Professionalism forms part of an actuary’s training and ongoing development.

Everyone who joined the Actuarial Profession from 1 July 2004 onwards has to take the Business Awareness Module as part of the qualification process. This Module includes a two-day course and on the second day 3 to 4 hours are devoted to professionalism.

To qualify as an Associate a one-day Professionalism event must be attended.

Once someone has passed all the exams and qualified as a Fellow, it is mandatory to attend a two-day professionalism course within 12 months.

As part of the requirements introduced by the Profession ensuring that qualified actuaries maintain and develop their professional competence, every qualified actuary must attend a one-day professionalism event at least once every 10 years and must spend at least 2 hours every year developing their professionalism skills.

As you progress as a student, you need to be familiar with the full content of the Professional Conduct Standards (PCS), some details of which are given below. You should also read the Foreword and Executive Summary of the Morris Review.

What is a profession?

Six key characteristics of a profession are:

• Members join together to apply a specialised skill.
• The skill has been developed through appropriate education.
• Members have a special relationship with those served.
• Members are recognised by the public as an authority in their field of expertise, able to serve the public interest.
• A profession is self-regulating regarding the competence and conduct of its members.
• Members display a high level of integrity in exercising judgement.

Although it has been true to say that professions are self-regulating in respect of the competence and conduct of their members, there is now a trend towards a degree of external control. For the Actuarial Profession, the Morris Review report in March 2005 recommended some external oversight of the Profession, consistent with that already applying to accountants.

Members of our Profession gain:

• mutual support
• lobby strength
• status
• income

In particular, the Profession holds regular meetings, seminars and conferences at which technical and professional ideas are exchanged, formally at the Faculty and Institute, less formally at the Staple Inn Actuarial Society and generally extremely informally at some dining clubs. These ideas are also disseminated through the British Actuarial Journal, the Actuary, and the Profession’s other publications.

In addition, ad hoc committees are set up regularly to discuss matters of concern or interest, such as Professional Standards, proposed legislation, and technical problems.

Regulation of the Actuarial Profession

There is a significant list of items that reflect how the Profession regulates itself, as follows:

• Professional Conduct Standards
• Continuous Professional Development (CPD)
• Disciplinary Scheme
• Board for Actuarial Standards
• Corporate governance
• Practising certificates
• Professionalism courses
• Professional standards
• Education

The first three of these are considered briefly below.

The Professional Conduct Standards

The written guidance given on professional conduct by the Faculty and Institute is contained in the Professional Conduct Standards (PCS). The PCS are a set of standards that we, as a profession, have developed over time, and that describe, or set out principles about, the way we have agreed to behave in the conduct of our business.

All members must conform to the spirit and letter of the standards.

Where there is any doubt, guidance should be sought from the Professional Affairs Board.

Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

Continuing Professional Development is vital to the well being of the profession and in terms of ensuring the maintenance of professional competence by actuaries, and changes have recently been made to the Profession’s requirements. All professionally active actuaries are be required to do a minimum level of CPD.  The new requirements were implemented on 1 July 2006.  The current requirements and suggestions for CPD can be found in the CPD Handbook on the Profession’s website.

Disciplinary Scheme

The Institute and Faculty now have a single disciplinary scheme which considers allegations of professional misconduct. The new scheme involves people external to our profession in the process and any Disciplinary Tribunals are held in public.