President’s report to members – June 2019 Deep Dive Strategy Day and Council Meeting

Welcome

This is my second report updating members on the decisions made by Council at our last meeting on 11 and 12 June 2019.  Both were busy with lengthy discussion on several agenda items.  

Deep Dive Strategy Day

Council held a deep dive day that focused on the actuarial value proposition, data analytics and CPD in order to inform our future strategy.

A proposed actuarial value proposition and social purpose proposition were discussed and will be developed further so that they can be rolled out throughout communications and events. This will deliver a stronger brand through  consistency of our messaging and a strong elevator pitch

There was a broad ranging session on data analytics, spanning our value proposition, what success looks like, post-qualification education and CPD and partnering opportunities. The discussion on value proposition covered statements like trustworthy and professional; thought leadership; more than financial services; actionable insights; business knowledge; strategy; technical expertise; big data and complexity.

The final part of the deep dive day was dedicated to our future CPD strategy. This included consideration of member feedback, analysis of which types of CPD are most popular and our current plans. There are over 800 pieces of CPD produced in a year and there are some major technological changes happening this year such as the CPD Knowledge Hub and the personalised dashboard. However, there are still areas that could be improved such as more ‘top-down’ planning and improved balance between technical, professional and topical issues. A committee will be set up to investigate how CPD can be improved through the development of a clear strategy, governance model, principles and vision.

CEO Report

Elayne reported that HQ had an extremely busy and productive last quarter with events, education operations and new education material, public policy publications, and professional standards.  Council commended Elayne on the enormous amount of work done, including the successful delivery of the 2019 Actuaries Summit, held on 3 and 4 June, which was well organised and received good feedback.  Elayne will report back to the September meeting on the Institute’s priorities and potential opportunities to reduce the HQ workload.

The Asia CPD Tour to be held in late June, will take in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.  The President, CEO and Asian Liaison Manager will participate in all three cities and Ian Laughlin, 2018 Actuary of the Year, and Council Member Steve Hui will join the Hong Kong leg of the tour. 

Elayne discussed the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission investigation and the actions it has asked the Actuaries Institute to undertake regarding anti-discrimination laws. Chris Dolman, Convenor of the new anti-discrimination Group will attend the September Council Meeting to report on the Group’s activities.

Council also discussed the importance of seizing the opportunity of the Royal Commission and ensuring members were aware of the call to action at the Actuaries Summit by John Lonsdale, APRA. 

Education strategy review implementation update

This session was used to discuss the results for the first semester of 2019 in detail, for both existing and ‘new’ subjects, and considered advice from the Education Council Committee and the Board of Examiners.  Council were disappointed to see that some pass rates were lower than in previous semesters, but following extensive discussion and a follow-up meeting, Council was satisfied  that all the assessment processes had been followed, under the leadership of experienced examination teams.

Council was briefed on strategies for semester two and noted that the full benefit of the education reforms would be delivered later in the implementation period.

ICA 2022 Steering Committee update

Cr Annette King reported that progress is mostly on track with one sponsor having confirmed verbally already and another to potentially to confirm later this month.  The Steering Committee remains focused on ensuring sufficient resources and energy for the successful delivery of this Congress.  The budget for ICA2022 was approved.

See what we see campaign

The second 2019 See what we see campaign will feature two groups of three actuaries in C-Suite and Chief Risk Officer roles.  All are high profile individuals and the selected participants were approved for inclusion by the Public Policy Council Committee and the Presidential Committee.  The invitations have gone out to the proposed participants and we will await their response. The second 2019 campaign will go live in Sept/Oct.

September Strategy Day

Senior Vice President Hoa Bui outlined the proposed agenda for the upcoming Council Strategy Day scheduled for 10 September 2019.  Discussion will include reviewing the strategic goals for 2020 to ensure they are still appropriate and, reviewing the following key items that may influence the 2021–2023 strategy:

• Global Situation 
• Response to Royal Commission 
• Asia
• Data Analytics and CPD

The December 2019 and March 2020 Council meetings will be used to present Council papers to advance ideas and strategic thinking in preparation for next year.

