President’s Report to Members – September 2018 Council Meeting

President Andrea Gluyas and Vice President John Smeed of the NZ Society of Actuaries provided an update on NZ’s focus and activities and attended part of the Council meeting. Councillor Michael O’Neill resigned from Council due to work commitments. Council thanked him for his service on Council over the last two and a half years.

CEO’s report

An update on communications and marketing, public policy and event activities were provided. A Royal Commission Working Group has been closely monitoring the Commission’s activities and will determine what it means for the different practice areas. The 2019 CPD tour will examine the learnings from the Royal Commission and focus on what it means to be a professional. Global developments of other international actuarial associations were reviewed. The 2018 Council strategy meeting will focus on how we increase the right supply of students, how we increase the demand for Actuaries and how we retain members by providing a strong member value proposition.

Education Strategy Review and CPD update

The first two subjects of the Education Strategy review are currently being developed. The key success factors for the monitoring of the Education Strategy Review implementation phase were approved. These fall into four main categories: subject development quality and milestones; stakeholder consultation, governance and policies; and risk and budget management.

ICA 2022

Daniel Smith, Martin Stevenson and Fred Rowley spoke to a comprehensive paper outlining plans for the hosting of the ICA2022. This included financial, marketing, risk and sponsorship considerations as well as outlining the support from senior members of our profession. The Council enthusiastically support the ICA2022. It is a large undertaking and there will be a call out to members to obtain future volunteer support.

Council will set up a steering committee who can provide oversight of the organising committee to Council.

International committee

Council thanked outgoing International Council Committee convenor Martin Stevenson for his significant contribution over the last five years. The new structure that came into place in late 2017 is working well. Communications have increased and the committees have a strong focus on Asia and IAA activities. The new Convenor will be ex-President Bozenna Hinton.

Education update

Council discussed the low pass rates for three subjects – 2A Life Insurance, 3A General Insurance and 5B investment Management and Finance. Chief examiners advised the poor results were due to a lack of understanding of technical components and key concepts. Steps taken to address these issues include updating the syllabus and teaching materials as part of the Education Strategy Review and the Part III improvement project.

Code of conduct Taskforce update

Rob Daly Convenor of the Code of Conduct taskforce provided an update. The draft Code was discussed with members at an insights session on 24 July and 12 members provided written feedback. The taskforce met recently to review the feedback and will recommend material changes to the draft code in the area around conflicts of interest. It is intended the next draft will be presented to Council at the March 2019 Council meeting. A new taskforce will be formed to take on the role of guidance and training to support the code of conduct.

Practice and Council committee reports

Health Practice Committee: Convenor Nick Stolk briefed Council on the activities of the committee. The Future of Health Seminar is well received and attracts approximately 100 delegates. The HPC are keen to grow this and do more in the future on media follow ups post the seminar. There is a Green Paper currently being drafted that looks at the current intergenerational issues facing Private Health Insurance.

Public Policy Council Committee: Council thanked Michael Rice, who has advised he will step down as Convenor at the end of the year, for his contribution to the PPCC. Michael advised the committee is working well with two green papers in train on Aged Pension and Private Health Insurance, as well as a number of Dialogue papers. There have been several significant superannuation submissions throughout the year and strong engagement between the Actuaries Institute and Regulators, Government and the Productivity Commission.

Professional Standards Committee: Elaine Collins provided a report on the activities of Professional Standards Committee. There has been a lot of activity surrounding the code of conduct review and the APRA appointed actuary changes. Due to this increase in the number of standards being reviewed, the committee is keen to get increased assistance. A new position in HQ will be established to provide stronger support to the Professional Standards Council Committee.

Key appointments

Eilis Hurley, Annie Tay and Timothy Lee have been appointed to the Audit and Risk Council Committee.

Professional standards

The following decisions were made regarding professional standards:

Practice Guidelines

PG 5 Actuarial Practice in relation to Insurer Enterprise Risk Models be released to members.

HQ success stories

CEO Elayne Grace gave an overview of some of the achievements since the last Council meeting including Education transition communications, improved automated renewal process, New Data Analytics Weapons of Mass Deduction competition and the video ‘Ask the Executives’ from the Financial Services Forum.

Next meeting

The next Council meeting is on 5 December 2018.

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

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