COMMON STANDARDS & PRACTICES

Governance

The Caribbean Actuarial Association (CAA) is governed by a Board of Directors (the Board) according to its By-Laws.

The Board meets at least twice per year and is composed of nine members, the President, President Elect, Immediate Past President, Secretary, Treasurer, Student Representative and three additional members. The members of the Board are elected by members of the CAA at an Annual General Meeting and serve the Association for two years. Their mandate is to manage the work and advance the objectives of the CAA either directly or through established committees such as the Standards Steering Committee.

Policies and documents which are used in governing the operations of the CAA and its members are the By-Laws, Code of Conduct, Disciplinary Process, Communication Policy, Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Policy and the CAA Actuarial Practice Standards (APS).

In early 2018, the Governance Committee started a comprehensive project to consolidate the Constitution and By-Laws to produce one comprehensive document. This project was completed in late 2019 and By-Law No. 2 was approved at the Annual General Meeting of 6th December 2019.

Concurrent with this, the CAA Common Standards Committee undertook the review all CAA Actuarial Practice Standards (APS) and the Glossary for consistency. This project has also been completed and the revised Standards were approved at the Annual General Meeting of 6th December 2019.

CONSTITUTION

By-Law No. 2

The CAA Constitution became effective 3rd December, 1993 and set out the objectives of the Association and the means by which such objectives can be realised.

During 2018 and 2019, the CAA Governance Committee undertook a comprehensive project to consolidate the Constitution and By-Laws to produce one document. By-Law No. 2 was approved the Annual General Meeting of 6th December 2019.

General By-Law No.2 Form

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INTEGRITY

Codes of Conduct

A member must know the current requirements of this Code of Conduct and shall perform professional services with integrity, skill and care. He shall fulfill his professional responsibility to his client or employer and shall not act against the public interest.
[Note: In this Code no distinction is made between the various subsets of actuaries (consultants, actuaries serving companies or pension funds et cetera). The word "client" always refers to the person or institution "consuming" the services of a member or the services of the firm or company for which the member is working. "Employer" refers to the situation where a member is employed by an insurer or other institution.]
A member shall act in a manner to uphold the reputation of the actuarial profession and shall act in a manner to fulfill the profession's responsibility to the public. He shall avoid publicity that might lead to undue or unfair professional advantage, that cannot be substantiated or that is of a misleading nature. Unfair advantage includes both the unfair promotion of one individual and the unfair criticism of another.
A member shall, whether employed or not, express an independent opinion or provide unbiased independent advice, where the circumstances require this. A member must analyse and make relevant decisions without being unduly or inappropriately controlled, constrained or influenced.
A member shall perform professional services with courtesy and shall co-operate with others serving his client or employer. He must treat client information with confidentiality and must make no disclosure of the client's affairs unless so authorised by the client, or so required by law, or as required by the Disciplinary Procedures of the Caribbean Actuarial Association.
A member shall perform professional services only if he is competent and appropriately experienced to do However, he may act in such circumstances if he acts in cooperation with or with the guidance of an actuary who has the requisite knowledge and experience. Through continuing professional development, he must maintain his knowledge, experience, and skills in order to remain competent to perform professional services in a particular area in the light of changes in techniques, regulations, professional standards and codes of professional conduct.
A member is responsible for maintaining applicable practice standards in his work. He must take into account any relevant Actuarial Practice Standards issued or endorsed by the Caribbean Actuarial Association and the status of those Actuarial Practice Standards (e.g. mandatory, recommended practice et cetera). A member who takes responsibility for the work, is as accountable as an actuary for that work and may not plead limited qualification or inexperience as an extenuating circumstance for a breach of accepted actuarial practice. The Actuarial Practice Standards therefore apply to that member, with “member” substituted for “actuary”, but without any implication that the member is an actuary.
A member shall, in communicating his professional findings, show clearly that he is the source of the findings and that he is available to provide the client or employer with supplementary information and explanation about scope, methods and data.
A member shall, in communicating his professional findings, identify the client for whom these findings are made and in what capacity the member serves.
A member shall not perform professional services involving an actual or potential conflict of interest, unless the member's ability to act fairly is unimpaired and there has been full disclosure of the actual or potential conflict.
When a member is asked to take on a professional appointment previously held by another member, before he accepts the appointment, he shall consider whether it is appropriate to consult with the previous member as to whether there are any professional reasons not to accept the appointment or any particular considerations, which should be borne in mind before giving actuarial advice. The other member must provide any required information as soon as possible and may not attempt to obstruct a client who wishes to change advisers.
A member shall disclose, in writing and timely, to his client all sources of income related to any service by the member, his employer or firm, on behalf of a client.
A member shall be subject to the Disciplinary Procedures prescribed in the rules of the Caribbean Actuarial Association, and, subject to the right of appeal within those rules, shall accept any judgment passed, or the decision of any appeal procedure.
When a member becomes aware of a breach in the codes of conduct by another member and the member decides that the nature of the breach is such that action is called for, the member shall follow the procedure set out below:

