Description: The Society of Actuaries Foundation is now a precocious two-year-old. Out of its infancy, well-developed into a “toddler,” the Foundation is now being guided by its “parents” toward lifetime goals. The 17 Trustees know that heading the young organization in the right direction, with firm principles as a guide, will ensure the success of the Foundation’s mission.

Description: Article from The Actuary, May 1983, volume no. 17, issue no. 5 that highlights the actuarial profession during the December 10th, 1982 meeting of the National Commission on Social Security Reform. The Commission's Executive Director directed attention to a Washington Post article reporting that the Social Security actuaries were thinking of decreasing their fertility assumptions for the 1983 Trustees Report.

Description: Article from The Actuary, April 1983, volume no. 17, issue no. 4, that discusses actuaries who practiced in North America up to 1869. This tabulation, by company, of actuaries who flourished more than 20 years before the Actuarial Society of America was organized in April 1889, is by way of being a second progress report - see our May 1982 and September 1982 issues.

Description: Article from The Actuary, March 1983, volume no. 17, issue no. 3, which are excerpts from the author's presidential address to the Southeastern Actuaries Club in November 1982 where Professor Batten demonstrates a lack of approval of the new education syllabus and outlines his concerns. In particular, the author is concerned that the education syllabus is moving too far in the direction of theoretical statistical techniques at the expense of teaching practical subjects such a demography and life contingencies.

Description: An article from The Actuary, March 1983, volume no.17, issue no. 3 that discusses Variable Universal Life Insurance based on the growing popularity of universal life and variable life products. This product is a flexible premium life insurance product whose cash values vary, in whole or in part, in relation to the investment performance of an underlying separate account. However, regulatory changes, both state and federal, are needed before this product may be sold

Description: Article from The Actuary, June 1983, volume no. 17, issue no. 6, which is article no. 10 in a series. This particular article discusses the 1978 institute and faculty proposal on notation. A proposal presented in June 1978 by a study group of the Institute and Faculty Joint Working Party on Computers and Actuarial Notation provides an excellent summary of the problems faced by innovators in this field, as well as the consequences of clinging to the present notation.

Description: Article from The Actuary, June 1983, volume no. 17, issue no. 6, that highlights since 1981, U.S. federal budget cutbacks have clamped down hard on the federal agencies that produce all kinds of statistics - demographic, economic and regulatory data. Actuaries, who use these federal statistics to develop mortality tables, to produce marketing studies, to examine economic trends, and to study health costs, should work with the federal agencies to restore this data.

Description: This is the second of two articles from The Actuary, April 1983, volume no. 17, issue no. 4, that discusses math exam prizewinners. The tabulation in our March issue summarized the experience from among 233 prizewinners of the 24-year period 1947-70. Forty-two of them became Fellows. In this article we examine these same 233 people in terms of the academic institutions from which they wrote the prizewinning examinations.

Description: Article from The Actuary, March 1983, volume no. 17, issue no. 3. As was clear from William W. Truckle's paper reviewed in our April 1982 issue, North American actuaries aren't the only ones puzzling over the curriculum questions aired elsewhere in this issue. We are grateful for Mr. Carroll's permission to print excerpts from his discussion of Mr. Truckle's paper, and parts of his reply to an enquiry that we sent him. In particular, the author is in favor of adding more about advanced statistical methods to the curriculum and explaining how this fits in with the actuarial subjects that have been traditionally taught.

Description: The author provides highlights of a typical week in an internationally focused actuary’s life, and asserts that actuaries are all international to some degree.