Description: Vision and mission are just two links between successful mountain climbing and launching a successful business. Clear objectives, solid strategies and thorough action plans are the other links. This article describes these parallels between mountain climbing and launching a successful business.

Description: List of key initiatives for the Society of Actuaries and how they were developed.

Description: This article summarizes a survey on career satisfaction and advancement conducted last fall via FutureRisk.org. The survey asked actuaries about topics ranging from their current job situation, employer and professional aspirations to job satisfaction, career advancement activities and training received via various resources.

Description: This article is a profile of Jim Tilley, a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries a founding trustee of The Actuarial Foundation in 1994. He responds to a few questions about his career.

Description: The money in customer accounts follows a systematic, yet sometimes elaborate maze. This article establishes a check list of 10 item that will ensure that client accounts are being correctly credited, operations are functioning a they were designed and operational risk is reduced.

Description: This article reports on the unveiling of a revitalized 'brand' for actuaries revealed at the recent SOA Annual Meeting including the speech by past president Bob Beuerlein and other activities throughout the meeting. The new tagline 'Risk is Opportunity' was introduced and embraced by the members.

Description: This article examines employee stock option ESO cost accounting, the characteristics of ESO schemes, the requirements and recommendation of FAS 123R and SAB 107. It also explains why the lattice model is probably the best approach to measuring the cost of stock option grants.

Description: Discusses potential implications of increasing life spans in many areas.

Description: This article presents an interview with Prakash Shimpi about his career and the practice of Enterprise Risk Management [ERM]. Shimpi, FSA, CFA, joined the Tillinghast business of Towers Perrin in November 2004 as practice leader with global responsibility for ERM.

Description: Examines the trends affecting the distribution system for the industry's products, and the regulatory and tax environment in which life companies operate. Also looks briefly at the state of competition in the industry.