Jerry F. Enoch, FSA 1979, MAAA, MS, MBA

Vice President and Chief Actuary, Alfa Life Insurance Corporation, Montgomery, AL

Brief description of the type of work you currently do:

I serve on the management team and direct the company's actuarial operations, with involvement in all areas of company management.

Primary Area of Practice:

Life Insurance

Other Areas of Practice/Interests:

Financial Reporting, Finance, Product Development, General Management, Smaller Insurance Company, Investments, Risk Management

Professional Background:

My 30 years of actuarial experience, mostly in smaller companies, has allowed me to be focused on the outside world and to be close to the various areas of the business. This breadth is supplemented by a liberal arts education and an MBA. The small company experience has given me a very broad background, including appointed actuary, financial reporting, product development and management, cash flow testing, embedded value, asset–liability management, dividends, expenses, and establishing and maintaining a closed block. I have had the opportunity of feeling my way in performing some relatively new work, such as a duration matching study in 1982 and a purchase GAAP implementation shortly thereafter. I also did most of the work to get a subsidiary admitted to do business in 13 states. I have been responsible for managing the Actuarial Department, for numerous special projects, and for working on a number of company committees.

Volunteer Experience:

As I began as Chairperson of the Financial Reporting Section Council, I decided that I would not fear failure, but would boldly pursue numerous objectives and focus on counting the successes. To provide direction and to avoid drifting from one pet project to another, I established three objectives that I considered imperative for us to meet. I got buy–in from the council, and recruited a leader for each area. We built a strong team bond that served us well on many occasions. I also challenged the council to develop a new on-going seminar every year or two, and the council met my challenge. Our failures were minor, but our successes were major. I think I succeeded in leading the council to a new level of enthusiasm, expectation, and achievement. As editor of The Transactions and of the Financial Reporting Section newsletter, I developed a strong sense for responsibility to not simply publish articles, but to work to bring, as easily as possible, the thoughts of the authors into the minds of the readers. Besides improving the assimilation of actuarial information, these experiences deepened my love for bringing different minds together. Connecting minds has also been important as lead facilitator of the Smaller Insurance Company Chief Actuaries Forum, in the development of the Valuation Actuaries Forum, and as speaker and moderator. I have enjoyed working with a variety of intelligent, interesting people, relating details to the big picture, and applying creativity to the task at hand.

Vision Statement:

The actuarial profession is currently developing in many countries around the globe. While financial markets and practices are converging around the world, the emergence of more actuarial organizations would be detrimental to the profession. In these countries, there is a burgeoning need for actuaries and there are interested, capable individuals; but there is no infrastructure to provide them actuarial education tailored for their environment. While the need is great, we also have opportunity. This is a time when American business and American ways of doing things are highly respected. Furthermore, the Society of Actuaries is the organization that is most capable of meeting these needs. We now have a window of opportunity to meet diverse needs around the world and to establish the Society of Actuaries as a truly international provider of education and examination for actuaries. Coordination with actuaries in other countries would allow us to create modules or exams for their unique environments to meld with our basic actuarial education to efficiently prepare actuaries to meet the needs of various countries. We can leverage our strengths, avoid further proliferation of actuarial organizations, meet needs internationally, and enhance the world–wide stature of the Society of Actuaries.

Simultaneously, we should follow a similar strategy to provide education and examination for CERA's internationally. Demand for credentialed enterprise risk analysts will develop at different times in different countries, but the Society of Actuaries can have an infrastructure and process in place to meet those needs as they arise.