Category Archives: Future of the Profession

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 »

Every Year is an Election Year at the CAS!

The United States presidential election is upon us. As an actuary, I find statistics interesting and recently read that voter turnout rates for U.S. presidential elections has been between 50-60 percent over the past decade. In comparison, here at the CAS, only around one-third of all eligible voters cast a ballot when CAS election season … Read more »

Three Considerations for Career Opportunities

In my address to new members at the 2016 Spring Meeting, I offered three emerging trends that new members should consider as they pursue future career opportunities. Disruption in our industry will continue and will do so at an exponential pace. Some of these disruptions will take the form of technology firms entering the insurance … Read more »

The Staff Actuary’s Blog: The CAS Institute

Not surprisingly, one of the many things I’m helping with, in my month-old position as CAS Staff Actuary, is the development of The CAS Institute and its credentialing programs, beginning with a data science and predictive analytics credential.  This is an initiative for which I was delighted to have cast an approving vote last year … Read more »

The Internet-of-Things and Actuarial Engineering

Should property-casualty actuarial science be considered an engineering specialty? Thanks to the Internet of Things (IoT) revolution, there are compelling reasons to consider aligning ourselves with engineers. According to Wikipedia, the Internet of Things is “the network of physical objects or ‘things’ embedded with electronics, software, sensors and network connectivity, which enables these objects to … 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 »

#CAStyourballot – Vote in the CAS Elections

Did you know:  Only one-third of all eligible voters cast a ballot each year in the CAS elections? This year, with only two weeks to go, just 20% have voted. As an organization, I am confident that we can do better.  And I know our voters like a good challenge. After all, we all took … Read more »

Considerations for the Casualty Actuarial Profession in 2015

Thanks to all who posted comments about challenges over the last year. For review of the many responses that showed up on the CAS website I recommend you view the CAS Risk Management Committee’s (RMC) two previous blog posts: Challenges to the Actuarial Profession in 2014 and Threats to the Actuarial Profession (written in 2012). … Read more »

Why Should the CAS Exist?

At a CAS Board meeting last August, Board Member Jessica Leong posed a strategic question: “Why does the CAS exist?” Leong told the Board about author Simon Sinek’s TED Talk inspired by his book, “Start with Why.” Sinek observes how successful organizations communicate and sell themselves and believes that many organizations communicate in questions in … Read more »