Our four panellists from Actuary for Transformational Change reflected on the Finance in the Public Interest lecture series.
Highlights include:
Ashok: Whilst the way actuaries manage risk at the micro-level makes sense, it can do a great deal of unintended damage at the macro level. This is a risk to the profession that we need to speak out about.
Lucy: The profession is not afraid to tackle the really challenging problems being faced by society. To do this, actuaries should support and engage in the revolution in economic thinking. This includes the concepts of “purpose” and “value” which are critical to understanding the high-stake, but hard to quantify sustainability issues.
Nico: Externally, the profession is seen as the designer of the rules whereas most members see themselves as the referees. In reality, we are involved in both roles.
Nick: There should be a prize offered to design a “4S” sustainable pension solution that addresses: Sustainability; Sharing of risk; System resilience; and Stewardship.
And I shared that risk theory does not capture radical uncertainty. We need to engage our multi-disciplinary mindsets and navigate across multiple paradigms to address the complexities of uncertainties. This is embedded into our VSMD strategy.
Were you inspired by the lecture series to think differently?