Session: 35

Professionalism

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Summary

The UK Profession, comprising the Institute of Actuaries in London and the Faculty of Actuaries in Edinburgh, took the unique step in the year 2000 of formally creating a Social Policy Board, ranking pari passu with, amongst others, the long established Pensions Board, Life Board and General Insurance Board.

While social policy is fundamental to the work of actuaries throughout the world, the UK's formal recognition of this area of activity provides a strong message, particularly to the public, consistent with the Cancun Congress's theme of "A new millennium, a new challenge for actuaries".

This paper will briefly cover the background to the process leading to the formation of the Social Policy Board and, in passing, questions the relevance of continuing to refer to pensions and insurance as "traditional" areas of actuarial activity.

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