Description: This article is a summary of the Morris Review, a public inquiry, of the actuarial profession in the United Kingdom. The report was published in 2004.

Description: This article focuses on the challenge of validation of quality data particularly with regard to outsourcing, reviews the standards of practice concerning data quality and the steps that can be taken to ensure data quality.

Description: Responsibilities Of The Actuary For Communicating Sarbanes-Oxley Control in accordance With Actuarial Standards of Practice

Description: This article is intended to provide young actuarial professionals and job seekers with tips on succeeding in remote interviews.

Description: Thomas B. Lowman's response to the article Reinventing Pension Actuarial Science by Lawrence Bader and Jeremy Gold. From The Pension Forum, January 2003, Volume 15, Issue No. 1.

Description: An update on the Capital Market Assumptions used for asset allocation maybe useful to actuaries given the parallels with the assumptions an actuary uses to measure plan obligations.

Description: In the absence of good research and analysis, decisions are made on the basis of intuition, unexamined assumption, and fixed ideas. This is the 'I believe…' approach to decision-making. The less information that individuals have, the more likely they are to rely on belief rather than evidence. This keynote address from the 43rd Actuarial Research Conference held in 2008 in Regina, Saskatchewan discusses the importance of research in health care reform, talks about the difference between pure and applied research, and explains what separates good applied research from poor research. From Actuarial Research Clearing House 2009, Vol. 1.

Description: This article is about the final report of the Joint Actuarial Committee on Financial Reporting. The report summarizes the activities from 1970 to 1973 of the Joint Actuarial Committee, which was formed to represent the actuarial profession in exploring the application of generally accepted accounting principles to life insurance companies.

Description: After research involving auto insurance is retracted due to fraud, I revisit my own book review and unskeptical quoting of that now-debunked research. A lesson in ASOP 23, on Data Quality, ensues, as it seems data in the research was falsified. There is also a lesson in ASOP 56, Modeling, which includes aspects of relying on outside experts for model input. At the end of it all, the value of our actuarial professional standards, in light of other professions seemingly having no standards (or no serious repercussions for breaching said standards), shines through. Also, be skeptical of 'one simple trick' approaches to transform the insurance industry.

Description: The October/November 2012 edition of The Actuary magazine—the Society of Actuaries’ flagship publication.