The Financial Reporting Section, SIC section, Modeling Section and the CLIR sponsored research, published in 2017, to develop deterministic scenario sets reflective of the current life insurance industry environment. In this session the researcher will summarize the research and compare and contrast the resulting scenario sets to other sets that are commonly used in asset adequacy testing such as the New York 7 scenarios.
Mark Alberts is an independent consulting actuary whose clients include corporate and regulatory clients in the life insurance, annuity and supplemental health insurance spaces. Prior to starting his own firm, he was chief actuary for a mid-sized life insurance company. Mark is an active participant in SOA research, both as a volunteer and a researcher.
As an actuary, do you get asked questions about Social Security and Medicare, including the financial status of these programs? This session will provide a summary of the financial status of each program. Proposals for reform will also be discussed. Actuaries are able to provide additional insight into proposals and aid both the public and policymakers in understanding the status of the programs and the potential impact of proposals.
Ray Berry has over 25 years of experience in the design, funding, administration, and termination of all types of retirement plans. His focus has been on actuarial consulting and the financial reporting and accounting of employee benefit plans. Ray has spoken on retirement and welfare plan issues at various professional conferences.
Ray is an Associate of the Society of Actuaries (ASA), a Member, American Academy of Actuaries (MAAA), a Member, American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries (MSPA), and an Enrolled Actuary under ERISA (EA).
Ray is a consulting actuary with Grant Thornton LLP with a focus on accounting disclosures for retirement plans and retiree medical plans.
Risk adjustment is used in multiple health insurance markets as an attempt to compensate carriers for the relative cost difference in a population’s underlying health status. This session will explore foundational risk adjustment concepts, models and financial implications of how risk adjustment is used in practice. Topics will include the impacts of risk adjustment transfers on pricing, reserving and health plan operations.
Andrew Gottschalk is a Manager at the Chicago office of PwC’s Health Care Consulting Practice. He has worked with a range of clients including payers, providers, as well as federal and state regulators. His primary interests include pricing for commercial and Medicare Advantage plans, as well as rate setting considerations in Medicaid. More recently, he has lead multiple risk adjustment engagements focusing on risk score improvement.
Andrew graduated with honours from the University of Western Ontario. He is an Associate of the Society of Actuaries and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries.
This session will bring members up to date on health focused work at the Society:
Health Section – Timely AND Relevant – Strategic Initiatives, Subgroups, Webcasts and Seminars.
2017 Health Meeting – Some Sizzle in Florida
Health Research A Survey of Projects Recently Completed or in Progress.–
Provider Payment, Medicaid Margins, Risk Adjustment Tools, Opioid Use, and MORE
Case Study Competitions – This year it is an island!
Society of Actuaries July 2014-Present – Health Research Actuary
Rebecca is responsible for performing and coordinating research on health topics such as Public Health, Antibiotic Resistance, Specialty Pharmacy, the ACA risk pool, the impact to population health and health costs of intervention and management programs, alternate payment methodology methods, climate change and predictive health scoring methods. Reviews and edits research performed by contractors and volunteers. Represents the SOA with other research and public health organizations. Is active in the Health Section Council and several of the special interest subgroups such as Social Insurance and Public Finance, Medicaid, Medicare, Behavioral Finance, Modeling, Futurism and Forecasting.
Dr. Natalia S. Gavrilova, Ph. D.
Dr. Leonid Gavrilov
Session outlines methodological approaches to mortality analysis after age 85 years and describes methods of mortality estimates at advanced ages. Mortality analysis is illustrated using U.S.data (Social Security Administration Death Master File) and International data from the Human Mortality Database as well as the International Database on Longevity. Mortality modeling, approaches to hazard rate estimation, and analyses of late-life mortality trajectories are presented. Mortality improvement at advanced ages also will be discussed.
Dr. Natalia S. Gavrilova, Ph.D., is an expert in demographic methods, biomarkers of aging and health and early-life effects on longevity and a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America. She received her Ph.D. in anthropology and population science at the Moscow State University in Russia and her master degree in computer science at the University of Chicago. Her research projects were funded by international funding agencies, including the International Science Foundation, the European Union, and the National Institute on Aging (USA). She was a Co-Investigator of NIH-funded projects “Biodemography of Exceptional Longevity in the United States” and “Mortality in Central Asia.” She is an Editorial Board Member for international journal “Demografie” and grant reviewer for the National Institute on Aging and the Maurice Falk Institute for Economic Research in Israel. Dr. Natalia Gavrilova is currently working at the University of Chicago and the Center on Economics and Demography of Aging, NORC at the University of Chicago. She is a frequent speaker at the Society of Actuaries Living to 100 symposia and other actuarial meetings. Read more at: http://longevity-science.org/CV-gavrilova.htm
Dr. Leonid A. Gavrilov is an expert in biodemographic studies of human aging, mortality and longevity and a fellow of Gerontological Society of America. Dr. Gavrilov has over 20 years of professional experience in this area of research and published more than 80 scientific papers on related topics in collaboration with Dr. Natalia S. Gavrilova. Their book ‘The Biology of Life Span: A Quantitative approach’ is cited as a recommended reference by Encyclopedia Britannica.
