Continuing Education: Are You on Track?

Thirty hours.

You know this is the number of hours of continuing education (CE) you must earn this year to be qualified to issue statements of actuarial opinion (SAO) in 2017. As we head into the fourth quarter, now is a good time to check whether you are on track to meet that goal by the end of the year.

But not just any 30 hours will do. First, they must be “relevant.” That is, relevant CE must broaden or deepen your understanding of the work you do, expand your knowledge of practice in a related discipline that bears directly on your work, or facilitate your entry into a new area of practice. As Committee on Qualifications Chairperson Keith Passwater likes to say when describing how to determine whether CE is relevant, “Relevant CE should make you a better actuary.”

Second, at least 6 of the 30 hours must be “organized,” which means that the activity must involve interaction with actuaries or other professionals working for different organizations. Organized activities include conferences, seminars, and live webinars. (Recorded webinars are not considered organized CE because you cannot ask questions or interact with the speakers and other participants.) There are two elements to keep in mind when determining whether an activity may count as organized: the ability to interact in real time, and the ability to interact with actuaries and professionals from other organizations. In-house meetings can satisfy the requirement of interaction with actuaries or professionals working for different organizations by using outside speakers.

Third, 3 hours must be on professionalism topics, such as the Code of Professional Conduct, the actuarial standards of practice (ASOPs), actuarial qualifications, and ethics. The Academy’s quarterly professionalism webinars are a good source of professionalism CE, but you can also earn professionalism CE by serving on a professionalism committee, commenting on standards of practice that are exposed for comment, and studying or reviewing the Code and ASOPs.

In addition, if you plan to issue NAIC annual statement-related SAOs, at least 15 of your 30 CE hours must be on topics directly related to those listed in section 3.1.1 of the U.S. Qualification Standards (USQS) for the NAIC statement that you plan to issue. Six of these hours must be obtained through experiences that involve interaction with outside actuaries or other professionals, similar to the “organized” hours described above.

Let’s look at an example of how to count these different categories of CE. Suppose you attend a conference that offers a session that gives 1 hour of professionalism CE and another that gives 2 hours of CE related to the topic of the NAIC SAO that you plan to issue next year. Because you attended an event where you could interact with actuaries and other professionals from outside your organization, you may count all 3 hours toward the 6 hours of required organized CE. You may also count 1 hour toward the 3 hours of required professionalism CE, and 2 hours toward the 15 hours of specific CE required to issue NAIC statements.

But be careful counting your CE hours. Even though you have earned 3 hours of organized CE, 1 hour of professionalism CE, and 2 hours of specific CE, you have still earned just a total of 3 hours, not 6 hours. You still need another 27 hours to meet the annual requirement.

So where can you obtain the CE you need before the end of the year? In the next few months, the Academy will host several events that offer CE, including the Annual Meeting and Public Policy Forum, two professionalism webinars, the Life and Health Qualifications Seminar, and the Seminar on Effective P/C Loss Reserve Opinions. Attending any of these events live would count as organized CE (as long as they are relevant to your work, of course). The Academy also offers CE online, including recorded webinars and professionalism modules.

For more information and answers to questions about CE, please see the U.S. Qualification Standards (USQS) and Frequently Asked Questions on the USQS. If, after consulting those resources, you still have questions, you may submit a question to the Committee on Qualifications.

(Featured in the September 2016 Actuarial Update.)