Annual Leadership Meeting Focuses on Perspectives

PHILADELPHIA, Pa.—CAS leaders met here on March 29 to discuss "External Perspectives on Casualty Actuaries," the theme of the annual CAS Leadership Meeting.  CAS President-elect Bob Conger conducted the meeting, which featured two panel discussions, with "consumers" of and "future suppliers" of casualty actuarial services.  The CAS leaders in attendance were committee chairs, Regional Affiliate presidents, exam committee general officers and part chairs, and members of the Executive Council.  After the panel discussion, attendees conferred in breakout sessions to consider the external perspectives presented by panelists, identified gaps between desired and actual perceptions, and proposed solutions to close these gaps.  The breakout sessions addressed many issues.  The content of the sessions was recorded and compiled into a summary report for the CAS Executive Council.  

In the first panel discussion, Mavis Walters questioned a group of actuarial consumers about their views of casualty actuaries.  Panelists included Bruce Bassman, executive vice president of Harleysville Insurance Companies; Gregory Murphy, President and COO of Selective Insurance Group; and George Reider, former insurance commissioner for the state of Connecticut.  

Two themes of the first panel discussion were actuaries' desire for precision and occasional conflicts with the desires of CEOs.  Walters suggested that there are times when CEOs want ballpark figures, but actuaries want to provide precise answers and are not always comfortable providing quick estimates.  Murphy concurred and cited DFA as an example of how actuaries can show direction, not necessarily a point estimate.  Some of the panelists found actuaries to be too task oriented.  One panelist suggested that actuaries develop more teambuilding and communication skills, particularly with nonactuaries.  Reider spoke about how he uses actuaries to train and educate staff.

In the second panel discussion, moderated by Jerry Degerness, the focus was the supply of casualty actuaries from the standpoint of students considering actuarial careers and an educator promoting the profession.  Degerness was joined by Bonnie Averbach, professor at Temple University; Sean Devlin, assistant vice president for American Re and recent CAS Fellow (FCAS 2000); Joseph Gravelle, a student at Temple University; and Monica Herenstein, actuarial analyst for Legion Insurance Company and CAS candidate.

Herenstein and Gravelle touched on how actuarial internships helped them to understand the profession more fully.  As interns, they were able to get a substantial amount of hands-on experience as well as a diverse introduction to actuarial work.  Unlike many other professional internships, very little of their time was spent making photocopies or getting coffee.

In the first breakout sessions, attendees discussed how consumers of actuarial services perceived desired and actual traits of the actuarial profession.  Some of the desired perceptions included "actuaries are valued advisors in business decisions" and "actuaries understand and address broader business issues."  Actual perceptions differed, however: actuaries are perceived as advisors, not as decision makers, and they are perceived as math-oriented number crunchers with no business orientation.  To address these gaps in perception, attendees suggested several public relations-type solutions, such as publicizing some actuarial success stories and some of the roles that actuaries play.

The attendees identified several desired perceptions of actuarial careers, such as "professional credentials and prestige," "progressive career track," "dynamic opportunities," and "diverse practices areas."  In contrast, actual perceptions are that the actuarial profession is not well-known, the credentialing process is discouragingly long, and other higher-paying jobs are available to students with good math and business skills.  

As solutions to the gap between desired and actual perceptions, attendees proposed several ideas to market the profession to students.  These included marketing "the attractiveness and uniqueness of attaining a professional designation through an exam process"—equivalent to "graduate school without the student loan," "work-study," or a "self-directed learning process."  Other solutions included making students aware of the diverse opportunities available to casualty actuaries through outreach programs and conducting exit interviews with those who leave the exam system.