Jim Christie, Partner, Ernst & Young LLP

Jim leads Ernst & Young LLP’s Canadian property and casualty actuarial practice.  He is responsible for both the development of this practice and its integration into Ernst & Young LLP’s global insurance and actuarial group to serve the financial services industry.

Jim has extensive experience as a senior insurance executive as well as a management consultant and professional actuary.  He has practical working knowledge ranging from large international insurance corporations to small entrepreneurial operations.  His expertise includes financial reporting, mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructuring, product design and pricing, claim reserving, and reinsurance design.  His actuarial practice includes all major lines of property and casualty insurance, as well as specialty lines like surety, warranty, and title insurance.

Jim is the appointed actuary for many Canadian insurers and reinsurers.  Jim is a frequent speaker and panelist on insurance issues.  He has written papers on automobile insurance product reform and International Financial Reporting Standards.

Jim has served a term as Secretary-Treasurer of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries and two terms as a member of its Board of Directors. He has also served as a Vice-President and as Chair of the Eligibility and Education Council.  In addition he has served on numerous CIA standing groups such as the Appointed Actuary Committee, Property-Casualty Financial Reporting Committee (chair 90-94), Canadian Loss Reserve Seminar Committee, Committee on Environmental Liabilities, and Younger Actuaries Committee (chair 1988), as well as task forces on Flexible Education, Accident Benefits Reserving, Peer Review, International Accounting Standards, Pension Reform and Corporate Governance. In 2001, the CIA awarded Jim its gold service medal for his volunteer activities to the Canadian actuarial profession.

Jim has served as Vice President – Admissions of the Casualty Actuarial Society. He has also served on its Board of Directors and numerous CAS standing groups such as Long Range Planning Committee, Education Policy Committee, Professionalism Committee, and Examination Committee, as well as task forces on the appointed actuary and rights of associates.

Jim has been active in many insurance industry associations such as the Association of Canadian Insurers, the Insurance Bureau of Canada and the Facility Association. He is currently chair of the Actuarial Advisory Committee of the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (“OSFI”).
Jim has presented briefs to the Alberta Automobile Insurance Board, the Ontario Automobile Insurance Board, the Newfoundland Board of Public Utilities, and the New Brunswick Board of Public Utilities, as well as many provincial legislative committees working on automobile insurance issues. He currently provides on-going actuarial guidance to the New Brunswick Insurance Board.

Jim has served for eleven years (three years as vice chair) on the Board of Directors of Erinoak, a treatment centre for disabled children and young adults.

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