Dr. Gavrilov was a Principal Investigator of several award-winning research projects, funded by the Society of Actuaries, National Institute on Aging, European Union (INTAS program) and the U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation (CRDF). He was a Principal Investigator of the NIA-funded research project “Biodemography of Exceptional Longevity in the United States.” He was an invited speaker at the Annual meetings of the Chicago Actuarial Association and Living to 100 symposia organized by the Society of Actuaries. Dr. Gavrilov is an Editorial Board Member of the scientific peer-reviewed journals Experimental Gerontology, Gerontology, Rejuvenation Research and others. Dr. Gavrilov is currently working at the Center on Economics and Demography of Aging, NORC at the University of Chicago. Read more at: http://longevity-science.org/CV-gavrilov.htm
Post-Retirement Needs and Risks: What Do We Really Know?
• Background
• Risk Survey and Public Attitude Research
• Managing Risks
• Shocks and Unexpected Expenses
• Income and Spending
• Influence of Parents Retirement
• Other Major Projects
• Consumer and Advisor Education
• Diverse Risks in Retirement Essays
• Conclusions
• Appendices
• Methodology
• Overview of Research
Carol Bogosian, President of CAB Consulting, is an Associate of the Society of Actuaries and has over 30 years of experience as an actuary providing advice on defined benefit and defined contribution pension plans and retirement planning issues. Before starting her own firm, she was a principal in a major consulting firm as a senior actuary and consultant providing retirement services to individuals and corporate clients. She completed the Financial Planning Certificate program, gaining her perspective of the employee’s overall financial needs. Her current interests are in improving financial education and literacy in the U.S.
She has published articles for the Plan Sponsor Council of America and WISER. She has spoken publicly at various professional associations on retirement and financial planning topics. She previously served on the Pension Section Council and currently serves on the Post Retirement Needs and Risk Committee of the Society of Actuaries and the Chicago Bar Associations’ Joint Task Force on Women and Aging. She also serves on the Employee Benefits Advisory Board for The John Marshall Law School.
Paul Fedchak, FSA, MAAA
Andrew Steenman, FSA, MAAA
The new principle-based reserve framework for life products became effective in the U.S. on January 1. Much of the discussion on PBR has been from a financial reporting perspective, but product development actuaries will also be on the front lines to answer questions like “Will prices go up or down?” and “Will product designs need to change?” Our panel will discuss research sponsored by the Society of Actuaries into how companies can overcome the logistical hurdles of the new reserve regime and adjust their pricing methods. You’ll learn about the critical assumptions and techniques to consider as your company looks at pricing in this new era.
Paul Fedchak is a principal and consultant in the Indianapolis office of Milliman. He joined the firm in 2007. Paul consults on life insurance and annuity products. He has been involved with universal life, with a focus on secondary guarantees, indexed universal life, and whole life. He has worked with these products in the contexts of product development and implementation, Cash Flow Testing, AG 38, AG 48, AG 49, SOP 03-1, corporate modeling, experience studies and assumption development. Paul also has robust experience with MG-ALFA modeling software.
Andrew Steenman is an actuary in the Indianapolis office of Milliman. He joined the firm in 2010. Andrew consults on life insurance and annuity products. He has been involved with universal life, universal life with secondary guarantees, fixed annuities and indexed annuities. He has worked with these products in the contexts of MG-ALFA modeling, financial reporting including principles based reserving, product development, mergers and acquisitions, and AXXX securitizations.
Tom Herget will talk about current group capital developments in the US. He will discuss the concept of capital, what capital should cover, the IAIS’ Insurance Capital Standard (the ICS), the US’s Fed’s group capital initiative and the US’s NAIC group capital initiative.
Rodrigo Careaga will cover the following topics:
1. IFRS Update
a. Expected timeline and next steps
b. High-level overview of the standard
c. Latest decisions (nov IASB meeting)
2. Industry Update
a. Implementation status of key players
b. Industry activity and key challenges
c. Lessons learnt
Tom Herget is a retired actuary who specialized in life insurance company reporting.
