Actuarial Monitoring Programme
3 minute read
Overview
The FRC is responsible for setting and maintaining technical actuarial standards (TASs). The FRC Actuarial Monitoring Programme (‘the programme’) aids our assessment of the effectiveness of the TASs, helping us to set proportionate, outcome-focused standards in support of the reliability objective. It also provides an opportunity for practitioners to engage with us, with a view to assisting you in applying the principles-based standards in a proportionate and consistent way.
The programme is delivered through reviews to assess the quality of technical actuarial work carried out by actuarial practitioners, in particular assessing the practitioners’ compliance with the relevant actuarial standards.
Current programme
The FRC is inviting actuarial practitioners to express their interest in participating in the current programme on the topics set out below. The programme covers only UK technical actuarial work.
If you are interested in participating, please email your usual FRC actuarial contact or [email protected] to register your interest.
If you are interested in taking part but either unable to participate at this time or do not carry out work in the areas listed below, please contact us for a further discussion.
Insurance:
Topic and commencement date to be confirmed
Pensions:
Topic and commencement date to be confirmed
Funeral Plans:
- Solvency Assessment Reports
Recent programmes
The latest programme commenced in 2025 and is now closed to new participants. It covered the following topics:
Insurance:
- Own Risk and Solvency Assessment, focusing on determination and communication of solvency projections and stresses
- With-Profits business, ideally where the work involves customer communications e.g. preparing the annual With Profits Actuary report to policyholders
- Internal model validation exercises for non-life business
Pensions:
- Advice to trustees or sponsors on buy-in or buy-out transactions
Key observations
From time to time, the FRC publishes details of key observations from the monitoring programme to aid practitioners in applying the standards.
| Name | Actuarial Monitoring Programme – observations from pilot phase |
|---|---|
| Publication date | 7 April 2025 |
| Format | PDF, 572.3 KB. View HTML version |
What happens when I take part in the programme?
| Preliminary discussion | The FRC will have an informal preliminary discussion with you covering the practicalities of the review, including the terms of engagement. |
|---|---|
| Commencement | You will be invited to a planning meeting and will receive an information request and details of submission timescales. |
| Submission | You will be asked to submit information to the FRC electronically via SharePoint. |
| Review | During the review, the FRC may contact you to ask clarification questions / request further information. Informal discussions may take place with you. |
| Feedback | The FRC will provide initial feedback to you, which you can respond to, ahead of the FRC finalising the outcome of the review. |
What kind of information will I be asked to submit to the FRC and when?
When you join the programme the FRC will send you a detailed information request which we will discuss with you in the planning meeting. In general, we will be asking you to submit:
- Your written communication e.g. report provided to the intended user containing the actuarial information.
- Where appropriate, documentation underlying your technical actuarial work which supports your communication. For example, documentation which will allow technically competent persons to assess the judgements made.
- Documentation of evidence of your compliance with the relevant TASs, where this exists.
Typically, we will request submission of your information within one month of the planning meeting but we will confirm this with you in the planning meeting.
The information you provide will be treated in confidence by the FRC in line with the terms of engagement agreed with you and your organisation.
How will the FRC assess the quality of my actuarial work?
The FRC will be guided by whether your actuarial work meets the reliability objective as set out in the TASs and your compliance against the relevant TASs in force at the time of your work. We will not be validating data, assumptions, calculations, models or judgements exercised.
How will the outcome of the review be communicated to me?
The FRC will provide initial feedback to you privately on completion of the review. You will have an opportunity to provide a response to the initial feedback, after which we will finalise the feedback which will again be provided to you privately.
We may also publish anonymised themes from monitoring activities.
What happens if the FRC finds that my actuarial work is not compliant with the TASs?
Where the FRC observes potential non-compliance we would firstly look to engage with you to establish further factual information to validate or otherwise our assessment of non-compliance. Only in the most serious cases, such as where there are reasonable grounds to suspect there may have been misconduct, will the FRC consider referring matters to the Disciplinary Scheme of the IFoA or the FRC Actuarial Scheme.