What’s happening at the CIA?
Charles McLeod
June 2, 2005
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What I’ll cover
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
What constitutes a profession?
Morris Review of UK actuarial profession
The CIA Strategic Plan
Some other major CIA developments
Key issues for the CIA
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About the CIA
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•
•
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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?
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