Getting Your CE Log Ready and Year-end Attestation

The Professionalism Education Working Group frequently publishes articles on topics related to actuarial professionalism, including clarifying how the Code of Professional Conduct and the Actuarial Standards of Practice (ASOPs) apply in various scenarios. Our work explores key aspects of professionalism, focusing on the importance of integrity, accountability, and adherence to professional standards in all areas of actuarial practice. If you need additional counseling resources, the Actuarial Board for Counseling and Discipline (ABCD) is available at abcdboard.org. To make reading this column truly a learning and professionalism experience, we want your feedback. You can send your comments and questions to AR@casact.org.

s the year comes to a close, everyone has different thoughts racing through their minds. What should I include as documentation in my Statements of Actuarial Opinion (SAO) report? What loss ratio should we forecast for 2027? But one thing that should be on everyone’s mind is continuing education (CE) logs. If you’re a member of the CAS, you’re required to attest that you met CE requirements in order to practice in 2027. The attestation window opens in November. Whether you’re a newly credentialed actuary or nearing the end of your career, keeping up to date with the CE requirements is paramount to upholding the standards of our profession. Most CAS members will be attesting using the United States Qualification Standards (USQS) of the American Academy of Actuaries. This article will cover those requirements. If you are attesting using a different standard, refer to that standard for more information.

As of this article’s publication date, the CE requirements have not changed for 2027. An actuary will need to complete and document at least 30 CE credit hours of relevant CE each calendar year, where each CE credit hour is 50 minutes long. At least three credit hours must be on professionalism topics; at least one credit must be on a bias topic, and at least six credit hours must be “organized activities.” Professionalism topics include “content that assists in understanding and applying the Code of Professional Conduct, Actuarial Standards of Practice (ASOPs), and related actuarial professionalism guidance.” Bias topics “may include, but are not limited to, statistical, cognitive, and social biases.” Organized activities may include conferences, seminars, webcasts, and online courses, but this must involve live interaction with actuaries or other professionals working for organizations outside your own. Additionally, at most, three credit hours of the total CE requirements can be covered by general business skill topics, which include areas such as presentation skills, communication skills, project management, and personnel management.

All of your CE topics must be relevant to be counted; that is, they 1) broaden or deepen your understanding of the work you do, 2) expose you to new or evolving techniques to address actuarial issues, 3) expand your knowledge of practices or disciplines that bear directly on your work, or 4) facilitate your entry into a new area of practice. It is up to you to make a reasonable and good-faith determination about whether a CE opportunity will enhance your ability to practice in a desired field.

If you pass your final exam in fall 2026 and become eligible for CAS membership, you should receive your membership before the end of the calendar year. In this case, to provide SAOs, you must comply with the requirements to practice for the current year and additionally meet the requirements to attest for the following year. SAOs are defined as opinions expressed by an actuary who is a member of a U.S.-based actuarial organization where such opinion is intended by the actuary to be relied upon, so most practicing actuaries would be issuing SAOs on a regular basis. You may initially be concerned that you don’t have enough CE credit to attest for both the current year and following year. However, if you attended the CAS Course on Professionalism (COP) in the prior or current calendar year, you will already have many of the required credit hours. The COP provides enough professionalism and organized activity credit hours to meet those requirements for the current and upcoming attestation year. Note that the COP only provides one credit of Bias, so one credit can be applied for the current attestation year, and you will need one additional credit to satisfy the Bias requirement for the upcoming year. As long as you’ve been studying for your exams, the remainder of the CE credit can come from your studies.

If you attended the COP in 2024, the credit hours can be used for your 2025 CE requirement to attest to practice in 2026 using the carry-forward provision, but cannot be applied to your 2026 CE requirement. In the case that your COP attendance doesn’t count toward your attestation, you’ll need to meet the organized activity, Bias, and Professionalism requirements in another way, such as attending live webinars, attending seminars, or reading articles like this one. This is also how those who are no longer taking exams can attain their 30 credit hours each year.

According to the CAS CE Record Review FAQ, the CE log must be maintained in a spreadsheet format for at least six years and should include the following information: 1) the Date of Activity, 2) the Number of CE Credit hours earned (where 50 minutes of CE time equals one credit, with no need to record specific start and end times), 3) the Sponsoring Organization hosting the event (such as the CAS or Institute and Faculty of Actuaries), 4) a Detailed Subject Description that goes beyond just the session title alone to provide sufficient context, 5) an indication of whether the activity was “Organized,” and 6) the applicable CE categories (Bias, Professionalism, or general business skills).

One of the issues noted by the CE Compliance Working Group is that some CE logs do not reflect current CE requirements; specifically, the Bias requirement of one CE credit, which has been required since January 1, 2022. If you, or someone you know, is guilty of not updating your CE log template, the most current one can be found under the Professional Education header on the CAS website or at this link: https://www.casact.org/sites/default/files/2024-11/Actuary_CE_Attestation_spreadsheet_without_identifying_information.xlsx.

Actuaries issuing an NAIC SAO, in “Life, A&H, and Fraternal Annual Statement,” “Property and Casualty Annual Statement,” or “Health Annual Statement” must possess additional specific qualifications, as outlined in Section 3 of the USQS. The USQS Specific Qualification Standards require a minimum of 15 directly relevant CE credit hours, of which six must be organized activities. These credit hours may apply toward the 30 credit hours required annually.

One of the issues noted by the CE Compliance Working Group is that actuaries who are subject to USQS Specific Qualification Standards will often mark all of their CE credit hours as applying to Specific credit hours. While that is possible, it is unlikely that 100% of your credit hours are directly relevant to Specific Qualification Standards. For example, 75 minutes on “Potential Unintended Impact of Bias Mitigation” might include only 20 minutes directly relevant to issuing an NAIC SAO, and a session on “The State of the P&C Industry” would also not be 100% directly relevant. In these cases, only relevant minutes of the session should be logged on your CE log.

For more information on CE Compliance, you can (re)read our article in the 2024 Jan/Feb Issue of the Actuarial Review “CE Requirements and Compliance: What You Need to Know.” Do you prefer to earn your CE credit hours throughout the year or cram them into the last quarter? We’d love to hear from you at AR@casact.org.