Dec 2009: Does your actuarial organization provide value for money?

[actuary21c]

(NB this is a corrected version of my earlier thread which wasn't a multiple choice poll, which is necessary here since many US actuaries belong to the AAA as well as CAS or SOA).

A comparison of "dues" (US parlance, ="subscriptions" for UK members) both across actuarial organisations, and with other professional organisations, and over time (as compared with price and wage inflation) should enable us to explore which organisations have provided the best value for money, and to try and export best practice from one organisation to others.

A bit of research shows the following as the current (as of Dec 2009, as mentioned above, it will also be useful to see how these have increased over time) dues for the following organisations:

(Comparisons for Associates and students could also be carried out, but for simplicity I suggest just focussing -initially at least- on the costs charged to Fellows)

Society of Actuaries (US): $630 (for 2010 [presumably starting 1 Jan 2010], includes $55 for expenses of ASB and ABCD administered by the AAA [American Academy of Actuaries]) (source http://www.soa.org/files/pdf/about-schedule-dues.pdf)

Casualty Actuarial Society (US): $430 (for year from 1 Oct 2009, $510 for non AAA members to cover expenses of ASB and ABCD) (source http://www.casact.org/join/dueswaiver.pdf)

American Academy of Actuaries (US): $595 (for year from 1 Jan 2010) (source http://www.actuary.org/pdf/member/me...pplication.pdf)

Institute of Actuaries (UK): £690 (for year from 1 Oct 2009) (The Faculty of Actuaries has the same charge). (source: http://www.actuaries.org.uk/__data/a...subs200910.pdf)

Given that no extra dues are payable by members of the Institute/Faculty, an appropriate comparison would seem to be that UK actuaries currently pay about 690 * 1.60 (taking this as a rounded £/$ exchange rate, the spot rate as I write this is 1.62) = $1,104 p.a.

whereas FSOAs pay $630 + $595 - $55 (rebate from SOA if - as I have assumed for comparability - also member of AAA) = $1,170 p.a.

and FCASs pay $430 + $595 = $1,025

So the UK and US organisations are reasonably comparable in terms of membership costs at present, with CAS currently seeming to provide best value at present (on a simple cost measure).

But how does this compare with accountants (probably the most appropriate comparison), lawyers, doctors, optometrists and other professions?

How much have these dues increased over time? One might expect them to have increased in line with salary inflation, although there are other factors:
- increased costs from extra regulation following changes in legislation
- offsetting this should be extra revenue from Continuing Education/ CPD (Continuing Professional Development) seminars/conferences/courses etc.

I would like to investigate this next - any help on this will be most appreciated.