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Presidential Papers BOB BEUERLEIN, ACADEMY PRESIDENT
Are You Modeling Professionalism?
WHEN I WAS GROWING UP, MY HERO WAS MICKEY MANTLE,
a star baseball player for the New York Yankees. When we played base-
ball in the field across the street, I would try to do everything just like
No. 7 (Mickey). Later, when I realized that I did not have the skills to
become a professional baseball player, my new role model was Arnold
Palmer, the best professional golfer in the world at that time.
While I had wonderful role models
in my parents and teachers at school, my
goal in life was to be exactly like Arnold.
Then, when I realized that I did not have
the talent to be a professional golfer, my
new role model became a top amateur
golfer in Kansas who, it turns out, was
also an actuary. The rest is history—I
became an actuary but am only an average golfer. Throughout my career, I have
learned many things from people that I
have worked with, but some of the best
learnings came from people who did not
know that they were teaching me.
As actuaries, we all have the opportunity to be this type of teacher or role
model to other actuaries. Sociologists tell
us that people compare themselves with
individuals who occupy a role to which
they themselves aspire. And I believe
that the role to which actuaries should
aspire is that of a professional actuary.
The Code of Professional Con-
duct is the foundation of actuarial
professionalism, and it is vital that it
not become “just a document.” Each
of us who is a member of one of the
U.S.-based actuarial organizations is ob-
ligated, as a condition of membership,
to comply with the Code. I hope we can
each breathe life into the words that
make up the Code through our words
and actions. Specifically, U.S. actuaries
must “adhere to the high standards of
conduct, practice, and qualifications of
the actuarial profession” and comply
with the “professional and ethical stan-
dards” set out in the Code. Each actuary
agrees to do so “to fulfill the Actuary’s
responsibility to the public and to the
actuarial profession.” By following the
Code, U.S. actuaries are committing
themselves to an action-oriented plan
of ethical professional behavior that
will be sufficiently visible to the public
to earn its trust. We need to personally
commit to model professionalism every
day of our careers.
I use the words “modeling professionalism” intentionally because, as
actuaries, we recognize that we are not
in this profession alone. Principals, other actuaries, regulators, the press, and a
vast array of other stakeholders see our
actions and judge us every day. And the
public trust that we so proudly enjoy as
a profession is the product of the sum
of those individual judgments. It is also
a direct result of the high professional
standards of the actuarial profession.
And those high standards are essential.
Take a moment to think about what is
at stake when actuaries don’t put professionalism into action: People’s lives,
health, property, retirement, or other
critical interests may be harmed. As an
actuary, your practice of professionalism
can contribute to others’ well-being … or
the opposite.
It is clear that it is important for every actuary to put professionalism into
action in their everyday work, but why
is modeling good behavior so important?
Research[ 1] in the area of business ethics—
arising from the ashes of a vast number of
well-known corporate scandals over the
past several decades—suggests that ethical culture has to be reinforced through
