Description: It highlights key initiatives and leadership changes within the SOA Education and Research (E&R) Section in year 2025.

Description: A compilation of reader responses is presented to a real life situation involving a business decision. This issue’s case study involved a recently promoted chief actuary receiving pressure to make a downward reserve adjustment at year end.

Description: This is the second installment of a two-part series. Part I was published in the July 2023 issue of The Stepping Stone and provided guidance on how a new (re)insurance company can build an attractive work environment for actuarial talent. In part II we will focus on how to encourage those actuaries to remain with the company in the long run.

Description: Article looks at various catastrophic events in past years specifically around insurance claims and the negative impact this has had on the insurance/reinsurance industries. It suggests better communication strategies for companies when dealing with the public.

Description: This article is about the little things that impact your personal brand, and how that personal brand helps you influence others.

Description: Come discuss how reinsurers can work side by side with insurer to better develop products, and lift in the areas that reinsurers have more experience, help matching products with distributions (or vice versa) and provide advanced technologies associated with tools and software. The speakers will also present Direct to Consumer plan from various points of view, i.e., distributors, carriers, and reinsurers. Some case studies will also be presented where traditional reinsurers and asset-intensive reinsurers helped insurers bring products to life.

Description: "Court is in session, and you are the jury! Follow along as challenging aspects of actuarial professionalism are explored in a court-like setting. Deliberate based on what you already know from your own experience as well as what you learn in this session, and then deliver your verdict accordingly. New cases will be developed for this meeting. If you attended in the past, plan on joining again as we will have new material for discussion. Who says learning about actuarial professionalism can't also be fun? By attending the session, you will be able to: - Apply actuarial professionalism concepts. - Identify key ASOPs for actuaries. - Explain significant aspects of the U.S. Qualification Standards."

Description: Discover how to bring professionalism to actuarial work in this 75-minute webcast focused on the profession's standards. Attendees will learn about applying professional guidance to the future challenges in their ongoing work that will require professionalism skills.

Description: In this session, we will explore the opportunities and challenges of leveraging AI tools to support valuation actuaries in their work. We will begin by introducing the concept of large language models (LLMs), discussing their capabilities, limitations, and potential errors. We will then delve into case studies that demonstrate how LLMs can be effectively utilized to reference actuarial documents.

Description: Develop a better understanding of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) across the financial services and risk management industry, with a focus on actuaries. Panelists will address topics such as industry-wide diversity efforts, as well as current challenges facing diverse groups. Come listen to these panelists share perspectives on attracting, fostering, retaining and increasing diverse actuarial talent, in addition to the SOA’s DEI goals in the coming years.