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IAA
Newsletter - March 2006 |
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| Jean-Louis Massé, President | Yves Guérard, Secretary General | |
| Peter Clark, President-Elect | Alf Guldberg, Immediate Past President |
It is my pleasure to inaugurate this new President’s Corner column to appear periodically in our newsletter. Please excuse any typos, the result of the occasional turbulence on this flight that is taking me to the 8th Global Conference of Actuaries in Mumbai, India!
I will elaborate on that conference in a moment, but first, I would like to remind us all that our colleagues from the Faculty of Actuaries of Scotland are celebrating the Faculty’s 150th anniversary this year. The IAA will be holding its 2006 Fall meeting in Edinburgh on this special occasion. The Faculty has produced fine actuaries over time and many of them practiced abroad for the benefit of a larger public and, in turn, for the benefit of our profession globally. Thank you, Faculty. May you continue to be a model for many actuarial associations around the world for another 150 years!
India is a country going through major and exciting changes. World leaders are impressed with India’s “can do” attitude and they presently are arriving from all corners of the globe (United States, Australia, France, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia) to meet local leaders. That and the current tourist season have complicated my hotel reservations, now no longer honored by the hotel, but that is another story. Our Indian colleagues are destined to grow significantly their circle of influence in the “new” India. They deserve our full encouragement and support. It will be undoubtedly too late for you, the reader, to make plans to attend the Conference in March in Mumbai, but I urge you to make plans to attend at least once in the future and be part of the success India is experiencing!
The IAA too is on the verge of substantial and exciting changes. Some of you will recall the creation of the Task Force on the Feasibility of a Global Actuarial Qualification at our last meeting in Rio to conduct a special study on the feasibility of an IAA education and examination program. Currently, the IAA has set minimum education requirements for its Full Member Associations (FMAs) and many FMAs have developed different examination systems locally. If you have had the personal fortune to be involved in an examination program, you will appreciate that it takes many hundreds of volunteers to run a proper examination system. A number of FMAs have mounted a successful examination system over time thanks in large measure to the significant number of their volunteers while some are using university programs. Other FMAs, on the contrary, have much fewer members and are still devoting an inordinate amount of their volunteers’ efforts to examinations; thus forcing them to delay other important services to their membership such as the development of standards of practice. Nearly half of our FMAs do not have standards of practice yet.
Another important reason for this study is the desire to meet the challenge from the World Bank, and other players in the donor community interested in providing funds, to create social programs and to provide financial security in rapidly developing countries. In this regard, competent professionals are sought to run those funds and that is where the actuaries enter the picture. Thus, the challenge to the global actuarial profession to help the various local economies grow by helping with the creation and growth of local actuarial associations.
The above-mentioned Task Force met in London over the last weekend of February. A significant amount of time was spent addressing a legitimate fear of a number of associations in relation to the underpinning principle of subsidiarity that bounds us all. As the saying goes, it is not enough to preserve subsidiarity, we must also make sure that subsidiarity is seen as being preserved! Indeed, the education program under study would be a service offered to local associations who would remain free to take it or leave it.
The London meeting concluded with a proposal to the IAA Council which is available on our website through the Council agenda for the Paris meeting and is referred to in the next article of this newsletter.
I urge each and every one of you to take a moment to read it and make your comments known, either to your own association leaders or directly to the Task Force. This is a major project for the IAA at the moment. The study is far from finished, but as we progress, we need your input. We want to get it right!
In conclusion, please let me remind each of you to register for our 28th International Congress of Actuaries in Paris late May if you have not done so yet. I for one have found the technical program of the last congress in Cancun to be a gold mine for my own continuous professional development, not to mention the valuable opportunity to meet international colleagues. I am sure that Paris will be equally enriching.
Jean-Louis Massé, IAA President, 2006
As President Jean-Louis Massé alluded to in his President’s corner, the Task Force on the Feasibility of a Global Actuarial Qualification met late in February to finalize its recommendations to Council. The full text of the Task Force’s report is on the Council agenda for the May 28 meeting in Paris and is available online.
