Claims of unfair dealing have been made by a rebel actuarial group over plans to merge the Scottish and English institutes
A bitter row has erupted over the future of the actuarial profession ahead of a meeting in Edinburgh tomorrow at which rebel actuaries intend to scupper the proposed merger of the Scottish and English professional institutes.
Ronnie Sloan, former principal at actuarial consultancy Punter Southall, and leader of the merger opposition group Fidelis, said: “Some of my fellow professionals have been behaving like an East European politburo as they seek to push this through.”
The joint councils of the London-based Institute of Actuaries and the Edinburgh-based Faculty of Actuaries will poll their members at special general meetings in Edinburgh and London on July 23.
But Sloan, a fellow of the Faculty of Actuaries, the Scottish professional body, has become a thorn in their side. Having requisitioned tomorrow’s meeting, Fidelis will use it to “highlight the one-sided nature of the propaganda emanating from both councils”.
“Members have been bombarded by biased survey results and promotional posters,” said Sloan.
He said the councils were slow to alert members to Fidelis’s existence and have refused to grant Fidelis access to membership lists and email addresses, making it difficult for it to get its message across.
Sloan said: “We were five times refused a platform in the material to be issued to the membership about the merger vote, until we requisitioned a special general meeting on the subject, when we were allowed to prepare a 750-word anti-merger statement.
“However, this was accompanied by yet another pro-merger statement prepared by a new group called ‘Actuaries for the Merger’ formed by the faculty council itself.”
He said the joint councils had obliged Fidelis to pay the full rate-card cost — £5,000 — for one and a half pages of advertising in The Actuary magazine, while those backing the merger have had four full-page ads in the latest issue “at members’ expense”.
Supporters of the merger, led by Stewart Ritchie, former president of the faculty, say that the profession has been run with common exams and disciplinary procedures since 1995, and have promised a stronger Scottish council and other concessions.
Ronnie Bowie, president of the Faculty of Actuaries and senior partner of the Hymans Robertson consultancy, said: “It is neither true nor fair to make claims of propaganda about the merger coming from the faculty and the institute.
“Nor is there any truth in the allegation that the Fidelis group has been refused access to our membership. Members of the profession were made aware of Fidelis’s stated aims in an e-newsletter in February and in the March edition of The Actuary.”
This article was published in The Sunday Times on 28 June 2009