Effective May 1, 2003

Question: I used my EA credit to satisfy other requirements during the 2000 conversion. Can I apply my EA exam credit to the ASA Professional Development (PD) requirement?

Answer: Conversion credits may be used only once. Candidates who used their credit from EA examinations to satisfy requirements for Course 2, etc. may not also apply the EA examinations to the exam-validated requirement within Professional Development (toward ASA or FSA).

Question: I have more than 25 units of PD from the 2000 conversion. Do I lose credit for any units over the 25 units necessary to meet the examination-validated requirement of the ASA PD component?

Answer: Conversion credits allocated to PD are first applied to satisfying the examination-validated requirement. A candidate must have a minimum of 25 units to satisfy this requirement. If the candidate has a sufficient number of additional conversion PD credits, then 15 units are applied to the project component, and any remaining to the required seminar/meeting units (10). If the candidate does not have sufficient conversion credits to meet a given requirement in PD, then the credits are applied to the other requirements in the same order (e.g., a candidate with 20 units of conversion credit does not satisfy the exam-validated requirement, but would satisfy the project (15 units) and 5 of the seminar and meeting units. To use PD to satisfy ASA requirements, this candidate would be required to complete a substantial exam-validated option for 25 units, as part of the candidate’s overall 50 unit PD plan.)

Question: When can I apply for PD when I am using it towards the ASA requirements? Towards the FSA requirements?

Answer: To be eligible to begin PD, the candidate using PD for the ASA must have passed Courses 1-4, plus one of Courses 5, 6, or 8. The candidate using PD for the FSA must have passed all of Courses 1-8.

Question: If I want to use PD towards my ASA designation, am I permitted to earn PD credit from meetings and seminars that occur prior to the date that I file my initial plan with the SOA?

Answer: ASA candidates are strongly urged to file an initial plan prior to beginning the accrual of credits based on meeting and seminar attendance. Review of the initial plan will assure the candidate that he or she, in concert with an advisor have designed a plan with clearly articulated objectives and that is cohesive and well integrated.

Question: I’m currently an ASA but I haven’t completed Course 7 or 8. Can I go ahead and start my PD plan? You’re allowing pre-ASAs to do so, so why not allow current ASAs to submit plans ahead of passing Course 7 and 8?

Answer: The provisions for submitting PD plans to meet Fellowship requirements are unchanged. ASAs who use the PD component towards their Associateship requirements will be asked to complete a second PD plan upon completion of Courses 1-8. While the examination-validated option used in completing PD toward ASA will carry forward, the project completed within the earlier PD plan is only valid for five years (i.e., candidates taking more than five years to pass the remaining requirements of Courses 1-8 will be required to complete a new project), and the seminar/meeting/program units included in the PD plan for FSA must be entirely new.