We have received some comments to this initiative, in particular in the form of a joint letter from the Swiss, Dutch, German and Austrian associations. The IAA response prompted the sending of a similar letter to all association Presidents on this subject.
Comments on the Task Force proposal are welcome by April 7, 2006 in order to give the Task Force enough time to consider them before the 30-day agenda due on April 28. Please send your comments to the Secretariat for the attention of Celeste Leclerc.
A more detailed scientific program is now available online at www.ica2006.com. Once you have read the exciting program and taken note of the list of renowned speakers, you will no doubt wish to register. Do not miss this important event that only happens once every four years!
The organizers are looking forward to welcoming you to Paris from May 28 to June 2, 2006!
It is not too late to register for the IAA Council and Committee meetings that will take place in Paris, France from May 25 to 28, 2006. The meeting program, registration forms and details for making your bedroom reservation are all available online. Note that unsold bedrooms offered at a special rate will be released from our block on April 23, 2006.
Following these meetings in Paris, the next ones are being planned for November 16-20 at the Sheraton Grand Hotel in Edinburgh, Scotland. A draft program will be announced in the coming weeks. The Presidents’ Forum will be held in the same location on November 20.
The IAA and Groupe Consultatif are planning a Joint Education Conference to take place November 20-21 at the Apex Hotel in Edinburgh.
Annual membership fees for all sections are low at $40 CAD each (except for AWB whose dues are $20 CAD) which, depending on conversion rates, translates into approximately $35 US or €30. You should have received recently from your home association a call for dues to the IAA Sections for 2006. Please review this information carefully and renew your dues immediately to avoid missing out on important developments within your section and to continue to receive information on a timely basis.
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Yves Guérard, Secretary General of the IAA, and Curtis Huntington, Chairperson of the IAA Audit and Finance Committee, met with the staff of the IAA Secretariat in Ottawa earlier this month to review the year-end financial statements and perform other duties arising from their respective roles. They also took advantage of this opportunity to meet with the Executive Director of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries, Daniel Lapointe. | |
| Left to right: Curtis Huntington, Chairperson, Audit and Finance Committee; Nicole Séguin, IAA Executive Director; Daniel Lapointe, CIA Executive Director; Yves Guérard, Secretary General |
Since the IAA Council meeting in Rio, many Full Member associations have made changes to their representatives on the various IAA committees. We have changed our procedure whereby the President granted provisional approval of such changes until official confirmation by Council at its next meeting. Given that Full Member associations are entitled to one official representative per committee, with a few exceptions, (Article 3.1.2 of the Internal Regulations refers), we felt it would be more expedient to confirm, in accordance with Article 9 of the Statutes, such changes as they are received and to keep a running list on our website. This will help reduce the paper work at the Secretariat and also free up time on the Council agenda. Changes should be communicated to the IAA Secretariat.
The full list of requested changes since November 2005 is as follows.
