Description: Panel reviews practical and ethical problems in both the U.S. and Canada arising when an actuary serves as an expert witness. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 25, No. 3.

Description: Feature article from the January 2010 issue of In The Public Interest discussing the reform of the U.S. health care system.

Description: The author discusses a definition of an actuary that he suggested several years earlier, noting that the public has a right to know why we think we constitute a profession, and why it should care. The author’s definition is: “that professional who is trained in evaluating the current financial implications of future contingent events.”

Description: 1993 SOA Spring Meeting, San Diego. This session discussed the proposed standards for determining the economic assumptions for the purposes of measuring pension obligations. The actuary's determination of the interest rate assumption was the primary focus of the discussion.

Description: In this “nontraditional” general session from the 1991 Annual Meeting of the Society of Actuaries, held October 20-23 in Toronto, the panelists, a “judge,” a “defendant,” and a “prosecutor” present a humorous “trial” to explore what the boundaries of “traditional” actuarial work are. A theme of the session is that some of what we call “nontraditional” is an expansion of traditional actuarial work, and that we owe it to our public to broaden our horizons. Discussion from participants is included. From the Record of Society of Actuaries, Volume 17, No. 4A.

Description: This meeting session, which occurred at the April 1982 Society of Actuaries meeting in Orlando, presented a look ahead as of 1982 at opportunities for actuaries in the 1980's and 1990's. Questions addressed by the panel included: i. Will traditional opportunities be reduced? 2. What non-traditional opportunities are available? 3. What changes are needed in our educational process? 4. How do we make non-traditional employers aware of actuarial skills and their value? 5. What will actuarial work be like? 6. Some perspectives on the situation in Canada as it moves toward more government ownership and control of financial security programs

Description: This session from the 1995 SOA Boston Meeting focuses on Standards of Practice SOP topics that are breaking at the time of the meeting including ASP 4 - pension standards, health standards, and the sales illustration standard. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 21, No. 4a.

Description: This 1978 session discussion included important challenges to the actuarial profession that result from current social and economic changes, opportunities for actuarial input in a political process, and expanding horizons for the actuarial profession. From Record of Society of Actuaries, Vol. 4, No. 1.

Description: This is a panel discussion session examining the complaints of life insurance consumers. The subjects include readability of contracts, risk classification methods, variety of product including the meaning of product names- what does the customer think he/she is buying or has bought, perceived lack of competition,

Description: Presented at October 1986 Annual Meeting. Presentation by a panel of historians on the aspirations of actuaries who established our profession in North America, or who helped to organize the four actuarial bodies formed in 1889, 1909, 1914 and 1916.