Description: In their first joint meeting, the Chicago and Wisconsin Clubs undertook a noble experiment - inviting several qualified observers to rate actuaries’ achievement. This account, by the Secretary-Treasurer of the Wisconsin Club, may be useful to Program Directors of other clubs. The panel for what

Description: In the U.S. in the late 1980’s, the Internal Revenue Service was taking steps to try to institute explicit boundaries for the actuarial assumptions being used in 'funding' valuations to determine the appropriate contribution levels for small pension plans. This article was written in the context of that environment, to defend the rights of actuaries to their professional judgement. The courts eventually supported this perspective.

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: The 2016 Transition Rules for ASA Candidates provides the transition credit candidates will receive if they have completed a current requirement by July 1, 2018. Candidates who have completed requirements under previous systems have them first moved to the current system using previous transition rules and then moved to the new system.

Description: Noteworthy Reads has a simple aim—to inform our readers of good sources on models; specifically, to point out sources beyond what we can include in a newsletter. Noteworthy Reads will select a few and provide mini-reviews.

Description: What does “accountable” mean? You will see how the accountability culture can transform spectators into protagonists following the Four Steps to Accountability.

Description: In the midst of the financial crisis, a group of actuaries, representing the Joint Risk Management Section, the Investment Section, the International Network of Actuarial Risk Managers, and the Enterprise Risk Management Institute International published an extensive list of articles entitled, “Risk Management: The Current Financial Crisis, Lessons Learned and Future Implications”.

Description: This article discusses the implications of the competition actuaries face from “financial engineers.”

Description: A roundtable discussion of changes in the nature of actuarial work and the skills actuaries will need to be successful in the future.

Description: This article is about the challenging role of the actuary in business and how Canada's resolution to this challenge can benefit the profession as a whole.