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What’s happening at the CIA?

Charles McLeod

June 2, 2005

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What I’ll cover

A. What constitutes a profession?

B. Morris Review of UK actuarial profession

C. The CIA Strategic Plan

D. Some other major CIA developments

E. Key issues for the CIA

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About the CIA

• Celebrating 40th anniversary

• Over 2,500 fellows

• Governed by a Board and 3 “Councils”

• Over 30 Committees

• Secretariat in Ottawa

• Almost all actuarial involvement is by volunteers

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About the CIA (continued)

Only FCIA’s are permitted to carry out certain “reserved roles” such as:

- Be the “Appointed Actuary” for an insurance company

- Sign pension plan actuarial reports

The CIA is a “self-regulating profession”

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About the CIA (continued)

Many things that we may take for granted today were earned – due to the hard work of some members of the CIA, and the trust that regulators and legislators had in the CIA.

Complacency can be dangerous.

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A. What constitutes a profession?

• Education (pre-fellowship) and accreditation.

• Post-fellowship education and training, especially CPD requirements

• Rules of Professional Conduct• Standards of Practice• Review of members’ work• Discipline procedures

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B. Morris Review

• Direct cause was Equitable Life (UK) and subsequent Penrose enquiry

• Looked at all aspects of UK actuarial profession

• Final report published in March 2005

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Morris Review’s Criticisms

• “Professional standards that have been weak, ambiguous or too limited in range, and perceived as influenced by commercial interests;

• An absence of pro-active monitoring of members’ compliance with professional standards; and

• A profession that has been too introspective, not forward-looking enough and slow to modernise.”

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Self-regulatory or not?

• “Continued self-regulation by the (UK) profession is unlikely to restore public confidence in the (UK) actuarial profession.”

• “Independent oversight of the Profession’s self-regulation is the most appropriate regulatory framework.”

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Self regulation – the UK outcome

• Financial Reporting Council (FRC) to provide oversight of regulation of actuarial profession (FRC already does this for accountancy)

• POBA (Prof. Oversight Body for Accountancy) to oversee actuarial education and CPD

• New Actuarial Standards Board (reporting to FRC) to set technical standards

• Actuarial profession to “continue to set ethical standards of conduct provided that the FRC feels this to be appropriate.”

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C. Strategic plan

• 5 year horizon. Where do we want to be?

• Approved by Board in Nov 2004

• Specific action plans being developed and/or implemented by Councils and Committees

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Four strategic objectives

1. “The actuarial profession will be recognized for its integrity, high standards of practice, and quality of work”.

2. “The Institute will have more public influence and will be recognized as a key player in matters of public policy”.

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Strategic objectives

3. “The Institute will be a stronger organization, evidenced in part by an increase in membership.”

4. “The Institute will act in an efficient and responsive manner.”

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Strategic Objective 1

“The actuarial profession will be recognized for its integrity, high standards of practice, and quality of work”.

To be effective, a profession must show that it understands and responds to the needs of its public; this has always been important , but is particularly so today given events such as Enron and Equitable Life (UK)

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Objective 1 – major initiatives

1. Review Standards of Practice (PSC)

2. Review CPD requirements (Continuing Education Committee)

3. Review discipline procedures (CPC)

4. Review other elements of corporate governance (Board task force)

5. Develop a brand for the profession (MSC)

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Strategic Objective 2

“The Institute will have more public influence and will be recognized as a key player in matters of public policy”.

• Actuaries have the knowledge to make a valuable contribution to public policy issues such as retirement and health care – we have not always done so.

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Objective 2 - background

• Actuarial work is highly technical and not always well understood; to be influential we must improve our communications

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Objective 2 – major initiatives

1. Develop and implement a communications strategy (communications plan approved in late 2004) – MSC and ED

2. Better support government and media relation efforts (MSC and ED)

• Developing set of position statements• Create network of people with good media

training

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Objective 2 - major initiatives (continued)

3. Improve public image

• Actively promote actuarial approach to the Health Care debate

• Articulate the CIA position on key pension issues

• Seek opportunities to communicate the CIA position on other key topics

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Strategic Objective 3

“The Institute will be a stronger organization, evidenced in part by an increase in membership.”

• Limited growth opportunities in some traditional areas of practice, but

• We have skills that can be used in other areas

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Strategic Objective 3 (cont’d)

• If we are strong in Canada we can influence international developments and can take advantage of the opportunities of globalization.

• Long qualification process discourages many potential high quality candidates

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Objective 3 –major initiatives

1. Consolidate position of actuaries in traditional fields by identifying what needs to be done to expand the scope of work done by actuaries (e.g. additional skills training such as communications) EEC

2. Attract bright university graduates with pertinent business and communication skills (EEC)

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Objective 3 – major initiatives (continued)

3. Develop opportunities for actuaries in new areas such as Risk Management

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Strategic Objective 4

“The Institute will act in an efficient and responsive manner.”

We have moved slowly in dealing with key stakeholders such as regulators, in making public statements, and in developing standards of practice – we need to be faster

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Objective 4 – major initiatives

1. Improve organizational effectiveness (Board and all councils)

2. Improve effectiveness of CIA members as volunteers (MSC and ED)

3. Review due process

4. New guidelines approved (April 2005) for making public statements

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D. Some other major CIA developments

• Additional resources at Secretariat

• New logo

• Survey of members

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E. Key issues for the CIA

• Morris Review and Corporate Governance

• Pensions

• International accounting standards – especially for insurance

• Health Care

• Risk Management

• Research

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Research

• “The (UK) profession has been too insular, with insufficient contact with other professions and too narrow a professional training, and has been too slow to adopt new approaches and techniques …”(Interim report, Morris Review, Dec 2004)

• Financial economics

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Questions and comments?