From the Executive Editor

Hello ACOPA– 

Change is in the air! Except for the horribly cold day we had in New York, and my recent 48-hour encounter with bad oysters, most of the changes are good ones!

The first big change is the changing of the guard within ACOPA leadership. We said goodbye to the great John Markley after his year as President, and welcome Lauren Okum as ACOPA’s newest President. I thank John for his great efforts and remind him that he turned me into a Philadelphia Eagles fan (and that was before the Super Bowl win).

Lauren kicks off this issue with her first ACOPA Monthly article as ACOPA President, and details ACOPA’s proposed name change and rebranding effort. There are interesting details on how these developments began, how they flourished and where we stand now. These are the sort of items that you don’t normally get any insight into as a member of an organization, but it makes our organization a unique one (i.e., thanks to leadership for their transparency).

If you don’t already know Lauren, she is the owner of Premier Actuarial Solutions in Chicago. You can find her article here.

Our next article conveys a correction to a previous article by Carl Shalit, a consulting actuary in Salem, MA, Carl is the current Chair of the Joint Board’s Advisory Committee on Actuarial Examinations. His original article, in the October Monthly, was on the enrolled actuary examination writing committee and the opportunities to earn CE credits. 

One “thank you” goes to James Turpin, President of the Turpin Consulting Group, Inc. in Longview, WA, for catching the need for the correction. The other goes to Carl for his simple “here is a correction” (no ego issues got in the way). I really enjoy working with Carl on the EA-2L Exam. Not sure which came first: ACOPA finding great actuaries who also happen to be great people, or great people who happen to be great actuaries who ended up joining ACOPA.

Carl’s update can be found here; his original article is here.

Next up is an article by former ACOPA President Karen Smith, President and Shareholder of Nova 401(k) Associates. Karen gives us an eye-opening look at ASOP 51 (and for those who need one, an explanation of ASOP 51 as well). We appreciate Karen giving ACOPA Monthly the exclusive premiere of her article, which you can find here.

Let us now turn our attention to a familiar organization, the Society of Actuaries (SOA), who describe themselves as “an educational, research and professional membership organization for actuaries.” As a nonprofit organization, they distribute study materials to SOA candidates for a nominal fee. The SOA often uses outside sources for study materials, and they recently sought permission to use two articles on plan curtailments and settlements under FASB ASC 715 relating to plan terminations published in the ACOPA Monthly back in 2017!

So we offer huge congratulations to Daveyne C. Totten, EA, MAAA, MSPA, of Actuarial Pension Analysts, Inc. on being recognized by the SOA for these insightful articles that will be used as study materials for a new generation of actuaries. You can find Part 1 of Daveyne’s two-part series on FASB ASC 715 here; Part 2 is here.

Coincidentally, not only do I have a FASB ASC 715 report from 2013 on my desk (as I will be tackling settlement accounting at year end for the first time in 6 years), but I had been thinking of Daveyne recently. Besides having been an active member of the ACOPA Google Group, she was a big part of those first ACOPA Symposiums I attended, where I first started meeting ACOPA members. But I have not seen or heard from her in a long while, so I asked that she contribute to the continuing series, “Catching up with…”. This is our most shocking “Catching up with” article yet! It can be found here.

Okay folks, have a super Happy Thanksgiving!