PBSS Section
About Us
PBSS provides a platform for discussing technical and public policy issues, with an emphasis on how to best leverage the international character of its membership. Not only do PBSS members generate research, they act as catalysts for building the intellectual capital of the profession. This diverse Section also encourages non-actuaries with a public policy and research interest in social protection matters to join the PBSS and participate in its activities, thus enriching the Section’s discussions and deliberations. PBSS members receive on a monthly basis a reference list of papers that have been recently published in diverse aspects of pensions and social security.
PBSS has also created an electronic library of pension, employee benefits and social security papers. As an added benefit, members receive a copy of the ASTIN Bulletin — The Journal of the IAA three times per year.
Other than in years with an International Congress of Actuaries, the PBSS organizes an annual colloquium in cooperation with a host actuarial association, sometimes jointly with other IAA Sections.
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Section History & Objectives
History of Formation of PBSS Section
The first section of the IAA (ASTIN – for non-life or property/casualty actuaries) was created in 1957 at the International Congress of Actuaries (ICA) in New York.
The next section to be formed was AFIR/ERM – Actuaries in Financial Risk – established at the ICA in Helsinki in 1988.
In 1995 the IAA established the International Forum of Actuarial Associations (IFAA) as the third section, albeit with a somewhat different focus, since the IFAA was a section for actuarial associations and dealt with professional, educational and public interest issues, and the interface with other international organisations.
In 1998 the new constitution of the IAA turned it into an association of associations, with the IAA itself taking on the role which the IFAA had had. Now individual actuaries are automatically members of the IAA by virtue of being fully qualified actuaries in a member association of the IAA. The IAA continues to organise the International Congress of Actuaries every four years, but other activities for individual members are now to be focused through the Sections. The IAA has set as an objective the formation of additional sections to cater for the needs of different actuaries around the world.
In 1999, at the meetings of the IAA Council and Committees in Paris, a meeting of interested persons was convened to discuss the possibility of forming a section for actuaries who are interested in pensions and other forms of employee benefits and social protection.
Also in 1999, the previously separate International Association of Consulting Actuaries (IACA) became a section of the new IAA for actuaries interested in consulting practice. Consideration was given to whether this could serve the purpose as a pensions section.
The IAA held its first International Pensions Seminar on 6-7June 2001 in Brighton, UK, attended by 68 people from 21 different countries.
In 2002 the Social Security Committee of the IAA held some very successful and well-attended sessions on social security reform at the ICA in Cancun, Mexico. Both the Social Security Committee and the Pensions and Employee Benefits Committee of the IAA were supportive of forming a separate pensions and social security section with more of a focus on research and public policy issues than was the tradition within IACA.
In May 2003 the IAA Council, meeting in Sydney, Australia, approved the formation of the IAAHS as the health section of the IAA. Work continued on the development of regulations for a pensions and social security section and plans began to be made for an international pensions seminar to be held in conjunction with the next IACA Conference in Sydney at the beginning of November 2004.
On 25 November 2003, the IAA Council, meeting in Berlin, Germany, approved the establishment of the Pensions, Benefits and Social Security (PBSS) Section.
Objectives of Section
a) To contribute towards the development of a growing role for actuaries internationally and in individual countries in the fields of pensions, employee benefits and social security;
b) To provide information and development opportunities for individual actuaries working in or interested in the fields of pensions, employee benefits and social security;
c) To promote and facilitate an international exchange of views, advice, research and practical information among actuaries and other experts involved with public and private pensions, social security, employee benefits and related public policy issues1;
d) To organize Seminars, Colloquia and other meetings, on-line exchanges, websites and publications, and links to other organizations and IAA Sections;
e) To engage in other activities that promote the role and activities of pensions, employee benefits and social security actuaries within and outside the profession, support formal IAA activities with a pensions, employee benefits or social security content and interact with pensions and social security committees of IAA member actuarial organizations and other IAA Sections;
f) To encourage and promote actuarial and related research in the fields of pensions, employee benefits and social security and to develop and grow the intellectual capital of the worldwide actuarial profession in this area;
g) To exploit the opportunities provided by the website to promulgate relevant information regarding the activities of the section, and other materials of interest to pension, employee benefits and social security actuaries;
h) To focus on topics of interest internationally and to bring a big picture perspective to actuaries working in or interested in the fields of pensions, employee benefits and social security;
i) To help to get the work of actuaries known and their voice heard in international debates and discussion in the relevant fields.
1 Such issues include pension reform and policy, employee benefits, share options and other total compensation components, planning, design, adequacy and system sustainability, the economics of pensions and social security, insurance, pre-funding and other financing methods, investment, asset/liability management, risk benefits and research.
