Description: This newsletter’s nominee for the most spectacular American at last summer’s International Congress is Prof. William S. Jewel1 of the University of California, Berkeley, who, as Mr. Hazelcorn reports in this issue, introduced the Congress subject, Generalized Models of the Insurance Business. Prof. Jewel encouraged actuaries to be receptive of, and tolerant towards, new methods, models, and paradigms.

Description: Shapiro 1990 documented some of the criteria used by actuaries when selecting the assumptions for actuarial valuations. He noted, however, that many of these criteria are often were in conflict with one another. This paper uses expected utility theory to model this process of choosing actuarial assumption when faced with potentially conflicting criteria. The three criteria considered are prudence, best estimate and conservativeness.

Description: This paper presents reviews of: 'Life Insurance' 11th Edition by Black & Skipper, 'Protecting Against Inflation - and Maximizing Yield' by Bragg, 'Megamistakes: Forecasting and the Myth of Technological Change' by Schnaars, 'The Value of Pensions in Divorce: What It Is and How to Use It' by Snyder, 'Episodes in the Life of Charles Francis McCay - Academic, Actuary, Author and Businessman' by Kellam, 'APL the Language and Its Actuarial Applications' by Stiers, Goovaerts & Kerf, 'Actuarial Mathematics', Vol. 35 edited by Panjer.

Description: Professional development opportunities from the Society of Actuaries.

Description: Education & Examination Redesign—An Update by Larry M. Gorski from The Financial Reporter, May 1999, Issue No. 39.

Description: In this article, the author comments about an exposure draft of a proposed revision of Actuarial Standard of Practice 23 dealing with data quality.

Description: Discussion of areas of focus for the Actuary of the Future Section for the year, by the Chair.

Description: The Professional Development Committee is an SOA board of directors appointed committee that has overall responsibility for managing the development of the professional development (PD) curriculum.