Description: Actuaries must be able to present compelling arguments to win over their audience. For the first time, they may be managing a staff looking for direction, making recommendations to senior leaders, or trying to persuade non-actuarial colleagues who see the world differently. This series of articles is intended to educate young actuarial professionals on key business influencing skills that will be beneficial in the near term as well as throughout their careers. Part 1 is focused on leading and influencing a team.

Description: This article is about how entrepreneur independent business owners can solve their day-to-day frustrations and problems with a simple and useful process for setting goals and building a plan to meet those goals.

Description: This article summarizes the issue of good control over internal meetings, identifies some symptoms to watch for and identifies tangible actions that can be taken to bring control over financial resources being invested in meetings.

Description: This article discusses challenges that short-term predictions have on actuaries' reputations, both as individuals and as a profession, and discusses strategies to improve our professionalism and better manage this risk.

Description: Many top-performing businesses aren’t just risk aware, but rather risk intelligent. Such a posture helps prepare companies for a major event and can demonstrate to a regulator or auditor that an appropriately strong control framework is in place. Better still, companies gain real strategic value from a “risk adjusted” understanding not only of their threats and vulnerabilities, but also the upside opportunities associated with various risks. It starts with having both qualitative and quantitative information to identify, assess and manage risks. Strategic risk management, at its core, is about creating value by increasing transparency and accountability, and quality of information. More than a mere compliance exercise, effective risk management enables more informed strategic decision making, increased accountability and transparency, a greater likelihood of organizational success, and – ultimately – competitive advantage, as borne out by many studies that correlate risk management and financial results.

Description: Review of The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande, and author insight into the importance of actuarial checklists.

Description: Preparing an effective actuarial memorandum in support of the health actuarial opinion.

Description: The Wells Fargo case highlights the importance of creating and preserving documentation establishing actuarial and legal foundations for return positions.

Description: Article Nathaniel Ingersoll Bowditch by Bartlett in The Actuary, June 1979, Volume 13, Number 6