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 Another field that has shown major expansion and evolution has been that of health insurance, both individual and group. Despite heavily adverse experience with disability benefits incorporated into individual life policies in the second and third decades of the twentieth century, major life companies led the way in issuing modern health insurance policies in the 1950s; the Society of Actuaries responded by bringing health insurance into its educational curriculum and publishing a series of texts, the first in 1956, the latest in 1988.

The 1949 merger that created the Society of Actuaries was the inevitable consequence of steadily greater membership overlap and jointly conducted activities, particularly in the educational areas. The selected headquarters city was Chicago; a staff consisting of an Executive Secretary and three assistants served a membership of just over 1,000 persons. The new body was incorporated in Illinois, efforts at federal incorporation having proved fruitless.

The Society of Actuaries promptly set about developing a professional system appropriate to the broadened actuarial responsibilities of the 1950s and turned its attention to the clear need for governmental recognition in both Canada and the United States. Service to members in the emerging specialties of individual contracts and employee benefits was provided in both the educational and meeting program activities. Guides to professional conduct were promulgated; steps to make the profession known to young people in high schools and colleges were taken; research was broadened; and the new field of computers was vigorously explored. In 1957 the Society hosted the Fifteenth International Congress of Actuaries, its theme being electronic data processing.

The instruments found necessary to achieve professional recognition were two new bodies: the Canadian Institute of Actuaries in Canada and the American Academy of Actuaries in the United States, both founded in 1965 through the harmonious cooperation of all the North American actuarial bodies.

In 1968 staff activities in the Society of Actuaries underwent major change by creation of the Executive Director post. Until 1980 the incumbent was required to be a Fellow, but recognition of the primarily administrative duties involved then resulted in recruitment of John E. O'Connor, Jr. to lead greatly increased staff participation in all phases of administration and research.5

* * * * * *

The entire profession was affected, and to some degree buffeted, in the 1970s by economic and political events rivalling in intensity those that confronted our forebears in the early 1930s. We had been anxious to become a recognized element in the business world but found the speed of that immersion breathtaking.

Central to these events were the severe inflation, the intensity of consumerist crusades, such negative developments as the prevalent preoccupation with short-term profits in business enterprises, and demands upon actuaries to assume major unaccustomed responsibilities.

Needs asserted by accountants and stock analysts caused balance sheet and income statement formats to be radically changed and duplicated. The extent of risk assumption by insurance companies was modified by introduction of yield-based and index-based contracts and by "unbundling" of protection and savings elements that many in the industry reluctantly accepted. Actuaries found their own logical arguments in favor of sex-based mortality tables unable to triumph over social forces as these became an issue in women's rights campaigns; this has also had some impact on the work of the pension actuaries. Involvement of two actuaries in the Equity Funding scandal resulted in an unhappy public blot upon the profession's reputation.

The Society embarked upon new stances and procedures to cope with developments such as these. The extent of its members' specializations was recognized by changes in program formats, notably, meetings devoted to special subjects and the creation of Special Interest Sections within the Society. Stochastic analysis began to take its place alongside the deterministic approaches considered normal since earliest actuarial eras. And actuaries in the United States found themselves responsible for certifying the adequacy of policy reserves to an extent new to them, though long familiar to Canadian actuaries. Likewise, the evolution of pension legislation in the United States and Canada since the 1960s has enhanced the responsibility of pension actuaries for certifying costs and liabilities.

One consequence of all this turmoil was the rapid introduction of continuing education efforts, particularly through the seminar approach. Another was the first-ever government licensing of actuaries engaged in employee benefit work. Yet another was an increased interest in development of actuarial skills in management techniques, long-range planning and even futurism.

Changes in the Society's structure included computerization of office records; coordination of activities of the several professional bodies through the Council of Presidents formed in 1972; and an unsuccessful attempt at consolidation of the bodies themselves. A new internal publication, the Record, which was introduced in 1975, proved beneficial in disseminating discussions on a wide variety of topics.

A new unit, the Actuarial Education and Research Fund, was organized to spur and facilitate basic research work. One veteran body, the Fraternal Actuarial Association, initiated steps to close its 64 years of service as the special need for its existence disappeared.6

Through the 1980s key economic factors continued to gyrate. The prevailing inflation rate was kept within bounds that came to be called moderate, although they were double the rates that actuaries of former eras had considered ruinous. The average yield on invested assets of life companies, already at historically unprecedented levels, continued to rise, presenting a baffling mixture of opportunities and problems. On the one hand, these demanded that actuaries design products that would be attractive in a period in which modern savings instruments proliferated; on the other, they caused market values of existing bonds to decline sharply and they made policies, even those of highest quality, vulnerable to wholesale replacement. The uncertain relationship between interest, inflation and salary levels has had a marked impact on pension design and funding, and in Canada on the debate on surplus ownership.

The long-term trend in the general mortality rate continued steadily downward. A consequence was that mortality charges needed to support nonsmoker policies were reported in 1980 [TSA XXXII (1980): 207] as below 2 per 1000 up to age 47 for males. The effect of such low mortality probabilities upon life insurance buying attitudes is yet unmeasured.

The economic environment of the early 1990s has resulted in the downfall of certain large life insurance companies. The actuarial profession now faces the challenges of analyzing the causes that brought about these results and recommending changes that can reestablish a solid foundation for public confidence in the financial integrity of the insurance industry.

The actuarial profession gained visibility when "actuary" was named the best job in America by the Jobs Rated Almanac in two of its three published editions. The 1988 and 1995 reference books put the actuarial profession at the top of the list of 250 professions ranked on criteria such as work environment, job outlook, security, and stress.

END NOTES

1. Recommended readings about the pre-1889 actuarial profession are: Robert Henderson, "Prominent Names in Early Actuarial History," TASA XXIV (1923): 1-13; M.E. Ogborn, Equitable Assurances, reviewed by T. Hall and Z. Jarkiewicz in TSA XIV (1962): 536-39; Robert B. Mitchell, From Actuarius to Actuary, reviewed in TSA XXVI (1974): 641- 42; E.J. Moorhead, Our Yesterdays: the History of the Actuarial Profession in North America 1809 -1979, Schaumburg, Ill., Society of Actuaries, 1989, Chapters I and II; and Anders Hald, A History of Probability and Statistics and Their Applications before 1970, reviewed in TSA XLII (1990): 757-59.

2. Recommended readings about the evolution of the educational system are: Charles A. Spoerl, "The Actuarial Examinations," TSA I (1949): 42-68, and Preston C. Bassett, "To Become A Member," TSA XXXVII (1985): 1-12.

3. Recommended reading on events leading to merger is: Reinhard A. Hohaus, "The Origin of the Society of Actuaries," TSA I (1949): 10-41.

4. Biographical particulars on George Huggins can be found in the Society archives.

5. Recommended reading on this era's events is: Victor E. Henningsen, "Society of Actuaries-Its First Twenty Years," TSA XXI (1969): 591-621.

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