Description: Portability of pension benefits allows an employee to maintain pension benefits as he leaves one company and joins another. Advocates of portability point approvingly to the way Social Security - a portable pension plan - handles employee mobility. In their view, the private pension system would be fairer to participants and close a gap in pension coverage if it had more portability.

Description: Enclosed with this issue of The Actuary is a synopsis of the Report of the SOA Task Force on the Actuary of the Future, referred to in Gary Corbett’s presidential address last year.

Description: In 1983, a poultry virus hit the jackpot in Pennsylvania. While making a copy of its genetic material, the virus made a tiny error. Because of that error, it began producing a slightly altered protein which allowed the normally benign organism to spread beyond its usual residence in chicken lungs and intestines. Soon it was burrowing into other parts of the birds’ bodies - including the nervous system, where it multiplied rapidly and began to cause disease. Could something like this happen to humans?

Description: Final regulations imposing Continuing Professional Education CPE requirements for enrolled actuaries in the United States were promulgated recently by the Joint Board for the Enrollment of Actuaries. The Joint Board was established by federal law ERISA in 1974 to regulate pension actuaries. Certain pension actuarial certifications required by ERISA must be performed by an enrolled actuary As described below, the CPE requirements will cause some administrative inconvenience for enrolled actuaries but - with certain notable exceptions - will not affect our behavior.

Description: Interview with Darryl Button on leadership topics.

Description: A compilation of reader responses is presented to a real life situation posed involving a management, leadership, or other business decision. This issue’s case study involved whether or not to extend an offer to a strong candidate, after a comment from the CEO.

Description: It feels safe letting someone else be the boss. But it's risky, too. The way to minimize the risks--no matter what your work--is to become the boss of your own career. Learn simple steps here.

Description: Professional Development tips in the area of business networking and relationship development. Increase your industry knowledge, expand your network by learning to comfortably engage with others in purposeful relevant conversations at business events.

Description: Brief essay on the benefits of focused pratice and the idea that differences between expert performers and normal adults reflect a long-life persistence of deliberate effort to improve performance.

Description: This article discusses the lessons the author learned from the book The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni on the value of organizational health.