1999 Annual Meeting Highlights

San Francisco, Ca.—More than 900 people, including 667 CAS members, attended the CAS Annual Meeting held here November 14-17, 1999, making this gathering one of the most highly attended CAS meetings. Steven G. Lehmann, 1999 CAS president, presided over the meeting, which featured several outstanding sessions ranging from Internet and e-commerce exposure to commercial lines deregulation. Nine Proceedings papers were also presented.

Steve Lehmann presents Alice Gannon with the CAS presidential gavel.

At the annual business session, held Monday, November 15, the CAS honored 51 new Associates who were inducted as members and 124 new Fellows (see photos, pages 10-12). Former CAS president (1971), LeRoy J. Simon, addressed the new members relating that it was "easier to become an actuary than to be one" (see Simon's address, page 13).

Steve Lehmann (left) presents John Muetterties with the Rodermund Service Award.

The CAS also honored award winners during the business session. John H. Muetterties was awarded the Matthew Rodermund Service Award for his significant volunteer contributions to the actuarial profession. Muetterties, a Fellow since 1956, first began serving on CAS committees in 1964. Most notably, Muetterties served on the Distribution of Losses, Long Range Planning, and Professional Conduct Committees. He was a member of the Education and Examination Committee from 1965 to 1970, and a consultant to the committee from 1974 to 1985. Muetterties also was a director on the CAS Board from 1971 to 1973. Muetterties is the author of "Underwriting Profits Necessary to Keep Pace with the Increasing Premium Growth for Property/Casualty Companies," which was published in the 1979 Discussion Paper Program.

Stephen J. Mildenhall won the 1999 Woodward-Fondiller Prize for his paper, "A Systematic Relationship Between Minimum Bias Methods and Generalized Linear Models." Mildenhall's paper is published in the 1998 edition of the Proceedings and can be found on the CAS Web Site at www.casact.org/education/sprngmtg/99/pcas/index.htm. The Woodward-Fondiller Prize is awarded to a Fellow or Associate who has attained his or her designation within the last five years.

Gary G. Venter was awarded the 1999 CAS Dorweiler Prize for his paper, "Testing the Assumption of Age to Age Factors." Venter's paper will be published in the 1999 edition of the Proceedings and can be found on the CAS Web Site at www.casact.org/pubs/proceed/proceed98/index.htm.

Gary Venter (right), 1999 Dorweiler Prize winner, acccepts his award from Gary Jospehson (left).

After the business session, the audience heard from Gloria Borger, contributing editor to U.S. News and World Report and a regular panelist on the PBS program Washington Week in Review. Borger spoke about her beat as a political reporter, thoroughly entertaining the crowd with her political wit. Speaking about President Bill Clinton's seeming political invincibility, Borger quipped, "If Bill Clinton were the Titanic the iceberg would sink!"

Following the Monday morning activities, 1999 CAS President Steven G. Lehmann delivered a luncheon address to attendees. Lehmann focused his remarks on several trends in the business world including mergers and acquisitions, competition with MBAs and financial engineers, emerging technology, and globalization.

Lehmann predicted a continual "blurring of lines" between insurance companies and organizations offering other financial services. "Many insurance products are already a mixture of traditional insurance and financial products," said Lehmann. "It remains to be seen who will come out on top in these mergers. If it's the banks it is critical to our future that the bankers and investment people become familiar with actuaries and what we can do for them."

Dealing with mergers and acquisitions and keeping up with technological advances were concerns for Lehmann. While he characterized mergers and acquisitions as not being "a big problem for actuaries in the past," he cautioned that they could have an impact on actuarial positions. He reasoned that the smaller number of insurance companies could eliminate or consolidate existing actuarial positions, thus lessening the number of actuarial jobs. Lehmann also warned that actuaries must be at the forefront of technological advances or face "the danger of irrelevance."

In concluding his speech, Lehmann proposed several initiatives for CAS to prepare for the new millennium. First, he suggested that CAS take a cue from its successful efforts to educate members about dynamic financial analysis and mobilize research and education efforts into nontraditional practice areas. Second, he proposed making the CAS education program more like MBA programs with emphasis on team building, negotiation, and communication skills. Lehmann added that the CAS "must find a way to shorten our examination system, particularly in the basic education area to rely more on universities, without lowering our standards or giving up examination on key areas of actuarial practice." Third, Lehmann proposed developing additional strategic planning tools for actuaries that can be applied to the financial services industry.

"If we can do these things, I firmly believe the future will be bright indeed for casualty actuaries," said Lehmann. "It will expand our actuarial horizons and allow actuaries to move into roles of strategic planning and other leadership positions in the insurance and financial services businesses and it will make our profession more attractive to the best math and business students."