SOA’s international outreach

I’m a little slow noting this, but SOA President Bradley Smith blogged about the proposal to add a property-casualty track this week. He asserts fairly clearly that the move is pointed at international concerns: For us to meet the needs of our growing member and candidate base outside the U.S. and Canada, we must offer [...]

SOA declares war on CAS

Feel free to comment on how my headline exaggerates, but first read: The Society of Actuaries (SOA) will begin offering an exam track in general (property-casualty) insurance in 2013, ensuring that the SOA is providing options covering all actuarial disciplines to earning the Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA) designation. The SOA Board of [...]

CAS seeks new review of exam process

Been meaning to return to the controversy over CAS exams after my post a couple of weeks ago. But stuff kept getting in the way (like work). Now CAS President Pat Teufel has reopened the issue with this letter (re-posted at the CAS Roundtable with space for comment). Sounding, to my reading, seriously bummed about [...]

A couple of tips for the actuarial job hunter

Sometimes college students and other job seekers wander by these parts, so I’d like to pass along a promising site for how to network your way to a job. The blogger is a sports reporter, one of the tougher industries to get into. Her tips make sense. My favorite concerns using business cards at a [...]

Fortune favors an actuary

Via Claire Wilkinson at the III blog, a young actuary makes good. Really good: As I was sitting in the doctor’s waiting room the other day leafing through the latest issue of Fortune magazine, I couldn’t help but notice Fortune’s 40 under 40. This annual ranking highlights the hottest young stars in business across the [...]

Where the jobs are

Via Kevin Drum, I see the Wall Street Journal collected 2010 Census data on college majors. I sorted the data for the lowest unemployment rate. Here are results, with an arrow to help you find actuarial science: We’ll call that good news for the profession. The $81K median starting salary looks pretty good, too.

CAS joins the CERA party

CAS Recognized as CERA Award Signatory. As announced in August, the CAS requirements to qualify for the CERA designation include CAS Associateship requirements plus credit for CAS Exams 7 and 9, or attainment of the CAS Fellowship designation, plus participation in a rigorous three-day seminar and successful completion of the U.K. ST-9 Enterprise Risk Management [...]

S&P’s mistake: A lesson for actuaries

The Treasury Department outlines the $2 trillion error S&P made in its modeling of future U.S. budget deficits. It’s pretty basic. But the saga holds an important lesson for actuaries and other quants. The Congressional Budget Office prepares two main scenarios of future budgets, with optimistic and pessimistic assumptions on government growth. Under the optimistic [...]

Solvency II: Internal models shrink capital needs, QIS5 results show

EIOPA summarizes the results of QIS5 in press release here (pdf). Compared to the calculation under Solvency I standards, insurance groups have €86 billion less surplus capital available, which is a reduction of 44%. However, the QIS5 exercise demonstrated that this effect would be largely absorbed if insurance groups apply internal models and transitional measures [...]

Help select Actuary of the Year – vote now!

Too often we actuaries think of ourselves as the little guy. But some of us do great things. So now, an award for those who touched greatness: Actuary of the Year. Make your choice below. Below the fold is a little about each nominee, courtesy of Liz Lynch (my wife), who blogs about genealogy at [...]