From mission, over vision to strategic objectives and actions

Following its election and installation, the new IA|BE Board met on Friday 20 and Saturday 21 June 2025 in Ghent for its first strategic offsite.

The Board started by reflecting on the mission of the Institute as stipulated in its bylaws:

• to defend the professional interests of its members and contribute to their professional development;
• to defend the interests of the profession of actuary and contribute to the further development of the profession of actuary;
• to put the interests of the members first when carrying out its activities.
• The Institute is selflessly committed to furthering this objective and does not seek direct or indirect financial gain for its members.

Building on this mission, the Board has developed a long term vision that defines its strategic trajectory: 

Empowering an engaged IA|BE actuarial community through expertise, collaboration, and lifelong learning, ensuring a thriving and impactful actuarial profession that adapts to the future.

The Board has identified the following strategic objectives that link our mission to our vision, reflecting the key focus areas for our 2025-2028 mandate:

1. Strengthen foundational actuarial capabilities while expanding beyond traditional actuarial skills;
2. Strengthen engagement and foster the sense of belonging within the IA|BE actuarial community;
3. Elevate the position of the actuarial profession in our society. 

1. Strengthen foundational actuarial capabilities while expanding beyond traditional actuarial skills

Training remains the cornerstone of our strategy. With our offer for permanent education, we want to contribute to the deepening and broadening of the professional skills of our members, in technical and more general areas. The actuary of the future will be using new techniques and will be engaged with emerging developments in evolving domains. We support our members to get familiar with these, while maintaining the specific actuarial view. Through the ongoing input of our members and working groups, we continue to refine our training approach to meet our members’ training needs. We collaborate with our academic partners and specialists on a range of topics, to come to an attractive and consistent training offer. We are not a closed house: also non-members are welcome at our trainings.

2. Strengthen engagement and foster the sense of belonging within the IA|BE actuarial community

IA|BE has more than 1.200 members. They work in insurance companies or other financial institutions, in consultancies or in agencies, in life or non-life, in multinationals or small business. They studied at Belgian universities, or abroad.  They are at the start or perhaps at the end of their career. We can apply a range of criteria to differentiate among our members.

We want the institute to focus not on what differentiates, but on what unites us. We want to build bridges with actuarial students, with the alumni from our universities, with people working on similar subjects in different institutions, and leverage our joint knowledge. We aim to enhance the social component in our activities, without losing sight of our professional duties and ambitions. 

IA|BE does not operate in isolation; it is part of AAE (Actuarial Association of Europe) and of IAA (International Actuarial Association), and as such part of a European and even worldwide network. We benefit largely from efforts in these organisations, also by Belgian members.

The Board wishes to give more visibility to the efforts made by members in the different committees, working groups and task forces, be it by communicating more clearly on these efforts or by promoting the output from their combined hand to the relevant stakeholders.

3. Elevate the position of the actuarial profession in our society

It is essential to actively engage stakeholders and the broader public to underscore the actuarial profession as an essential contributor to society. 

IA|BE commits to support regulators, where possible, by providing them with neutral actuarial expert opinions on regulatory matters linked to the actuarial profession.

Actuarial education, beginning at university and continuously enriched throughout one’s career, equips actuaries with a distinctive perspective. Given that a completely risk-free world does not exist, the actuarial profession is uniquely positioned to contribute objective expert insights to inform societal decisions.

One of the actuarial profession’s greatest challenges is effectively harnessing its collective expertise and articulating, with clarity and conviction, the actuarial perspective on key societal issues, such as regulation, climate change, cyber risk, pensions, intergenerational solidarity, equitable access to insurance, and beyond.

By bringing our expertise to the forefront of change, we can inspire students to pursue actuarial science and encourage society to listen more attentively to the actuarial voice. 

How we do this in practice

The Board appreciates the valuable input provided by numerous members through surveys on specific topics and areas of activity. These insights were instrumental in guiding the Board’s discussions and strategic direction.

Looking ahead, the Board is firmly committed to ensuring that our Institute remains future-oriented and resilient. This includes integrating young members and embracing emerging technologies and developments across evolving fields. We are confident that an actuarial career remains a compelling and rewarding path, and we will continue to invest in efforts that keep the actuarial profession vibrant and future-proof. Particular attention will also be given to strengthening our Institute’s governance, which serves as a fundamental pillar for implementing our strategic objectives.

With the view on the realisation of the three strategic objectives set for the 2025–2028 Board mandate, the Board has already outlined the following strategic actions: 

1. For strengthening (actuarial) capabilities and skills

• To convert the Annual Actuarial Afternoon into an Annual Actuarial Day, an unmissable knowledge-sharing and networking event; the first edition will be organized on 17 October 2025, at AG Campus;
• To structure a continuous training program; the headlines of our 2026 training offer will be announced at this first Annual Actuarial Day.

2. For strengthening the engagement with our members

• To organize the above-mentioned Annual Actuarial Day;
• To establish a more structured approach to support committees, working groups and task forces, recognising contributors’ efforts and ensuring a coordinated information flow towards IA|BE members.

3. For elevating the position of the actuarial profession in our society

• To strengthen the relationships with IA|BE’s stakeholders through a more active stakeholder management;
• To promote the actuarial profession towards university students (presentations in spring).