Creating this group as a catalyst to either improving the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries or to be a competitive group in its own right. The IFoA is on record as saying that actuaries do not need to be a member of it to practise as an actuary in the UK, unless in a very small number of reserved roles where by law a Practising Certificate is needed. Many actuaries feel that the IFoA is currently very expensive, secretive, overbearing, unresponsive, and operates an exam system that seems designed more to keep the number of qualified actuaries low than to test knowledge and skills. The aim of this group is to improve that situation or provide an alternative.