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December 17, 2004
Review proposes actuarial shake-up in UK -- Open for discussion, comment below
A government-sponsored review of the actuaries in the UK has slammed the profession – finding among other things a concentration of advice to the largest pension funds and a possible restriction of competition.
The Treasury said of the report: “The profession overall has been too insular and slow to adapt to changing circumstances; there has been insufficient transparency in actuarial advice; there has been inadequate scrutiny, challenge and market-testing of actuarial advice by users: such as some pension fund trustees.”
There was “a lack of clarity about the accountability of actuaries to the wider public interest”.
Sir Derek Morris has been conducting a review of the actuarial profession in the UK. Today he published an interim report. So far it doesn't look good for the home team.
Some of the highlights of the UK actuarial profession include:
- the profession overall has been too insular and slow to adapt to changing circumstances;
- there has been insufficient transparency in actuarial advice;
- there has been inadequate scrutiny, challenge and market-testing of actuarial advice by users: such as some pension fund trustees and Boards of insurers;
- there has been a lack of clarity about the accountability of actuaries to the wider public interest;
- in the past the educational syllabus has failed to take full account of developments in actuarial and non-actuarial thinking;
- professional standards have been weak, ambiguous or too limited in range; and perceived as too influenced by commercial interests;
- self-regulation has not been sufficient to address these issues.
"On the other, it's troubling and embarrassing that government intervention even seems as potentially
needed in order to continue the evolution of the profession. If intervention is perceived as required in the U.K., why wouldn't it also be so perceived in the U.S.?" - Mike A.
He goes on with one suggestion to hold an "open forum" at the next round of CAS and affiliate meetings to give actuaries the opportunity to freely discuss the points raised by Sir Morris.
This article will be left open to comments on what you feel about this issue, and what you think should be done in response to this report by Sir Derek Morris.
You can download the full report here (pdf).
You can find more info on the report at http://www.morrisreview.org.uk.
Posted by Tom Troceen