Tom is a former Director and Vice President of the SOA’s Board of Directors. He is a past president of the Chicago Actuarial Association, former editor of the SOA’s Financial Reporting Section newsletter, former chair of the SoA’s Financial Reporting Section and former member of the editorial board of the North American Actuarial Journal.
He is a former chair of the American Academy of Actuaries’ Solvency Committee. He currently serves as its representative to the International Actuarial Association’s Insurance Regulation Committee’s Solvency Subcommittee as well as chair of its Group Capital subgroup. Tom is a former Director of the American Academy of Actuaries.
Tom has served the profession in several research and authoring capacities:
Chief editor of U.S. GAAP for Life Insurers (2000 and 2006).
Co-editor of Insurance Industry Mergers & Acquisitions (2005).
Project Oversight Group (POG) chair for the Society of Actuaries’ three (2007,2010 and 2013) studies on profit emergence impact of the Preliminary Views, Exposure Draft and Re-Exposure Draft for insurance contracts published by the IASB .
Other research and articles include:
o Other Comprehensive Income (The Financial Reporter, March 2012)
o Acronyms for Actuaries, an inventory of insurance influencers (The Financial Reporter, March 2012)
o Are Black Swans Real? How to better recognize, assess and respond to emerging extreme events (The Actuary, April/May 2013 as well as SOA research)
o Network Model on Systemic Risk Identification (POG member) (SOA research, October 2012)
o EU/US Life Regulatory Structures (POG chair) (SOA research, July 2013)
o Regulatory Risk (SOA research) (underway)
o Trading Places – life and pension actuaries find common ground to express funding concepts (underway)
o Illustrating Multiple Measurement Bases and their Application (POG member) (underway)
Tom worked from 1982 to 2008 at PolySystems, Inc. where he was Executive Vice President and Principal Owner, responsible for customer support, consulting and implementation projects. Prior to that, Tom worked at The Hartford, Peat Marwick and CNA.
Tom holds a B.A. degree in Actuarial Science (1972) from the University of Illinois.
Rodrigo Careaga joined PwC in February 2016 as a Director in the Chicago office. He has over 15 years of consulting experience serving life and annuity insurance companies with focus on financial reporting measurement.
Rodrigo has led numerous projects assisting his clients in understanding the business implications of the new Insurance Contracts proposals from the FASB and IASB. His primary professional experience includes:
• Leading actuarial audits for insurance and reinsurance companies, including Purchase Accounting for business combinations.
• Assisting clients in reviewing and addressing complex IFRS, US GAAP and US Statutory financial reporting issues.
• Assisting clients in developing harmonized US GAAP accounting policies, methodologies and assumptions across the organization.
• Preparing comment letters and performing field testing on the proposed FASB and IASB Insurance Contracts standard.
• Implementing projection models for statutory valuations, and embedded value calculations for subsidiaries of a life insurance company in Mexico and Brazil.
• Assisting in actuarial system conversion and model validation engagements, as well as process and control related validation.
• Assisting in Sarbanes-Oxley 404 compliance engagement, including the risk/control analysis and testing portion.
Rodrigo volunteered for the Society of Actuaries research project on the 2013 International Financial Reporting Standards Exposure Draft and has presented at industry meetings on advanced financial reporting topics.
Luca Piazza is a Data Scientist working with Deloitte to develop its Cognitive practice. He 10+ years of experience working on topics such as IT Optimization, development of industry level predictive cognitive technologies, information extraction and natural language processing (NLP).
His statistical tool box include SAS, R, Python, Scala on Spark, Google Tensorflow.
He received a M.S. degree in Computer Science from Universita’ Degli Studi di Pavia (Italy) and a M.S. degree in Advanced Analytics from the Institute of Advanced Analytics at North Carolina State University.
Prince Nasr Harfouche
Prince is a Senior Manager in Deloitte ’s Actuarial, Risk and Advanced Analytics Practice. Prince has market eminence as a thought leader in Advanced Analytics, Risk Management and Measurement (Market, Credit, Operational and Liquidity Risks) , Portfolio Management Trading Systems, Fraud, Subrogation, Forensic Profiling, Business Intelligence and Process Optimization. He has fourteen years of experience in leading and managing the design, development, and implementation of all aspects of qualitative and quantitative methods, advanced predictive analytics and intelligent interim solutions to support business needs and regulatory requirements across insurance, capital markets, banking and securities. Prior to joining Deloitte, Prince held leadership roles with other consultancies, significant U.S. firms, regulatory agencies and at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), where he served as Director in the Risk and Strategy group and was responsible for the design, development and execution of all risk measurement and management strategies intended to drive the focus of the surveillance and examination program for all registered Broker-Dealers.
