Description: A compilation of reader responses is presented to a real life situation. This issue’s case study involved a candidate for an actuarial position who didn't handle salary discussions well, and whether that should impact the hiring decision.

Description: Interview with Sara Teppema showing her career journey and leadership philosophy.

Description: These are the updated in the Taxation Section.

Description: Many start-up companies have certain elements in common: Most are still developing a profitable, working business model, there is little to no hierarchy or management structure, and everyone is in it together. A typical challenge is an ability to retain and/or attract strong leaders due to lack of resources needed to compete in the higher compensated talent markets. This article introduces The Equity Bonus Plan, which can help entrepreneurs attract and retain talent.

Description: Interview with new incoming Chair of the Reinsurance Section

Description: The SOA, in collaboration with CSU-Fullerton, hosted the first event combining local high school students and community college and university students for a day of learning and networking.

Description: Knowing how we and those around us are wired is very important for having successful relationships, whether it be family, a work team or any interaction that can be built upon for the future (e.g., a potential client). There are several models of human behavior inexistence. Like any model, none are perfect. However, having one that can generally guide us the majority of the time with simplicity, practicality and success is of great benefit.

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

Description: Bell is comparing his roles from that of an actuary in the USA to that of an actuary working in Cameroon, for a pan-African insurance company.

Description: In the spring of 2019, Dr. Cai started to serve as the Actuarial Science Program coordinator at Salisbury University, a medium-sized public teaching school in Maryland. At that time, the program was small, with only two faculty members who focused on both statistics and actuarial science, with approximately 10 students. During the next five years, the program did make some achievements in curriculum development, student exam preparation, job placement, and recognition, but Dr. Cai continued to have a dream to make the program unique. Dr. Cai believed that the skill sets students learned, even from a small program, could enable them to compete with anyone on a global basis. In spring 2024, Dr. Cai advised a group of exceptional actuarial students to participate in the 2024 Society of Actuaries (SOA) Student Research Case Study Challenge (SRCSC), and the team won third place – —behind two teams from the University of New South Wales, Australia. This article is the story of the journey.