2020 Major Event

The 2020 ‘Brand New Actuaries Summit’ will bring together all our practice areas in a new combined event.  This inaugural event will be held on the Gold Coast in June 2020 over three days. Estelle Pearson will be the Convenor and the Organising Committee for this event will have their first meeting in July 2019.

Global Strategy Update

Several meetings have now been held by the Global Council Subcommittee and the two areas of MRA’s and Trademarks are now complete. The group recently considered the principles by which any partnership decision could be made e.g. benefit to members, sovereignty on certain issues etc as well as some scenarios if no partnership was developed. Next steps are to determine clear Terms of Reference for this group.

Council noted that global developments continue with the CAA global Certified Actuarial Analyst trademark now approved in Australia.  Council will discuss further at the September Strategy Meeting.

Finance Management

Glyn Thomas CFO, will provide Council with an update on the budget projection for 2019 at the September Council Meeting.  This will include the known revenue from semester 2 education courses thereby providing a more accurate forecast for the year.  It was noted that due to the increase in Professionalism Course enrolments, we are significantly ahead of budget.  This will be allocated against future education costs.

The proposed changes to simplify the structure of membership fees was approved.

Acknowledging that the Actuaries Institute is genuinely delivering more, the recommended membership fee increase of 3% rounded to the nearest $10 was approved, effective 1 October 2019.

Committee and Working Groups Update

General Insurance Practice Committee:  Jeremy Waite Convenor, reported that the GIPC strategy was reviewed in September 2018 utilising the Council strategy paper and practice excellence pyramid as a guide to define their strategy.  The following strategic issues were identified – ethical decision making using data and analytics, emerging man made risks and opportunities, climate and weather, policy and standards and other topical issues such as regulatory and Royal Commission.  GIPC’s aim is to make sure actuaries are aware of the strategy and react appropriately.  Key concerns are future proofing and data analytics.  A restructure of GIPC is imminent with a plan to ease the workload of the more senior time-poor members by getting younger members to join the committee and take on some of the work, resulting in greater productivity overall.

Health Practice Committee:  Ignatius Li took over as Convenor in March 2019 having been a member of HPC since 2013.  He identified the following has his three highlights over the last year:

1. Future of Health seminar organisation. The third seminar was held last year in Sydney for the first time. He noted that attendance was lower than in the previous years as most health actuaries are based in Melbourne.
2. The launch of the ‘How to make health insurance healthier’ green paper. This paper explores the challenges of private health insurance in its current form and will be useful for future public policy discussions into the health sector. A new dialogue will also be launched soon
3. The finalisation of a technical paper for APRA on revised capital standards in private health insurance.  Elayne commented that APRA had made a point of thanking the committee for their work on this paper.

Code Guidance Group:  David Minty discussed the proposed mandatory CPD requirements in relation to the new 2020 Code of Conduct.  Following discussion, it was agreed that all Members are required to certify annually at the time of membership renewal from 1 October 2021 that, as part of their CPD that they have completed at least five CPD points of Professional Skills Training in the preceding year.  The Professional Standards Committee has been asked to propose amendments to PS1 to implement this through its regular process for updating professional standards.

Disciplinary Scheme Panel Nominations

The following members were appointed to the Conduct Committee:

The following members were appointed to the Tribunal Panel:

The following members be appointed to the Appeal Board Panel:

ECC Governance Report

The Governance framework was approved and, subject to the requested amendments being made, the Terms of Reference of the Education Strategy Committee were also approved.

The Implementation Plan will be provided to the September Council meeting.

Next meeting

The next Council meeting is on Wednesday 11 September 2019.

Feedback please!

If you would like to provide some feedback or comments, please contact one of your councillors below.

Nicolette Rubinsztein (President)
Hoa Bui (Senior Vice President)
Jefferson Gibbs (Vice President)
Ann-Maree Cook
Andrew Doughman
Jules Gribble
Steve Hui
Annette King
Bill Konstantinidis
David Whittle

Kind regards

Nicolette Rubinsztein
President

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