He/she shall discuss the apparent breach with the other member with the objective of:
i. seeking more information about the matter so as to form a view whether there has actually been a material breach and/or
ii. to explore whether the matter is one where the breach can either be mitigated or be rectified entirely by the other member taking remedial action.
If the other member does not cooperate in a timely manner or if the matter is not resolved as a result of such discussions, the member may refer the matter to the Disciplinary Committee of the Caribbean Actuarial Association.

Definitions

Actuary: A Fellow, by examination, of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, Casualty Actuarial Society, Canadian Institute of Actuaries, the Society of Actuaries, het Actuarieel Genootschap or any other actuarial association which is a full member of the International Actuarial Association and approved by Executive Council.

Member: All classes of members of the Caribbean Actuarial Association.
Words in the masculine include the feminine and the singular includes the plural and vice versa, unless the context specifically provides otherwise.

Revised December 2017.
The Codes of Conduct are currently being reviewed to conform to By-Law No. 2.

Communications Policy

While the Caribbean Actuarial Association (“CAA”) from time to time may form a view on a matter and publish its view through its Board of Directors, the CAA also wishes to encourage and support its members in communicating their views on matters of public importance. Such communications include those to regulators and other government agencies on matters of law, supervision, taxation etc. as well as those directed to the public to enhance their knowledge of any matter relevant to the actuary’s area of expertise.

The CAA also wishes to increase the volume of communication between its members so as to permit them to share ideas and opinions outside of our annual meetings. The CAA’s Board of Directors has agreed that the following principles shall guide our communication outreach:

We shall support our members in communicating their views by:

Creating space on our website to publish viewpoints submitted by our members;
Arranging for peer review by fellow members if requested by the submitting member; and
By sending a blast email to all members to alert them to newly published material from a member.

In turn, we ask that the member:

Identify themselves as the author of their communication and as “Member(s) of the Caribbean Actuarial Association”; and
Take responsibility for ensuring that their communication is consistent with the CAA’s Code of Conduct.

We have drafted the following disclaimer which must be used to clarify the CAA’s role in publishing the viewpoints:
Statements of fact and opinion expressed herein are those of the individual authors and are not necessarily those of the Caribbean Actuarial Association.
Should you have a viewpoint that you would like to share, please submit it in Word or another editable format to caa.secretariat@gmail.com.

CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT POLICY

CPD Policy

All Ordinary, Affiliate and Associate Members of the Caribbean Actuarial Association are required to do Continuing Professional Development. This requirement became effective January 1, 2010.
The Caribbean Actuarial Association’s requirements for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) by its Members are the same as the requirements for Continuing Professional Development of the professional body through which the Member attained full qualification as an Actuary or through which the Member has pursued or is pursuing actuarial examinations, or which the Executive Council has approved. Members who are Category 3, partially regulated members, of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) must comply with the CPD requirements applicable to Category 2 members of the IFoA.
The professional bodies recognized by the Caribbean Actuarial Association (CAA) for the purposes of meeting the CPD requirements are:
- The Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA)
- The Society of Actuaries
- The Canadian Institute of Actuaries
- The Institute of Actuaries of Australia
- The American Academy of Actuaries
- The Casualty Actuarial Society
- het Actuarieel Genootschap
- Any other actuarial association which is a fully qualified member of the International Actuarial Association and approved by the Board of Directors.
Ordinary, Affiliate and Associate Members must attest annually to their compliance with the CAA CPD Requirement over the past two calendar years. A CPD year is a calendar year. Members attest that they meet the CAA CPD Requirement using one or more of the CPD requirements for the recognized professional bodies.
Attestation is by electronic means via the Member section of the CAA website member portal link. Online attestation must be completed between January 1 and July 31 of each year.
Members of an approved professional body having a CPD year ending before December 31 of the calendar year of attestation (August 31 for IFoA members, for example) are to attest by July 31 of the following calendar year having completed their CPD requirements at an earlier month during the calendar year of attestation.
Members who do not attest compliance by July 31 are assumed to be "non-compliant", will have their status automatically changed to “Non-compliant”, and must meet the terms of non-compliance as set out in the CPD Requirements for the professional body they have chosen to comply with.