Description: This article is written in response to the article that appeared in the February/March issue of The Actuary entitled Better Standards for Setting Standards written by Dave Kass. It discusses the process itself, the time it takes to develop or change standards and how quickly new ideas should be incorporated in the standards.

Description: A discussion of the Morris Review in the UK: a government-requested review of the actuarial profession in the U.K.

Description: This article is a summary of the Morris Review, a public inquiry, of the actuarial profession in the United Kingdom. The report was published in 2004.

Description: This author makes a few suggestions for how the ASB can improve the way it defines and sets standards of practice in light of the challenges actuaries face today. The author believes that ASOP's hould be promulgated by the ASB ony after a thorough process that goes beyond codifying existing practices.

Description: This article is focused on sustainability concerns in the ACA individual markets and what we can learn from core actuarial principles as discussed in ASOPs.

Description: In the absence of good research and analysis, decisions are made on the basis of intuition, unexamined assumption, and fixed ideas. This is the 'I believe…' approach to decision-making. The less information that individuals have, the more likely they are to rely on belief rather than evidence. This keynote address from the 43rd Actuarial Research Conference held in 2008 in Regina, Saskatchewan discusses the importance of research in health care reform, talks about the difference between pure and applied research, and explains what separates good applied research from poor research. From Actuarial Research Clearing House 2009, Vol. 1.

Description: This article from The Actuary, April 1971, volume 5, Issue 4 talks about an exposure draft. The Exposure Draft of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants on Audits of Life Insurance Companies has not apparently had among actuaries the wide circulation it deserves, judging by the relatively few responses to Robert Winters letter in the February issue of The Actuary. This is a most important document because it affects not only the accounting practices of life insurance companies but also the status of the actuarial profession.

Description: This article from The Actuary, November 1996, Volume 30, No. 9 discusses the value of the actuary. What is our value to our publics? Is it in sheepishly agreeing with statutory impositions -pension plans are a social good that should have favored status as long as they pay their fair share - or is it in sticking to, then clarifying and explaining, our principles regardless of the penalties? Our corporate agreement with the notion that there are “individually realistic actuarial assumptions.”

Description: Remarks on the pricing of joint LTC policies illustrate the need for an actuary's responsibility to the law, and to best practices, to take precendence over serving sales, marketing and underwriting objectives.