Accreditation
Alberto Ferando, Col.legi d'Actuaris de Catalunya
Graham Luffrum, Slovenska Spolocnost Aktuarov
Advice & Assistance
Steven G. Lehmann, American Academy of Actuaries (replacing Jim MacGinnitie)
Graham Luffrum, Slovenska Spolocnost Aktuarov
China (Subcommittee)
Estella Chiu, Canadian Institute of Actuaries (replacing KC Chan)
Shu Yen Liu, Society of Actuaries (replacing Yuan Chang)
Ulrich Stellman, Deutsche Aktuarvereinigung e. V. (DAV)
Education
Maria Bilikova, Slovenska Spolocnost Aktuarov
Sié Kouamé Kouadio, Institut des Actuaires de Côte d'Ivoire
Sanchit Maini, Actuarial Society of India
Financial Risks
Martin Halada, Slovenska Spolocnost Aktuarov
Global Actuarial Qualification (Task Force)
Steven G. Lehmann
Insurance Accounting
Félix Arias Bergadà, Col.legi d'Actuaris de Catalunya
Clinton Chang, Actuarial Institute of the Republic of China
Armand Maurice Ibo, Institut des Actuaires de Côte d'Ivoire
Jelica Klucovska, Slovenska Spolocnost Aktuarov
Thomas Ringsted, Den Danske Aktuarforening
Insurance Regulation
Nela Kudlakova, Slovenska Spolocnost Aktuarov
Maria Jesus Romero Santo-Tomas, Col.legi d'Actuaris de Catalunya
Pensions and Employee Benefits
Sylvestre Konin, Institut des Actuaires de Côte d'Ivoire
Martin Kosztolanyi, Slovenska Spolocnost Aktuarov
Professionalism
Armand Kplé, Institut des Actuaires de Côte d'Ivoire
Graham Luffrum, Slovenska Spolocnost Aktuarov
Reinsurance (Subcommittee)
Erik T Alm, Svenska Aktuarieföreningen
Stephen Devine, Society of Actuaries in Ireland
Social Security
Martin Kosztolanyi, Slovenska Spolocnost Aktuarov
Bruce D. Schobel, Conference of Consulting Actuaries (replacing Ken Buffin)
Fructueux Tétiali, Institut des Actuaires de Côte d'Ivoire
Supranational Relations
Graham Luffrum, Slovenska Spolocnost Aktuarov
Accreditation
Insurance Accounting
The Actuarial Standards Subcommittee is considering comments received on the draft International Actuarial Standards of Practice (IASP) for Embedded Derivatives and Derivatives, Business Combinations, Accounting for Reinsurance Contracts, and for Disclosure of Information about Insurance Risk. The proposed standards are available online.
This is your opportunity to make your views known before the guidelines are presented to Council on May 28 for adoption. Send your comments or questions to Katy Martin.
Insurance RegulationMember Services
The Task Force on Congress Bursaries has completed its review of the numerous requests for bursaries to attend the 28th International Congress of Actuaries in Paris May 28 to June 2, 2006. Bursaries were awarded in accordance with the established criteria and a report will be made available at the meetings in Paris.
Professionalism
The Committee is monitoring the development of IASPs by the Committees on Insurance Regulation and on Insurance Accounting to ensure conformity with IAA established due process.
AFIR/ERM
The Scientific Committee invites authors to submit papers for the 17th International AFIR/ERM Colloquium to be held in Stockholm, Sweden, 12-15 June 2007.
ASTIN
You are invited to the 2007 ASTIN Colloquium
The 37th ASTIN Colloquium will be held on 20-23 June 2007 at the world renowned Disney’s Contemporary Resort in Orlando, Florida, United States of America. The Casualty Actuarial Society is pleased to invite you to attend this Colloquium. Created in New York City in 1957, ASTIN will be celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2007 and the CAS is honored to help ASTIN celebrate its jubilee.
The opening sessions will be held in conjunction with the CAS Spring Meeting and the Colloquium promises outstanding learning and networking opportunities. The CAS is eager to host an event that will provide ample opportunities for non-life actuaries from around the world to exchange knowledge and ideas as well as form and nurture intellectual and personal relationships. We are organizing leisure programs for participants and accompanying persons to enjoy in the Orlando area that are guaranteed to make the 37th ASTIN Colloquium spectacular!
The Scientific Committee has recently announced its call for papers, which can be found online at www.IAA-ASTIN.org along with the details for paper submission. Papers on topics other than those identified in the announcement will be considered by the ASTIN Scientific Committee and may be accepted at the Committee’s discretion. Papers should be submitted in their final form by 31 January 2007.
IAAHS
There will be a General Meeting of the IAAHS at the Palais des Congrès in Paris on
Friday, June 2 from 8:30 to 9:00 a.m.
IACA
The next biennial conference of the International Association of Consulting Actuaries (IACA) is being held in conjunction with the 28th International Congress of Actuaries at the Palais des Congrès in Paris on Thursday 1 June and Friday 2 June 2006.
The meeting will look at the role of the consultant, the realities and duties of 21st Century insurance consulting actuaries, the insurance programme in developing countries, demographic changes and the impact on pension schemes, the government acting as insurer of last resort, the changing scenario for pensions in M&A and security in pension provision around the world.
