History
Foundation meeting of the Estonian Actuarial Society took place in Tallinn on January 10, 1999. By the time of foundation the first actuaries of insurance companies in Estonia had already gained some 3-4 years of professional experience and the idea of founding a single professional society was not entirely new. The first initiative group had been convened by the Insurance Inspection of Estonia in November 1997. However, circumstances became advantageous in 1998-99 when the Advanced Actuarial Diploma Course was organized in Vilnius, Lithuania. Next year September the participants decided to arrange a trip to the castle of Trakai. Over the picnic it was decided that the time was right to make a new start and convene a new initiative group. Invitations to participate in the foundation meeting were sent to all actuaries working in their profession at the time and to lecturers related to the teaching of actuarial mathematics at the University of Tartu.
The EAS had 17 founding members. The foundation meeting adopted the EAS statute and elected the management board of three members. The first board members were Eret Võsa, Merike Terask and Tarmo Koll (chairman of the board). Today the number of our members has increased and the management board has 4 members. According to membership status there are following members: Members.
In order to promote educational aspirations of our members, the EAS has set itself a goal to arrange different seminars and courses. One of our largest projects was to organise four 1-week training courses in 2001-2003. Most of the EAS members and guest participants from sister organizations in Latvia and Lithuania participated in these courses. The lecturers were distinguished professionals of the field: Howard Bolnick, Marina Adelsky (both from the USA), Simon Pollack (the UK) and Marco Micocci (Italy). Today we continue arranging different courses.
One objective of EAS was achieving international recognition as a high-level professional organization. Already in our third year from the foundation we achieved a full membership status in International Actuarial Association (IAA). In September 2002 the EAS obtained the status of an associate member in AAE (Actuarial Association of Europe), the organization which unites actuarial societies in Europe. For the time being our status has changed into full membership.
Our membership status in international organizations is not passive. Our members have represented us by participating in the work of different IAA and AAE committees. In March 2003 the EAS organized working meetings of two working groups of the AAE – Insurance Committee and Freedoms and General Purposes Committee. During the three days, 37 guests from 21 foreign countries were hosted in Tallinn. In May 2009 the EAS organized council and committee meetings of the IAA in Tallinn. During the four days 235 delegate from all over the world were hosted.
Since the foundation we have had very close co-operation with our sister organizations in Latvia (http://www.aktuars.lv) and Lithuania (http://www.aktuarai.lt). In addition to meetings at training courses, yearly pan-Baltic summer seminar and summer days are organized. The first such event took place in Latvia, followed by all Baltic countries successively.
