Description: How can we maintain our sanity while staring at the same screen all day, clicking into and bouncing out of meetings? To be successful in today's (remote) world, we must learn how to relate to individuals virtually.

Description: 'Rethinking Bias in Communication: Persuasion for Actuaries' will delve into the art of persuasion and the science of belief change. Drawing from contemporary works like 'How Minds Change' and 'Think Again,' this session will equip actuaries with tools to recognize and deal with cognitive biases present in communication, and foster a culture of continuous learning and open-mindedness. Attendees will leave with working knowledge of some of the psychological forces at play in decision-making and communication, strategies for engaging in more productive dialogues, and tools to facilitate belief changes in themselves and others.

Description: Significant progress has been made in transforming the actuarial profession but it remains untransformed. Universities have been instrumental in training future actuaries and this article is about how the University of Cape Town has been addressing transformation in the actuarial program. The school system in South Africa has struggled to produce the required quality and quantity of school leavers prepared for higher education. This has led to universities having to develop ways to manage this problem. The article discusses the effectiveness of some of the initiatives introduced at UCT.

Description: The article discusses the use of the keyword strategy in teaching. The literature with a negative view of keywords is reviewed and responded to by advocating keywords with multiple meanings supplemented with relevant instructional guidance. Numerous examples are presented from the SOA preliminary exams. Additionally, advanced use of keywords to problems not having them are presented.

Description: This interview with Andrés Villegas, an Associate Professor at UNSW Sydney, explores his journey from Colombia to Australia, his research on mortality modeling, and his contributions like the R package StMoMo. He discusses the importance of mentorship, industry-academia collaboration, and the role of actuaries in addressing global issues such as population aging and climate risk.

Description: Learn more about the Aging and Retirement Strategic Research Program Steering Committee as well as other research committees and volunteer opportunities at the SOA.

Description: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented significant changes to the Medicare Star Ratings that are expected to result in cost savings to CMS. The 2024 Star Ratings were recently released in October 2023 which was the beginning of these changes where future changes will impact 2026 and 2027 Star Ratings.