• Roger R. Heath:  The next questions to be addressed are, "What responsibilities do actuaries have?
  • Do they have a responsibility to promote regulation, or legislation, or to oppose such action?
  • Do answers differ, depending upon whether actuaries are employed by insurers, by consulting firms, or by governmental agencies?
  • What part of the actuarial profession, or what other professional bodies, should play a role in answering these questions?"
• William C. Koenig: Actuaries do have a responsibility to deal with these questions, if only for self-preservation.
  • Rightly or wrongly, we are thought to be the brains behind the insurance operation.
  • I believe we have a responsibility to deal with these questions because we seek to be a profession.
  • If we wash our hands of this issue by claiming that our only responsibility is to disclose to company management the actuarial niceties of the illustration assumptions, their implications, etc., then we are admitting that we are merely mechanics taking mathematical orders from our superiors without regard to our ultimate public, the buyers of our products.
    • In my opinion, these buyers give actuaries 99% credibility (even if they only have 1% visibility).
  • I have already seen examples of marketing pieces that defend the company's illustrations as having been reviewed by an actuary, and found to be reasonable.
    • The public does not understand the distinction we are tempted to make in our own minds, that the product of our efforts, upon which we are judged, and for which we need standards, is presented to an intermediary who can do whatever they want with our work.
  • We cannot pretend to be a profession if we seek to distance ourselves, and the standards imposed upon our work, from the products that are ultimately delivered to a trusting public.

1991 - SOA - Disclosure Systems: Can an Ideal Method be Found?, Society of Actuaries - 22p