Category Archives: Professional Education

Emerging Concerns of Workers Compensation for Insurers and Actuaries

A concurrent session at the CAS Annual Meeting in November 2016 explored the impact of the costs of prescription drugs on workers compensation (WC) medical costs, including: the estimated accident year 2014 prescription drug share of WC medical costs, the impact of price and utilization changes on prescription drug costs, the potential drug cost savings … Read more »

How Do Actuaries Preserve Their Market Value?

In the 1990s, we wondered how actuaries would preserve their market value when competing with product managers. In the 2000s, some wondered if CFAs would encroach upon our territory. Others viewed the SOA general insurance track as a danger. Today, data scientists are our newest “threat.” There are two fundamental facts to keep in mind. … Read more »

The CAS University Award Program: Celebrating Property and Casualty Achievement

When I was an undergraduate actuarial student at the University of Michigan in the early 1990’s, I didn’t realize that property and casualty actuarial work existed separate and distinct from the life insurance field. In fact, it was the first day of my actuarial internship, the summer before my senior year in college, when I discovered … Read more »

New CAS Institute to Offer Specialty Credentials

As I announced on November 16 at the CAS Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, during the CAS Board of Directors meeting held on November 15, the Board unanimously approved the formation of The CAS Institute, which will provide credentialing and professional education for technical quantitative specialists whose work often overlaps and supports that of actuaries. The … Read more »

Access Resources to Advance Your Technical Skills

Big Data has officially arrived, and it’s changing the way business works, including actuarial science, wrote David Zornek, an actuarial consultant at Oliver Wyman, in the most recent issue of the Actuarial Review. Zornek, who is also a candidate representative to the CAS Candidate Liaison Committee, highlighted a variety of resources that actuaries can use … Read more »

First CAS Interactive Live Stream Event a Resounding Success

This year, the Casualty Actuarial Society introduced live streaming to our professional education events. The live streaming format was piloted at the 2015 Casualty Loss Reserves Seminar (CLRS) in Atlanta, GA. The program streamed a keynote address and four concurrent sessions as they happened at the seminar. The pilot was a resounding success and will … Read more »

Five New Ways You Can Earn CE Hours Starting in 2015

The CAS Interactive Online Education Committee is busy developing several online courses on the topics of: Introduction to R Introduction to Stochastic Reserving Statistics for Reserve Variability Statistics for Predictive Modeling Bayesian MCMC The self-paced, interactive online courses will allow actuaries to participate in virtual, hands-on education that is designed with adult learning principles. The Committee’s … Read more »

Wanted: Actuary with Predictive Modeling Experience

Does your actuarial training make you attractive to employers looking for someone to join their predictive analytics team? Why would they hire you over, say, a PhD in statistics? This was an important question for me personally, as I was looking to break into the world of predictive analytics. And yes! Success! I’m 6 months … Read more »

What are Your Highlights from the CAS Centennial Celebration and Annual Meeting?

As the CAS moves forward in its Centennial year to address the many challenges that lie ahead, I want to take a moment to reflect on the kick-off to the year – the Centennial Celebration and Annual Meeting held last month in New York City. The Centennial Committees who put together the event did a … Read more »

A Successful Year for the Continuing Education Review

The Continuing Education Compliance Committee (CECC) has completed the 2014 Continuing Education review and is happy to report that all members selected for review either met or exceeded the requirements! This year, about 1% of membership was randomly selected for review, which is about 70 members.  The members of the Executive Council and Board of … Read more »