Thoughts from the Chair

By Erik Pronovost

TAXING TIMES, June 2022

As the Taxation Section is finalizing the planning of its activities for the upcoming year, there is a common theme that keeps coming up: the importance for the section to collaborate with other sections.

First, the SOA has changed its approach in selecting sessions for its different conferences. For the upcoming Life Meeting, one third of the sessions will be allocated to inter-section topics. We should expect the Taxation Section to be involved in more sessions in the future if we are able to collaborate with other sections.

I believe collaboration is also a great way for making tax attractive to a broader audience. In the past, we have always had a difficult time covering international topics as well as health topics. This year, we are actively reaching out to the International Section and the Health Section to check if we can work together in developing sessions to cover the latest tax changes in these fields. Maybe one day, the Taxation Section will even have sessions at the SOA’s Health Meeting.

Over the past years, we have been very good in covering reinsurance and financial reporting and accounting topics. However, with better collaboration with the Reinsurance Section and with the Financial Reporting Section, we can build sessions that are more attractive to a larger audience.

With the world embracing more virtual learning opportunities, it is now easier to access an audience from other fields. Someone doesn’t need to physically attend a meeting in person to learn about a taxation topic related to his/her specific field of work.

The SOA is reviewing the current section structure and piloting a community structure. This may mean the Taxation Section would evolve into a larger community. However, there will be a Tax Knowledge group within this community. The community will give us additional opportunities to collaborate with other groups and we will want to continue to provide quality content to the actuarial community.

The Taxation Section Council and the Friends of the Council are looking forward to working with other sections to continue informing the actuarial community in this constantly evolving world.

Statements of fact and opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and are not necessarily those of the Society of Actuaries, the editors, or the respective authors’ employers.

Erik Pronovost, FSA, CERA, is an actuary at RGA. He can be reached at Erik.Pronovost@rgare.com.