Description: For the interview with Andy Peterson, he agrees with the changes. Can we please also add the following introductory paragraph: In this exclusive feature, International Section Council members have the privilege of engaging in a conversation with Andy Peterson, Managing Director International at SOA, offering a deeper understanding of the SOA’s global strategy. Join us as we delve into the strategic vision and initiatives guiding our international pursuits, reaffirming our commitment to serving and empowering actuarial professionals across the globe.

Description: Article describes best practices for teaching a course module that involves multiple parameters. A good example is hypothesis testing which requires consideration of the parameters, sample-size, population distribution, known variance and has as consequences whether a normal or t distribution should be used or whether non parametric methods are used. The articles recommends use of the Prime Implicant Normal Form as a means of teaching. It shows the superiority of this method over other forms such as heuristics, complete rules, or graduated approaches.

Description: A summary recap of the recent SOA Health Conference held in Dallas, TX in June of 2025. With the intentional use of AI to assist with the summary, this article gives a good overview of the recent conference with personal commentary from one of the attendees.

Description: This article is an abstract of the Deloitte whitepaper “Financial KPIs in the New World” that will be published in January 2023. It provides a market view of how the new Financial KPIs will be integrated in the insurers’ decision-making process and about the main challenges and opportunities for insurers’ management and external stakeholders in the jurisdictions that have adopted IFRS17 and in particular countries in the EMEA region.

Description: This is the third in a four-part series dedicated to strategies for improving EQ, based on the book Emotional Intelligence 2.0 written by Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves. In previous issues of The Stepping Stone, I discussed the skills of self-awareness and self-management. In this article, I will share a few more of the book’s strategies and provide examples and personal insights to illustrate how to develop the third skill of social awareness in personal, social, and business situations.

Description: Six pointers about career advancement for actuaries, based on real life experiences from my 47 year career.

Description: The CIA, CAS Institute (iCAS) and the Society of Actuaries (SOA) are joining forces once again to launch the Predictive Analytics Hack-A-Thon!

Description: "Given the typical career trajectory of an actuary starts with increasing technical skill, we often overlook developing our communication skills, much to the determent of our overall career growth and business effectiveness. The only way that our work turns into business action is through communication, and business action is the sole purpose of our analyses. Come explore several ways to communicate more effectively by developing an understanding of our audience and what their “win” is, focusing on developing impactful messaging and outlining clear action, and how networking, especially broadly across the organization, can help us communicate more effectively. After this session you will be able to: Understand your audience and tailor your communication appropriately Develop clear messaging and explanations and deliver next steps Understanding how broadening your network can help you communicate more effectively"

Description: This webinar will discuss and illustrate professionalism standards in an interactive case study format. The session will begin with a lightning round discussion with audience polling on professionalism topics and standards of investment practice. Participants will then work through several case studies in an investment context, each of which will have its own specific professionalism considerations. Audience polling and discussion will be included as part of each case study.

Description: In today’s business world, many financial decisions undergo considerable analysis before the decision is made and the decision-maker is often held accountable for the outcomes. The purpose of this research is to introduce the concept of total risk analysis (TRA), which is designed to help the decision-maker answer key questions at the time the decision is made. This paper will focus on a specific example of a typical healthcare decision: setting a budget for claims in the upcoming year. In addition to explaining TRA and providing a case study, this paper presents quantitative research regarding cost distributions for health care costs.