During the 2020–2022 triennium, the Technical Commission on Statistical, Actuarial and Financial Studies (TC ACT) has contributed to new and revised ISSA Guidelines, important events, and strengthening actuarial knowledge and tools linked to projects on long-term care and pensions.
The technical commission has focussed on the International Social Security Association’s (ISSA) topical priority of “Meeting the evolving needs of an ageing population”. A major output consisted of the review of the ISSA-ILO Guidelines on Actuarial Work for Social Security, notably addressing microsimulation, social security principles and minimum benchmarks established by standards of the International Labour Organization (ILO) on social security, and catastrophic risk. TC ACT also provided input to the development and revision of other ISSA Guidelines. All new and revised guidelines will be announced and made available during the World Social Security Forum in October 2022.
In addition, TC ACT, together with the Technical Commission on Investment of Social Security Funds (TC INVEST), organized the 20th ISSA International Conference of Social Security Actuaries, Statisticians and Investment Specialists (ACT 2022), a virtual event that was held from 28 to 31 March 2022. Close to 1000 participants from 131 countries registered to ACT 2022, which addressed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social security programmes, financing of long-term care, the impact of the green economy transition on social security programmes, and considerations for setting investment and actuarial assumptions.
TC ACT also contributed to the ISSA cross-cutting project on long-term care (LTC) through international and national experiences presented at the ACT 2022 conference as well as the presentation of Actuarial methodologies and models related to LTC delivered by the Chair of TC ACT at the cross-cutting session on LTC during the 15th ISSA Forum for Technical Commissions in June 2021. TC ACT also contributed to other events, notably the ITCILO Executive e-learning on pension policy and management in November 2021.
TC ACT developed a joint case study with TC INVEST presenting key elements and best practices that the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) takes into consideration to establish reserve fund investment policies and perform actuarial analysis and projections. It highlights the application of the ISSA Guidelines in establishing reserve fund investment policies, performing actuarial analysis and projections in Canada, as well as the collaboration between investors and actuaries. A first version was presented at the ACT 2022 conference and an article will be published in due course.
In the context of the increasing ILO-ISSA collaboration, TC ACT also reviewed the ILO Pension Model implemented in the recently developed Actuarial services platform. Finally, in collaboration with Retraite Québec, it has developed a survey of assumptions that was presented at the ACT 2022 Conference.
