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Professional Conduct Standards. 2: Professional standards

Professional Conduct Standards, version 3.0

2.1 The Actuarial Profession has an obligation to serve the public interest. Collectively it seeks to do so by informed contribution to debate on matters of public interest and by influencing those with power to protect and enhance the public interest. Individually members must maintain and observe the highest standards of conduct. The standing of the profession depends on the public’s judgement both of this collective contribution to debate on matters of public interest and of the actions and behaviour of individual members.
2.2 A member has a duty to the profession and must not act in a manner which denigrates its reputation or impugns its integrity. Responsibility to any client must be consistent with that duty. The requirements of this paragraph do not, however, preclude criticism of the profession which forms part of a justifiable debate conducted in the public interest
2.3 Users of a member’s services, which may include a member’s firm and/or colleagues in that firm, are entitled to have absolute confidence in the skill, objectivity and integrity of the member. If work which a member considers necessary is precluded by cost or time constraints the member must either decline to act or qualify the advice given.
2.4 Advice given to the member’s firm or to a colleague within the same firm, whether or not the colleague is a member, should normally meet the same standards as for external advice.
2.5 Confidentiality
2.5.1 As a matter of law, information acquired by a member in the course of professional work is frequently confidential to the member’s client or the member’s firm. As such, it should not normally be disclosed unless consent has been obtained from the member’s client or the member’s firm, as the case may be.
2.5.2 There are, however, circumstances in which, despite the normal duty of confidentiality, a member might in law be:
  • obliged to disclose confidential information, either by virtue of statutory or judicial authority or by virtue of external requirements by which the client is bound, or
  • free to disclose confidential information if it is in the public interest to do so or, in some circumstances, if it is for the member's own protection.

A member should consider seeking legal advice before invoking this provision.


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Page updated: 2 December 2008
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