Description: Summarizing the session "How to Keep Your Spreadsheets Out of the Headlines", on preventing spreadsheet error, from the 2015 SOA Annual Meeting. Presenters were Alex Cires, Sandra To, and Mary Pat Campbell.

Description: The April 2016 Issue of The Modeling Platform

Description: We discuss the challenges of Excel usage in companies, and what needs to be considered in order to develop robust modeling governance.

Description: The next evolution of actuarial systems in the U.S. will likely be a move toward a single system solution. This article defines a single system solution and illustrates how models can be shared across actuarial functions, the potential benefits of a single system solution, and describes potential mitigation strategies to address typical actuarial concerns.

Description: We define what we believe a model validation should entail and the value proposition that it offers.

Description: Model governance must deal with the effects organizational culture, including normalization of behaviors that are inconsistent with appropriate governance.

Description: This article covers the American Academy of Actuaries’ “Model Governance Checklist” that was created in response to PBR regulatory model governance needs.

Description: Actuarial systems access and change controls are hot topics these days as modeling continues to increase in complexity and as new modeling regulations may begin to crest over the horizon. Many companies are currently in the process of either formalizing their actuarial system access and change control protocols, or are reevaluating and strengthening their existing control processes in response to identified deficiencies or in conjunction with new actuarial system implementations. With these undertakings in mind, this article discusses a number of valuable components commonly incorporated in formal systems access and change control protocols. Also discussed are leading practices identified in the SOA publication “Actuarial Modeling Controls: A Survey of Actuarial Modeling Controls in the Context of a Model-Based Valuation Framework (December 2012)”, and from the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.

Description: This article discusses communication skills and some pointers for actuaries looking to refine the way that they communicate model results.

Description: How to deal with worst practices in spreadsheets and still have verifiable results.