By Ted Gotsch
Senior policy analyst, content and publications
Elections happen annually in the U.S., but we only elect the president every four years. While it can be easy to forget that our elected representatives and other decision-makers make determinations that impact our lives every day, there is something electric that comes with the presidential election season. It puts a spotlight on broader concerns—highlighting “mega-issues,” if you will—that can stimulate discussion, encourage debate, and influence how the government will prioritize its activities over the next four years.
A key mission of the Academy is to offer nonpartisan analysis on a wide array of topics, emphasizing the unique set of skills, expertise, and perspective that actuaries offer when looking for solutions to broad public policy concerns. Actuarial voices help the public, businesses, employers, legislators, regulators, and the media understand complicated issues and think through the implications and downstream impacts of potential solutions from all sides. The Academy’s public policy focus is broken down into five practice areas—health, retirement, property and casualty, and life insurance, and risk management/financial reporting.
During the 2024 presidential campaign season, many of the national and state issues that are top-of-mind for candidates, voters, and the business community are the same issues that the Academy’s volunteer leadership have long identified as strategic priorities. Our membership has focused on these issues for years and continues to apply their collective knowledge, expertise, and unique training to identify the relevant public policy considerations involved in these issues—for policymakers, employers, and the proverbial Jane or John Q. Public.
Topics like health care, retirement security, climate change, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and risk management are evergreen issues that have no easy answers, making them ripe for the insights that actuaries can offer as we look for solutions in the insurance and retirement marketplaces, in government, and for the broader public. While we know that the Academy’s volunteers have created materials that can be used to drive toward solutions—through issue briefs, comment letters, presentations, and published articles— the importance of the factors discussed in these materials may not be as obvious to those outside of the actuarial and regulatory communities. That is why we’ve created an Election Clearinghouse—focused on those six key issues.
As we head toward Election Day 2024, the Academy will identify material that can inform, engage, and offer insights on these discrete issues. We will also be looking at other ways to share these insights, including this blog, that will be tied to the online home of the Clearinghouse. Our intent is to share our profession’s independent and informed insights on these big issues, just as we do every day, but with a specific focus as we all drill down into election issues that will influence what our elected officials will do in the next four years.
During this election season, the Academy’s Clearinghouse issues website will offer a comprehensive entry point to a variety of information that will help policymakers, the public, and others better understand the underlying issues and perspectives that may help lead us to better policy solutions. We invite you to visit our Clearinghouse page regularly, as we’ll be sharing new material and highlight ongoing and future work on these issues that will continue to our government, our businesses, and our everyday lives. We also invite you to visit the Academy’s new blog, Actuarially Sound, which will include updates from an election perspective as well as the broader Academy policy perspective.
Whether it’s a blog, a Contingencies article, an issue brief, a podcast, a video, or some other content vehicle, the Academy is a valued and trusted resource providing leadership, objective expertise, and actuarial advice on risk and financial security issues to those inside and outside the profession.