IACA would be delighted if you were able to attend - please register via www.ica2006.com.
IACA Lifetime Achievement Award - The Max Lander Award
IACA has decided to inaugurate a “Consulting Actuary Lifetime Achievement Award”, and to name it in honour of the late Max Lander who was a founding member of IACA and a former IACA chairman. The Max Lander Award will be given to members of the actuarial profession who have contributed to the public awareness of the work of the actuarial profession and the promotion of the business of consulting actuaries.
IACA would like to give the first Max Lander Award at the IACA meetings being held in Paris on June 1-2, 2006 in conjunction with the 28th International Congress of Actuaries (May 28-June 2). All IACA members are invited to consider suitable nominations and to submit them to IACA past chairman Brent Walker at brentw@bigpond.net.au before April 30, 2006
LIFE
There will be a General Meeting of the Life Section at the Palais des Congrès in Paris on Thursday, June 1 from 8:30 to 9:00 a.m.
PBSS
The PBSS Section has worked with the relevant IAA committees, and with the IACA Section, to arrange an excellent series of sessions at the forthcoming International Congress of Actuaries in Paris (May 28 to June 2, 2006). There will be a full program of activities for actuaries wishing to learn about current pensions and social security issues, including topics such as:
Most of the PBSS meetings will be on Monday afternoon and on Tuesday, should you wish to register for only half the Congress. However, the IACA sessions, also of interest to pension actuaries, will be on Thursday and Friday. It will be a great opportunity to meet other actuaries, and, in particular, other actuaries with an interest in pensions and social security.
There will be a short PBSS Section Annual General Meeting during the Paris Congress, most likely on the Tuesday afternoon. By then we expect that more details will be available of the next major PBSS event – a conference in Helsinki May 21-23, 2007, timed to overlap by a day and run into the 15th International Conference of Social Security Actuaries and Statisticians of the International Social Security Association, which will be held in Helsinki on May 23-25.
10th Regional Pension and Social Insurance Conference - Bahrain
The 10th Regional Pension & Social Insurance Conference that was held in Bahrain, in the heart of the Gulf region, on March 14-15, attracted over 200 representatives from 26 countries. The Conference was opened by H.E. Sh. Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, Minister of Finance of the Kingdom of Bahrain and Chairman of the Pension Fund Commission. The theme of this year’s conference was "Pension reform: Step by Step". Many speakers referred very positively to the role of actuaries, recognizing the importance of making the best use of actuarial expertise to ensure programs are sustainable and properly designed in response to a changing demographic environment. The IAA was represented by its Secretary General, Yves Guérard, who spoke at the opening ceremony (see photo below). A number of actuaries from various countries were also in attendance
Following the event, the IAA received a letter of appreciation from the Muhanna Foundation indicating that the surplus generated by the conference was being used to grant three scholarships in the actuarial field to Bahraini students, and to partly finance a study to publish the first mortality tables for the GCC countries. You can read the full text of the letter online.
The conference photos and presentations are available at the following website addresses http://www.muhanna.org/2006/pg.htm and http://www.muhanna.org/2006/Presentations.htm
8th Global Conference of Actuaries – Mumbai, India
As President Jean-Louis Massé mentioned in his opening article, he represented the IAA at the 8th Global Conference of Actuaries held in Mumbai, India on March 10-11.
(From left) D. Swarup, Chairman, PFRDA; Y. V. Reddy, Governor, RBI; and Jean Louis Massé, President |
Pacific Rim Actuaries Club of Toronto
President Jean-Louis Massé was the guest speaker at the February 16 meeting of the Pacific Rim Actuaries’ Club of Toronto. His address centered on building the actuarial profession internationally.
The International Actuarial Events Calendar is the perfect tool for your long range planning. Visit it often through the link on the IAA’s home page. Member associations are encouraged to post their events in the calendar to make the tool as useful as possible. If you have misplaced your association’s login and password, send an email to secretariat@actuaries.org.
