Description: The chair of the International Section of the SOA reports to the section members.

Description: This is Cecil Bykerk's acceptance speech for the SOA's presidency for 2008-2009 delivered at the 2008 annual meeting. He reviews volunteerism, the education of actuaries, networking and promoting actuarial brand.

Description: In this era of enterprise risk management, actuaries should reassess what we tell the public about what we provide. We should allow buyers to make informed choices based upon all the facts. We should recognize that regulatory and judicial forces will be focused on the products we produce for a very long time. This 2004 editorial from The Actuary Magazine discusses some common financial practices that are undergoing closer regulatory scrutiny.

Description: This article is an overview of the FAP course, a new e-learning tool that encompansses real-world applications and examples to demonstrate actuarial practice and to teach principles that help candidates make the transition from the preliminary examinations.

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: This is the table of contents for presentations held at the New York Annual Meeting–October 18-23, 1998. From the Record of Society of Actuaries, 1998, Vol. 24, No. 3.

Description: This is a perspective of the upcoming year from the view of the Chair of the Council of the TaxationSection. Following the challenges from the past year and since the arrival of the pandemic, I discussed how we will adapt to this new virtual or hybrid world and how the Taxation Section will continue to offer material to its members.