Actuarial Education and Research Fund to Finance Actuarial Case Study Series

The Actuarial Education and Research Fund (AERF) (www.aerf.org) and The Actuarial Foundation (www.actuarialfoundation.org) have recently authorized funding to create an "Actuarial Case Study Series." The AERF Board of Directors will oversee this process. As this board has two directors from each North American actuarial organization (Gary Josephson and Bob Miccolis represent the CAS), all areas of actuarial practice should be covered. The individual completed case studies will be distributed electronically, with the possibility of future print distribution.

Case study authors and reviewers are needed to make this project a success. Ideally, each case study will be a collaborative effort between a practicing actuary and an academic correspondent. To encourage this, the AERF will maintain a list of practicing actuaries and academics who seek to develop partnerships. Single-author cases are also welcome, but please keep in mind that cases involving routine methodological applications (for example, automation of loss development factor selections) will receive lower priority. Similarly, applications involving the most recent techniques but lacking a serious business context are not suitable for the actuarial case study series. Guidance in the development of case studies will be available to case study authors via an editorial board.

This series will benefit the profession in both professional and academic settings. For academics, selected cases will help teachers to enliven classes by exposing students to real-life situations. For professionals, the cases may introduce novel applications of methods to problems that they commonly encounter. The case studies series can also serve as a repository to support actuarial educational efforts, such as CAS continuing education requirements.

To become involved in the process for creating and/or reviewing proposals, please contact Judy Yore (business manager of AERF) at the Society of Actuaries office (jyore@soa.org). She maintains a list of individuals interested in creating case studies and can provide the request for proposals that describes the desired case study format. Further questions may be addressed to Edward W. (Jed) Frees at jfrees@bus.wisc.edu or Stuart Klugman at stuart.klugman@drake.edu.