The Society of Actuaries and Nexus Generations present:
ASSET LIABILITY MANAGEMENT - Techniques and Practices for Insurance Companies Co-sponsored with Standard and Poor’s
WHEN: MAY 8-11, 2006
WHERE: SCANDIC COPENHAGEN (COPENHAGEN, DENMARK)
This unique and innovative program provides intensive hands-on training on ALM techniques and practices. The four day course consists of two programs:
TECHNIQUES AND PRACTICES combines ALL of the course content, utilities and templates from ALM Essentials and Techniques and Practices into intense days of hands-on training.
Newly Added for 2006!
ADVANCED TECHNIQUES AND APPLICATIONS is an advanced 1 day program providing 7 hours of hands-on applications and case studies.
Pre-course material, assigned readings and a number of application exercises will be provided for the participant to cover outside of class time. Participants will also be trained to use several valuable utilities and templates that are yours to keep and provided as part of the course fee. Be prepared to roll up your sleeves!
COPENHAGEN COURSE FACULTY
Charles L. Gilbert, FSA, FCIA, CFA
K. Ravindran, PH.D.
Laura Santori, IAI
Andrew D. Smith, BA
For more information: http://www.nexusgenerations.com/courses
To register: http://www.seeuthere.com/rsvp/invitation/invitation.asp?id=/m2c696-585946423915
If you have difficulties with this link, please see below:
www.soa.org | www.nexusgenerations.com | www.standardsandpoors.com
SOCIETY OF ACTUARIES ENTERPRISE RISK MANAGEMENT (ERM) SYMPOSIUM
WHEN: April 23-25, 2006
WHERE: Chicago, IL
DETAILS: www.ermsymposium.org
Actuarial Education in Romania
The Asociatia Romana de Actuariat has been working hard, together with other organizations, to create a formal education program that would conform to the requirements of the International Actuarial Association (IAA) Education Guidelines and Syllabus. To support this program, the association is seeking lecturers on an occasional basis, as required by its syllabus.
As part of its informal education program, the association would also like to arrange seminars in Romania on a variety of topics, including the following:
In the event that you are able to provide support, or wish to obtain additional information, please contact Mr. Adrian Allott (Adrian.Allott@aviva.ro), or Mr. Florin Ginghina (fginghina@kpmg.com).
The President Elect for the Institute of Actuaries, Nick Dumbreck, will take over from Michael Pomery, as President of the Institute of Actuaries from 27 June 2006.
Board for Actuarial Standards
Paul Seymour, a former Council Member of the Institute of Actuaries, has been appointed Chair of the new Board for Actuarial Standards which has been established following the Morris Review.
CAS to Launch New Peer-Reviewed Journal
The Casualty Actuarial Society will launch a new refereed journal dedicated to research of interest to casualty actuaries around the world. In addition to publishing applied casualty actuarial research, the as-yet-unnamed journal will feature theoretical research at the frontier of casualty actuarial science. Significant survey articles or similar types of papers will also be considered for publication.
The CAS will announce the name of the new journal at the organization’s spring meeting May 7-10 in Fajardo, Puerto Rico. The premier issue of the journal will be published in mid 2007.
The CAS is now inviting authors to submit papers for publication in the new journal. Membership in the CAS is not a prerequisite for submitting papers and non-CAS members are encouraged to submit papers. A detailed guide for journal submissions is available online.
February 6, 2006 marked a major milestone for the Society of Actuaries. On that day, Module 1 of its new Fundamentals of Actuarial Practice (FAP) Course was launched. The start-up of an internet-based, interactive approach to basic actuarial education is a major component of an ongoing Education Redesign project.
In response to employer demands for a more practice-relevant syllabus; better methodologies to prepare actuaries for the future and a reduction in "travel time" to the ASA/FSA credential for qualified candidates, the SOA embarked on a three-year plan to re-create its education system. The start of the new FAP course is a major component to the redesigned syllabus for the Associate (A.S.A.) designation.
