Richard Fein, PhD, FCAS, MAAA

The Chief Actuary

This critical role has evolved and has been broadened as the environment changes and the required skills have adapted to those changes. In light of that, I prepared a list of Key Performance Characteristics of the Chief Actuary's position and the Chief Actuary as a manager of professionals. The attachment contains those criteria and can be used to measure the risk and performance of the position and support team. They are not intended to replace any of the professional requirements, Codes of Conduct or any of the Standards of Practice. They supplement those and are intended to focus on the management responsibilities. Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Analytics

The standards of practice and established principles provide the basis for appropriate preparation and presentation of our work products. But business and public life can be far more complex offering ambiguity in the application of those standards and principles. Many of these are displayed in the CAS publication of the Actuarial Review (AR) as prepared by the Committee on Professionalism Education (COPE.) As part of COPE, I prepared many such discussions and recommend that all new and experienced actuaries follow these in the AR issues.

Professionalism

An actuary is part of a profession that has a long history in business and public service. Being accepted as a profession means that the public and our employers and colleagues have granted us the permission to perform our services with all of the trust that goes along with it. Actuaries earn that trust by taking personal responsibility for ethical and professional behaviors in every aspect of our work and in every document and analysis we produce that has our signature and professional designation, FCAS, Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society, on it.
With that designation come the specific responsibilities. These are spelled out in the Standards of Practice developed and promulgated by the Actuarial Standards Board and the CAS Principles for specific work products as well as the Code of Professional Conduct. We take these requirements seriously as they are the foundation on which the public and our employers rely that we live up to requirements of a profession and establish the credibility we want and need.