Society of Actuaries Invited Session

Speakers

John W. Robinson FSA, FCA, MAAA, SOA President-Elect
Stuart A. Klugman, FSA, CERA, PhD, SOA Senior Staff Fellow, Education
Steven Siegel, ASA, SOA Senior Practice Research Actuary

New opportunities and initiatives are growing at the Society of Actuaries. This session will cover an update on SOA education activities, including recent and future changes to the qualification pathway. The SOA will also highlight student opportunities for new micro-credentials, and the variety of affiliate memberships the SOA has to offer. Key highlights of research projects will be covered, including important new topics from our DEI research program and our growing focus on Catastrophe and Climate research, as well as upcoming opportunities from the SOA Research Institute. Come and hear from key SOA staff and officers.

Professionalism and You

Speaker: Nancy Behrens, F.S.A., M.A.A.A.

Actuarial professionalism has never been more important!

Because many of the people who benefit from the work of actuaries have a scant understanding of what actuaries do or why it matters to them, actuarial professionalism is very important in maintaining the public trust. End-users of the work of actuaries include employers, clients and, most importantly, all of those individuals who benefit from actuarial work that is of the highest quality. These beneficiaries include insurance customers and claimants, pension plan participants, participants in government social programs, and many others.

This interactive session will give attendees an opportunity to:

- Develop a deeper understanding of actuarial professionalism,
- Learn about actuaries’ responsibilities concerning professionalism, and
- Consider how the actions of individual actuaries can impact the public’s perception of actuaries.

Nancy Behrens is involved in a wide range of professionalism forums within the actuarial profession and frequently speaks to actuarial clubs and other groups on professionalism topics. She serves as a facilitator for the SOA Fellowship Admissions Course as well as the Associateship Professionalism Course. She chairs the newly formed Academy Committee on Education and she is a past member of the Academy Committee on Professional Responsibility as well as the Actuarial Board for Counseling and Discipline.

Related to the academic community, Nancy served on the Center of Actuarial Excellence Evaluation Committee and is currently serving as the Chair of the Early Career Award Selection Committee. She will also be an External Examiner for the newly approved University Earned Credit program for the Centers of Actuarial Excellence.

Nancy is retired from her role as a Vice President for State Farm Insurance, where she served as the chief actuary for the life and health businesses.

Casualty Actuarial Society Invited Sessions

Race and Insurance Pricing Research – Exploring Discrimination, Disparate Impact, and More

Speakers

- Ken Williams, FCAS, CAS Staff Actuary
- Roosevelt Mosley, FCAS, CSPA, principal and consulting actuary with Pinnacle Actuarial Resources; CAS President-Elect

As the insurance industry focuses attention on potential racial bias across all practice areas, actuaries are being called to understand and assess the issues and develop solutions. This session will provide an overview of four new research briefs commissioned as part of the Casualty Actuarial Society’s Approach to Race and Insurance Pricing. Defining Discrimination in Insurance presents key terminology being used in the industry debate on race and insurance, such as protected class, fair and unfair discrimination, proxy discrimination and disparate impact. Methods for Quantifying Discriminatory Effects on Protected Classes in Insurance explores the issue of disparate impact and compares several potential statistical methods that actuaries can apply to measure fairness in the context of insurance rating. Approaches to Address Racial Bias in Financial Services: Lessons for the Insurance Industry provides insight into issues of racial bias in lending practices for financial services. Understanding Potential Influences of Racial Bias on P&C Insurance: Four Rating Factors Explored examines how rating factors and the data underlying insurance pricing models may be impacted by racially biased policies and practices outside of insurance.

Beyond Excel: A Critical Examination of the Actuarial Toolkit

Speaker: Brian Fannin, ACAS, CSPA, CAS Research Actuary

It is well known in the insurance industry that Microsoft Excel is wildly popular amongst actuaries. However, its widespread usage is difficult to explain on the basis of cost, analytic feature set, or performance; spreadsheets are outclassed on one or more of those metrics by many different tools. Instead, Excel is often chosen as the result of operational decisions meant to accommodate non-actuarial stakeholders. When seen in this light, it’s possible for an organization to think critically about alternate solutions. We explore several options which enable actuaries to construct more powerful, informative models, while preserving the user experience for other constituencies. Presentation will reference results from the First Annual CAS Actuarial Technology Survey, which had over 1,200 respondents provide insight into their preferred technology tools, including self-reported proficiency levels, technology barriers, preferred techniques, and areas of improvement.

InsurTech Invited Session

Speaker: Scot Barton, VP of Product, Carpe Data

Valuable insurance data, models and insights have often gone unused, neglected, or relegated to sitting on the preverbal shelf. Join Scot Barton, former Head of Analytics at Farmers Insurance, as he reveals how and why to make data and insights actionable and not just interesting.

Actuarial Educators Forum

The Actuarial Educators Forum will be an opportunity for Educators to openly discuss issues of interest. Areas to be discussed include:

- Changes in the requirements of the SOA, CAS, and CIA
- SOA’s University Earned Credit and CIA’s University Accreditation Program
- Necessary curriculum changes
- Challenges of this new environment
- Advising our students through the new reality

Discussing the “I” of DEI and How It Impacts You, Your Colleagues, and Your Students

A lot of attention has gone towards discussing the importance of diversity in academics and in the workplace. In this session, we focus on “Inclusion” and its benefits. We will discuss “how” to go about getting included yourself, as well as the benefits of including others. Our panel will bring in their personal expertise in navigating their careers to provide perspective to help others. We hope that those in attendance will share their own experiences so that we can benefit from everyone who attends the session.