President’s Report to Members – December 2018 Council Meeting

Council elections

Congratulations to Steve Hui, David Whittle and Jules Gribble who were elected to replace me, Andrew Brown and Chao Qiao as we have finished our terms.  I would like to thank Chao and Andrew for their great service on Council over the last four years.

Election of 2019 Vice President

Cr Jefferson Gibbs was elected as the Institute’s Vice President for 2019 becoming President in 2021. On behalf of the Council, I congratulate Jefferson.

Membership numbers

At the end of October 2017, Institute membership was 4,950, up 3% on the corresponding period last year. Fellows numbered 2,288 (+3%); Associates 689 (+3%) and Students 1,818 (+4%).

CEO’s report

Elayne reported that 2018 had been a productive year. Advancements were achieved in each of the four strategic goals of Deliver quality professional learning; Growth and Diversity; Build brand and community and Build a future proof and professional organisation.

Successful General Insurance, Future of Health and Data Analytics Seminars were all held with work already begun on the 2019 Actuaries Summit, the 2019 Injury and Disability Scheme Seminar and the ICA 2022. Two Green papers on PHI and the Retirement Income design are progressing well. Anthony Lowe will replace Michael Rice as Convenor of PPCC. Thanks go to Michael for his years of service as Convenor of the PPCC.

Council thanked Head of Strategic Projects Sarah Tedesco, who has resigned, for her strong contribution over the last four years to the revised education strategy. We are delighted to advise that Jenny Lyon will take over from Sarah on a 12 month part time contract role as Education Strategy Manager.

Updated Strategy 2019-2020

The 2019-2020 Strategy updated to reflect Council’s considerations at their strategy day was approved. The key projects for the next few years remain the Education Strategy project and the ICA2022.
 

ICA 2022

A Council steering committee, chaired by Councillor Annette King, has been set up to provide oversight of the ICA2022 Organising committee’s activities. The organising committee are gearing up their activities with the conference just three and a quarter year away.

Asian Strategy

Andy Yang and Kitty Chan provided an overview of the activities of the Asia sub-committee over the past year and plans for 2019. 2018 highlights include Under the spotlight Asia Series, bi-monthly Inside Asia newsletter and Podcast series launched; Presidential and CEO Member networking sessions held in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur; Annual joint regional seminar extended to Sydney; Singapore Joint Risk Management Seminar hosted with SOA; fifth GI seminar held in Malaysia with CAS, IFOA and ASM.

Education Strategy Review update

The core reading for the first subject of the new Fellowship Program has been finalised and the subject will commence in January 2019. Mike Callan was commended for his driving of this significant project. The aim of this project is to modernise the education we deliver, improve quality and flexibility and create a sustainable education model. Key success factors will be gathered in the four categories of Strategy, Stakeholder satisfaction, Attraction/retention and Operational and financial. An additional five subjects will be developed next year.

Royal Commission update

John McLenaghan outlined the Institute’s response to the Royal Commission to date and proposed action regarding the release of its final report in February 2019. A Royal Commission Steering Committee has been set up to consider the important issues for the profession to consider. The 2019 CPD tour will examine what it means to be a professional in a post Royal Commission world.

Practice and Council committee reports

Data Analytics Working Group: Convenor Bartosz Piwcewicz briefed Council on the current data analytics landscape and initiatives undertaken this year by the Data Analytics Working Group (DAWG) and young DAWG. Initiatives included the signing off of new Associate data analytics syllabus, ‘Weapons of mass deduction’ competition, record breaking insights sessions and Actuaries Digital articles, successful Data Analytics Seminar and a new monthly newsletter.  A refreshed data analytics strategy was put forward and approved. The DAWG will be renamed the Data Analytics Practice Committee.

Risk Management Practice Committee Convenor Susan Looi gave an overview of the many activities of the committee over the past year. Key activities included contributing to CERA re-accreditation, hosting of Insurance CRO forum and four insight session, Actuaries digital articles, review of professional standards and information notes, Cyber Insurance Working Group, supporting risk register and promotion of the significant role actuaries can play in ERM.

2019 Financial Year Budget

The proposed Institute budget for 2019 was approved. The four major projects currently undertaken by the Institute are Education Strategy Review, CPD development, ICA2022 and the Customer relationship management system standardisation. The 2019 budget continues to set a target of budget neutrality for 2019 and beyond on business as usual services and allows for a deficit of $695k to fund the Education Strategy Review project.

Practice Guidelines

PG 499.07: Additional conflict of interest guidance for Actuaries working in superannuation were approved and released to members with effect 1 January 2019.

Council Election Policy

The proposed amendment to the policy for the conduct of Council Elections to eliminate postal votes and to make increased election data available was approved.

Disciplinary Scheme Update

With the introduction of the revised Disciplinary Scheme it is proposed to review the membership of the Disciplinary Scheme in early 2019.

HQ success stories

CEO Elayne Grace gave an overview of some of the achievements since the last Council meeting including Ministerial interest in our Modern Government Service Delivery Dialogue paper, renewal process improvements, new Mentoring app, relaunch of See what we See campaign and Actuaries Digital, 10,000 podcast listens and the release of the Australian Actuaries Climate Index.

Next meeting

The next Council meeting is on 12 March 2019

Thank you

I have enjoyed my term on Council and this half year as President and am proud of the achievements of the Institute.  I would like to thank my fellow Councillors for their support and efforts, and of course the members who the Institute serves.  Nicolette Rubinsztein will be a great President.

I will keep involved in a number of Institute committee and activities in 2019 and beyond and look forward to catching up with members.

Its been a big year. Have a relaxing break and celebrate your wins.

Feedback please!

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

Barry Rafe (President)
Nicolette Rubinsztein (Senior Vice President)
Hoa Bui  (Vice President)
Andrew Brown
Ann-Maree Cook
Andrew Doughman
Jefferson Gibbs
Annette King
Bill Konstantinidis
Chao Qiao

Kind regards,

Barry Rafe
President

CPD: Actuaries Institute Members can claim two CPD points for every hour of reading articles on Actuaries Digital.