While the primary FAP target audience is individuals who desire to be admitted as Associates of the Society of Actuaries, the FAP course is appropriate for any individual engaged in the actuarial profession at some level. As development progresses, the SOA will be looking into ways to make the course available, on a non-credit basis, to credentialed actuaries and other interested parties.
It is with great sadness that we inform you of the recent passing of Yuan Chang. Mr. Chang was a member of the IAA China Subcommittee, representing the Society of Actuaries (United States). To his family and colleagues, we offer are most sincere condolences.
The 2006 Winter Olympics were remarkable in many ways. For the actuarial profession, it is worth noting the achievement by Anette Norberg of Sweden, who led Sweden’s women’s curling team to a spectacular Gold Medal win! Congratulations Anette!
Anette is chief actuary with Nordea Liv & Pension where she has been employed since 2000. She graduated from Uppsala University in 1988 and joined Svenska Aktuarieföreningen in 1989.
Anette’s credentials include: reigning world champion; Silver medallist at the 2001 world championships; four-time bronze medallist at the world championships (1988, 1989, 1991, 2003); six-time European champion (2001- 2005; 1988 as third for Elisabeth Hogstrom).
At the time of finalizing this Newsletter, we learned that Anette had just won the World Championships in women’s curling, the first skip ever to be both Olympic and World Champion simultaneously! Congratulations again!
Switzerland's Mirjam Ott watches as Sweden's Anette Norberg lines up a shot. Norberg's double-takeout on the last stone secured victory for the Swedes. |
The following is a breakdown on the use of the IAA Web site since January 1, 2006:
| Total sessions: | 100,864 | |
| Total page views: | 688,032 | |
| Average sessions per day: | 1,245 | |
| Average page views per day: | 8,494 | |
| Average page views per session: | 6.82 |
Top 5 Downloaded Documents:
808 Hits #1: A Global Framework for Insurer Solvency Assessment
617 Hits #2: Preliminary Exposure Draft on Accounting for Reinsurance Contracts
514 Hits #3: Preliminary Exposure Draft on Disclosure of Information about Insurance Risk
500 Hits #4: Preliminary Exposure Draft on Embedded Derivatives and Derivatives
476 Hits #5: IASP 1 - Guidelines of Actuarial Practice for Social Security Programs
If you or your association have any actuarial books to donate which could be used to assist actuarially developing countries, please contact the IAA Secretariat.
Michel Tardif, a Canadian actuary, has published a book, both in French and English, of actuarial jokes. This book will be of interest to actuaries all over the world. Click here for details.
The Muhanna Foundation is supporting the emergence of the actuarial profession in the Middle East. It has recently restructured its Library which contains over a 1000 documents segregated into 12 main categories: Actuarial, Investment, Demographics, Labor Issues, Economics, Other, Finance, Pension & Social Insurance, Health Care, Ratings, Insurance, Risk Management. Documents are available in English, Arabic and French.
To facilitate the search process, each of the categories is further divided into several sub-categories. Moreover, a researcher may look up document(s) by year of publication, language, subject, or author. For a quick library link: http://www.muhanna.org/ic/lib.htm
The Foundation’s activities as at December 31, 2005 have been attended by participants representing a varied group of organizations, namely: 266 Social Security Organizations & Pension Funds, 235 Insurance companies, 14 Insurance Supervisory Authorities, 21 Universities and 98 other Organizations. The participants came from: Algeria, Kuwait, Sudan, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, Cyprus, Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, Turkey, Greece, Oman, UAE, Iran, Qatar, UK, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen.
The Foundation site has been visited over 1000 times a day from 52 different countries. For further information, please visit: www.muhanna.org.
The Scandinavian Actuarial Journal deals with mathematical methods for insurance and related matters, in both theory and application. The aim of the journal is to promote progress in the development of actuarial methodology and the proliferation of established methods in practical actuarial work.
The Scandinavian Actuarial Journal includes original articles with a theoretical basis in probability theory, statistics, operations research, numerical analysis, computer science, demography, mathematical economics, or any other area of applied mathematics.
To learn more about the Scandinavian Actuarial Journal, including how to subscribe, please visit: www.tandf.no/saj