Life Board seeks deputy chair and members

The Life Board is currently seeking a deputy chair and members to support their strategy going forward.

This is both an exciting and challenging time to be a life actuary, and the IFoA’s Life Board is at the forefront of developments in this area. Life is currently the largest IFoA practice area, and it supports the largest proportion of research working parties and sub-committees. 

The deputy chair will work with the four Sub-committee chairs to drive forward the board strategy, and to support life practice members internationally. 

The current strategic aims of the board are:

• Preparing life actuaries for how their roles may change in 10 years’ time, and supporting recently qualified actuaries to become leaders in their field
• Regulation and Capital
• Consumers/Products
• International engagement
• Increasing cross practice work

The expectation is that Life actuaries may well work for a number of different financial institutions going forward as the traditional boundaries of where life companies operate break down, or if they divide into savings versus protection companies. Because of this actuaries will need to be educated with a number of different skill-sets so as to be flexible enough to move between roles to increase their marketability. In particular, CPD and education modules need to be available for those already qualified to expand their thinking and skills to enable them to become more flexible in the roles they undertake.

Post Solvency II-implementation, work levels are likely to drop, which may lead to a drop in demand of actuarial services. To mitigate this, actuaries should move closer to optimizing the numbers, rather than crunching them. Conversely, the degree of complexity of Solvency II creates opportunities to develop in other areas of work. Managing life companies and other complex companies in a post Solvency II world is a desirable position for actuaries to be in.  The focus on Global Capital Standards will only grow as time goes on.

To support the international work of the board, the Life Asia Sub-committee was recently launched to support members based in Asia. Amongst other things, they will input on research, Standards and Consultations and Education and CPD issues. There are also an increasing number of international members on committees and research working parties.

The Life Board is committed to promoting diversity and equal opportunity for all Board members.  Applications are particularly welcome from female members, younger members and international members, who are currently under-represented on this Board. 

The closing date for applications for these roles is 21 May.