Time Flies…

year ago, I wrote about continuing to implement the CAS Strategic Plan and emphasized three projects I was going to focus on during my term. In no particular order, the three priorities I chose were (1) the CAS brand refresh, (2) updating the CAS website and portal, and (3) addressing challenges in the preliminary exam structure. As I now transition from president to board chair, I am both pleased with the progress we made over the past year and excited to see what the future holds.

We formally launched the refreshed CAS brand at the 2026 Spring Meeting in New York, including bringing our new identity and “P&C Experts. Proven. Trusted. Worldwide.” message to a Times Square billboard. It was a highly visible and memorable way to introduce a brand designed to strengthen recognition of the CAS and the expertise of our members. While I fully expected a mixed reaction to the updated brand and there were members who shared certain concerns, the feedback I have received from members and industry observers has been overwhelmingly positive, and the launch itself was quite a success!

As I commented in a previous message, the refresh was much more than a new visual identity and tagline. It grew from extensive research with members, candidates, employers, students, academics, and other stakeholders to better understand what makes the CAS distinctive, where perceptions of the CAS are strong, and where we have opportunities to tell our story more clearly. That work reinforced the strength of our reputation for P&C expertise while also identifying opportunities to make the broader value of the CAS better understood.

Some of the important aspects of the broader brand refresh initiative include:

• Making the CAS more recognizable beyond our credentials.
• Telling the CAS story earlier to the next generation of actuaries.
• Being more audience- and data-driven in our communication with stakeholders.

With the launch behind us, the work now is making the brand real wherever people experience the CAS. Publications, events and exhibits, social media, presentations, email, web, and other communications are being brought into a more cohesive system of visual identity, voice, and messaging. The goal is not simply consistency for consistency’s sake, but to make every interaction reinforce who the CAS is, what we stand for, and the value our community brings to the world of P&C risk.

The next major expression of the refreshed brand is the broader modernization of the CAS web portfolio, beginning with a completely redesigned casact.org targeted for the first quarter of 2027. The new site will feature streamlined navigation, improved search, better mobile responsiveness and accessibility, and a cleaner, more intuitive experience for members, candidates, students, and other visitors. The behind-the-scenes work has been ongoing during the entirety of 2026, so it will be exciting to see the new site when it launches. Key aspects of the new site include:

• Shaping the redesign by how people use our web assets, rather than how the CAS is organized internally.
• Simplifying and curating the enormous amount of content the CAS has accumulated over time.
• Creating a more unified CAS digital ecosystem.

This work is particularly important in an increasingly AI-driven environment. Our public website is no longer consumed only by people and traditional search engines; its content can also shape the information surfaced by AI systems. Stronger content governance will help ensure that what the CAS puts forward publicly is current, accurate, intentional, and authoritative, while historically valuable material remains appropriately preserved and accessible.

The lack of a unified preliminary examination structure between the SOA and CAS beyond our requirement of SOA’s P and FM exams causes consternation for undergraduate students and university instructors alike. While CAS and SOA leadership have acknowledged the issue, a clear win-win-win (CAS/SOA/candidates) solution has yet to emerge. Part of the challenge is that the exam content for MAS/SRM, the point where our respective pathways diverge, reflects the two organizations’ differing priorities and views of what P&C actuaries need to know versus life/health/pension actuaries. In an AI-enabled environment, however, one might question how relevant these differences will be going forward, and whether a single shared exam¹ might not be the obvious choice.

In the meantime, both organizations have been independently evaluating potential changes to preliminary examinations, and even if a common examination at the MAS/SRM level is not the ultimate outcome, we have been exploring together where we can at least align on necessary content for actuarial candidates at this stage. While it falls short of a common exam and does not address candidates’ concerns over which exams to take, this outcome could help simplify the work of university instructors while we continue to look for a more comprehensive solution.

As part of our global growth strategy, we clearly need to attract students to the CAS pathway early on. We will also continue to encounter situations where candidates or members of other organizations desire to pursue a CAS credential but understandably do not wish to start over if they have already completed requirements from other pathways. My hope and expectation is that we will continue to seek solutions that attract aspiring P&C actuaries to the CAS at multiple points along their educational journey, without compromising on CAS standards for educational rigor and practical application of actuarial knowledge. It is also possible, maybe even likely, that advancements in AI will effectively render comparatively minor differences in the earliest stages of actuarial education moot and create opportunities for efficiency in our own examination administration processes that will hopefully enable greater focus on creating effective “on-ramps” to the CAS from alternative pathways across the globe.

AI has been a consistent undercurrent in strategic discussions and an important subtext within the three areas I chose to highlight. As CAS President, I had the responsibility and privilege of planning the board’s annual August strategy retreat, and this year’s agenda was almost entirely focused on AI. We spent significant time establishing a common understanding of current and likely future developments in AI and then focused our attention on implications for the actuarial profession in general and the CAS in particular. From the CAS perspective, we explored risks and opportunities AI presents to (1) current and future CAS candidates, (2) current CAS members, and (3) the organization’s operations and growth strategy. Based on these deliberations, the Board authorized the Executive Leadership Group to form a task force to urgently develop a CAS Position Statement on AI, which will guide the Board in strategic decisions around the candidate pipeline, preliminary actuarial education, CAS credentialling, professional education, and CAS branding/communications. An initial draft of the CAS AI Position Statement was reviewed in late September, with the expectation of adoption by the Board and public release in November.

Every area within the CAS Executive Council and staff organization has contributed greatly to the future success of the CAS. I greatly appreciate the opportunity to serve as CAS President, and I continue to be amazed at what our capable staff and dedicated volunteers accomplish for the organization and its membership each and every year. And yes, I had fun!