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Proposed Changes to ASPPA Code of Conduct

The ASPPA Leadership Council has voted to propose a change to the American Retirement Association Code of Conduct (the Code) and solicits your comments on these proposed changes. Please send any comments to c[email protected]. The comment period will close on Sept. 4, 2015.

After the close of the comment period revisions may be made based on the comments received. A proposal to the change in the Code will then be brought before the Board of Directors of the American Retirement Association and, if approved by that Board, the proposal will be placed before the membership for a final vote according to our bylaws.

Proposed Changes
 

  • Section 1, Definitions, would be changed to add the following:

    Actuary: an individual who is a Member of the American Retirement Association and holds an MSPA or FSPA from the ASPPA College of Pension Actuaries or an actuarial credential from another organization that is a member of the International Actuarial Association (IAA) or is an enrolled actuary in good standing with the Joint Board for the Enrollment of Actuaries.
  • Section 12, Titles and Credentials, would be changed to add the following:

    A Member who is not an Actuary as defined in section 1 of this Code shall not professionally represent to the public to be an actuary or knowingly allow such misrepresentation by others.
  • In Section 13, Additional Obligations, “actuary” would be been changed to “Actuary” to reference the defined term.

These changes are in response to a request from the Leadership Council of the ASPPA College of Pension Actuaries (ACOPA), a membership division of the American Retirement Association, whose members are also ASPPA members. Since the term Actuary was undefined by our Code, confusion surrounded who could be an ASPPA member and also use “Actuary” to describe themselves. The ASPPA Leadership Council believes this change will bring clarity and acknowledge the unique professional status of our actuarial members.

Since there may still be confusion about the use of the terms “actuarial” or “actuary” we have included a few examples of what we believe to be correct and incorrect use of the terms by our members. Those examples can be found here. We purposely do not annotate our Code so these are only examples. The American Retirement Association Discipline Panel by which we abide would have the final judgement for any claims of violation of the Code in this respect.

Sincerely,

Kyla M. Keck, CPC, QPA, QKA
President