NU Online News Service, May 18, 3:50 p.m. EDT--Insurance actuaries attending this week's Casualty Actuarial Society's spring meeting in Phoenix heard from an industry executive who exhorted them to assume a leadership role in fighting debilitating pricing cycles.

Addressing conference participants, GE Insurance Solutions Chief Executive Ron Pressman called on a group of 600 actuaries to offer a much-needed guidance for their industry.

"Actuarial science perhaps never had a better moment to shine and lead in this industry," Mr. Pressman said. "Without you, we go nowhere in this industry."

He said actuaries can give the industry the consistency to reverse the trend of "self-inflicted cyclicality" and unprofitable underwriting.

The good news, he observed, is that "because we inflict it on ourselves we know exactly how to alleviate it. Actuaries can help our business and our industry deliver the consistency that our stakeholders are crying out for."

Mr. Pressman went on, "We ask our actuaries for leadership in a way we never have before. You're not spectators or scorekeepers. You are called on to be the conscience of this industry and our business."

He also urged actuaries at the conference to become more active and involved in making "data-driven business decisions" and owning the results. "You cannot sit on the sidelines and say 'I told you so,'" Mr. Pressman said.

The Casualty Actuarial Society in Arlington, Va., is a nonprofit group dedicated to the advancement of actuarial science applied to property, casualty and similar risk exposures. The group has some 3,800 members from insurance companies, educational institutions, ratemaking organizations, state insurance departments, the federal government and independent consulting firms.

Special Reports /

Actuaries Must Fight Market Cycles, Exec Says

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