Actuaries

Actuaries provide commercial, financial and prudential advice on the management of assets and liabilities - especially where long term management and planning are critical factors. Actuaries traditionally work in finance, investment and risk management, general insurance, life insurance, pensions and social security.

Actuaries apply financial and statistical techniques to solve real business problems. These business problems typically involve analysing future financial events, especially when the amount of a future payment, or the timing of when it is paid, is uncertain. A lot of actuaries' work might be thought of as 'risk management', assessing how likely an event may be and the costs associated with it.

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The Actuarial Profession

The Institute of Actuaries and the Faculty of Actuaries are the two chartered professional bodies for UK actuaries, working closely together across the UK as The Actuarial Profession. Like most UK professional bodies, The Actuarial Profession has the twin roles of representing members to the outside world and regulating members for the benefit of the outside world. These aims include:

• Regulation of members both in terms of an ethical code and enforcement of professional standards produced either by the Profession or the Board for Actuarial Standards
• Education of new entrants who wish to become actuaries and continuing professional development of existing actuaries
• Co-operation with government, business, regulators and other professions
• Innovation through research and debate, to expand the horizons of actuarial knowledge
• Promotion of the work of actuaries in general (but not individual firms)

The UK Actuarial Profession's public interest role

What sets professional bodies apart from trade bodies is that one of their core objectives is to act in the public interest as well as to support the needs of the membership. The Privy Council requires this to be demonstrated before granting a charter to a professional body. However, "acting in the public interest" is a term open to wide interpretation. We have drafted this note to outline how the Faculty and Institute of Actuaries (the UK Actuarial Profession) interpret their public interest role in the UK and what they expect of individual actuary members. It does not define what the public interest is in all circumstances.

What makes us a profession?

A profession is defined as:

'an occupation in which an individual uses an intellectual skill based on an established body of knowledge and practice to provide a specialised service in a defined area, exercising independent judgement in accordance with a code of ethics and in the public interest'

The profession is passionate about identifying matters of public concern where our input and involvement can be of benefit to society.

Benefits of membership

The actuarial qualification carries with it prestige and esteem. In becoming a member, individuals join a small group of professionals who have made a personal commitment to high standards of education, competence and integrity. In return for this professional commitment the Profession offers attractive and relevant benefits to all members. Key amongst these benefits are the professional education programmes and networking opportunities that membership brings.

Maintaining professional standards

The Board for Actuarial Standards is responsible for setting technical standards and from 18 May adopted a set of guidance notes which are on their website.

The Councils of the Faculty of Actuaries and Institute of Actuaries issue Actuarial Profession Standards, mainly ethical in nature. All members of the Profession are required to follow the Actuaries' Code.