Guideline 49. Qualifications

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Actuaries and other social security professionals providing actuarial services for social security schemes possess appropriate qualifications and expertise necessary to fulfil their responsibilities. A qualified actuary is a member of a national (or international) professional actuarial association (or working toward fulfilling requirements to become a member) and follows applicable professional standards, rules of professional conduct and continuing professional development requirements.

The quality of the actuarial work undertaken for social security schemes depends to a great degree on the qualifications, skills and experience of the professionals performing this work. This guideline should be read together with Guideline 51 and Part F of these Guidelines.

This guideline distinguishes an actuary with a recognized actuarial affiliation or qualification requiring the formal assessment of their skills and experience (“actuary”) from other social security professionals performing actuarial work for a social security institution.

Guideline code

ACT_05700

Mechanism

The social security institution should define professional requirements for individuals performing actuarial work for social security schemes. These requirements may include, but are not limited, to the following:

Being a member of a national or an internationally recognized actuarial society or body with sufficient experience;
Being a qualified professional (e.g. mathematician, statistician, economist) who has undertaken relevant training programme in actuarial techniques of social security or has proven his or her knowledge of the subject in the form of a series of examinations;
Being a qualified professional (e.g. mathematician, statistician, economist), whose formal qualifications are not necessarily of an actuarial nature, but have relevance to the actuarial work for social security schemes;
Length of relevant professional experience.

Where possible, the qualified professional should seek to secure actuarial recognition from the relevant national body.
The social security institution should encourage national actuarial associations to become full members of the International Actuarial Association (IAA) to ensure that national actuarial practices are comparable with the best international practices.
The social security institution should encourage national actuarial associations to adopt ISAP 2 as well as other international standards of actuarial practice issued by the IAA and relevant to actuarial work performed for social security schemes. If national professional standards on actuarial work for social security schemes exist, the social security institution should encourage national actuarial associations to harmonize such standards with international standards of actuarial practice issued by the IAA.
The social security institution should assist internally employed actuaries and social security professionals performing actuarial work in attending training courses and in the payment of professional and training fees that are necessary for achieving and/or maintaining qualification requirements required to perform actuarial work for social security schemes.
The social security institution should establish well-documented procedures of regular verification of qualifications, credentials and professional experience of actuaries and other social security professionals performing actuarial work (e.g. through contacting professional organizations).

Parent

H. Actuarial Expertise, Staffing and Training within the Social Security Institution

Structure

Principles

The social security institution should define qualification requirements for actuaries and other social security professionals performing actuarial work for social security schemes.
The social security institution should promote the development of a national actuarial profession and work closely with existing professional associations. In particular, the social security institution should ensure that national actuarial institutions have proper professional standards with respect to social security actuarial work as well as rules of professional conduct.
The social security institution may consider promoting legislation requiring certain services and work for social security schemes to be performed by actuaries.
The social security institution should support internal actuaries in attaining and/or maintaining required qualifications.
The social security institution should develop controls to ensure that actuaries comply with relevant professional standards, continuing professional development requirements and rules of professional conduct.
If the social security institution employs social security professionals to perform actuarial work who do not belong to a formal professional organization, the institution should require that these professionals follow relevant professional standards, continuing professional development requirements and rules of professional conduct of a national (or international) actuarial organization. In the case of social security professionals other than actuaries performing actuarial work, the social security institution should ensure that, in addition to actuarial standards, these professionals comply with professional standards, continuing professional development requirements and rules of professional conduct of their professional organization, including the avoidance of conflicts of interest.

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