribution made by Daisy McFarlane Coke to the actuarial profession was celebrated along with her 80th birthday at a special event in Jamaica. She has been a member of various communities and IACA; supported her clients, the government, the retirement and healthcare systems and the insurance, banking, agriculture and housing industries; acted as a mentor and role model for countless actuaries pre- and post-qualification; helped found the Caribbean Actuarial Association (now an FMA of the IAA); and much more. Astor Duggan and St Elmo Whyte, two senior actuaries, helped lead the celebration.

Daisy won an open scholarship to university in 1953 followed by a Jamaican government scholarship to England to become an actuary. There she gained practical experience at the UK Government Actuary’s Department and was awarded her FIA (Fellowship of the Institute of Actuaries) in 1970, becoming the 13th living female FIA. Although now retired, she still contributes to the profession.

Former Prime Minister the Hon Portia Simpson, ex-Minister of Finance Dr. Peter Phillips and ex-Governor General Sir Kenneth Hall were among the dignitaries who joined the actuaries honouring Daisy, who has been recognized with the Order of Jamaica. Cathy Lyn and IACA Committee members Mike Smith and Shubhash Gosine represented the IAA. Nikhil Asnani, a 23-year-old Fellow, played a couple of Bob Marley pieces with a band at the event. Call for Nominations for IACA Lifetime and Young Actuary High Achievement

Awards – ICA 2018
Does an actuary in your practice deserve to be recognized? Or do you wish to nominate one of your peers for an award?

The Max Lander Award has been given to the following luminaries of our profession: Jim McGinnitie, Paul Thornton, Klaus Heubeck, Fred Kilbourne, Chris Daykin and John Martin. Who will receive this lifetime achievement award at the ICA 2018? Now is your chance to nominate that someone special whom you believe deserves this recognition.

The Geoffrey Heywood Award has so far been given to Marian Elliot and Chintan Gandhi. The world is full of talented, bright young actuaries like Marian and Chintan who are bringing great credit to our profession. Someone you know is a potential winner of this award at the Berlin Congress,so be brave and nominate him or her.
Please e-mail your nomination with brief reasons to Brent Walker, Chair of the IACA Awards Subcommittee (with a copy to IACA Chair Cathy Lyn) before March 30, 2018.

About the Max Lander Award
This award is a lifetime achievement award for a (current or past) consulting actuary. It is named in honour of the late Max Lander, a founding member of IACA and its initial Secretary/Treasurer. It is given to a member of the actuarial profession who has contributed to the public awareness of the work of the profession and the promotion of the business of consulting actuaries. The 2018 award will be the eighth to be presented.

About the Geoffrey Heywood Award
The Young Consulting Actuary High Achievement Award is named in honour of the late Geoffrey Heywood MBE, IACA’s founding chairman. It will be will be given to a young (under the age of 40) consulting actuary who has provided significant services to the public and the actuarial profession. The next award will be the third to have been presented.

The intent of these awards is to help bring the consulting actuarial profession into the public domain and encourage the successful development of consulting actuarial practices and actuarial literature.

The recipients will receive a plaque and a monetary award that will be donated in their honour to an actuarial-related organization their choosing that is involved in or promotes the development of the profession. The recipients will be notified and presented with the awards at the IACA Biennial General Meeting at the ICA 2018.

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