Pete Miller, ASA, MAAA
Ronora Stryker, ASA, MAAA

Recently the Society of Actuaries launched its Mortality and Longevity Strategic Research Program to provide relevant industry research to inform the profession on the latest trends impacting mortality and longevity.  In this session, attendees will be introduced to the Program and its activities including results from the recently released report “US Population Mortality Observations, Updated with 2018 Experience.”

Pete Miller, ASA, MAAA, is an Experience Study Actuary with the Society of Actuaries. His primary responsibilities are for disability and long-term care studies. Prior to joining the SOA in August, 2015, Pete worked for PolySystems for nearly 14 years, where he primarily supported PolySystems’ experience study system, Measure. He also has a deep background in life insurance and annuity valuation from his previous employment at two insurance companies.

Ronora Stryker, ASA, MAAA is a Senior Practice Research Actuary for the Society of Actuaries. In her role, she supports the SOA’s mortality and longevity and enterprise risk management practice research initiatives. She is the SOA staff lead for the Mortality and Longevity Strategic Research Program and the Living to 100 Symposium. Ronora has authored numerous articles and speaks frequently at industry meetings on the research she supports. Prior to joining the SOA, Ronora was a consulting actuary specializing in individual health insurance pricing and product development.

Sue Simon, EA, ASA, MAAA

Do you have a client considering plan termination, or one that perhaps should be?  Deciding whether, when, and how to terminate requires thoughtful consideration and planning.  This session will share insights on the considerations for plan sponsors in evaluating the decision of whether to terminate and what steps they should (or should not) take during the planning and preparation phase.

Sue Simon will also give an update from the SOA and Retirement Section Council regarding key section initiatives and priorities.

Sue Simon is a Principal and the Chicago Market Leader for Buck Global LLC. She has 30 years of experience working as an actuary with publicly-traded corporations and privately-held companies in a variety of industries including manufacturing, financial services and healthcare. Throughout her career, Sue has partnered with plan sponsors to de-risk and redesign their defined benefit and defined contribution retirement programs.

Jason Kehrberg, FSA, MAAA

This presentation will review highlights from recent LATF conference calls and NAIC meetings, and provide statutory regulatory updates including upcoming changes to the Valuation Manual will be discussed.  We will also go over Academy PBR resources.

Jason Kehrberg, FSA, MAAA, has over 20 years of experience in the insurance industry.  Jason works in PolySystems’ sales area and monitors regulatory developments in the insurance industry.  Jason currently chairs the Academy’s Life Valuation Committee and also chairs the project oversight group for the multi-organizational (Academy, ACLI, NAIC) PBR YRT Reinsurance Field Test.  Jason has also served on both the Financial Reporting and Technology section councils at the SOA.

Sally Ezra

Sid Bennett

After introducing the essential aspects of US patent law of interest to inventors and managers, a discussion of recent changes in the law, both in legislation and in practice, will utilize examples of claims that are and are not patentable in the present situation to assist in evaluating whether an invention could be protected by a US patent.

Engineer, inventor, retired business executive and patent agent, Sid Bennett received the BSEE from Cornell University and the MSEE from New York University and is registered to represent inventors before the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). He has varied engineering and management experience in industry over a 40 year career in upper atmosphere physics, radar, radio communications, signal analysis and direction finding, international broadcasting, and optical fiber gyroscopes and navigation systems. He has been awarded 14 US patents. For a decade he chaired the IEEE Gyro and Accelerometer Panel, the international standards body, and is a past president of the Chicago Engineers’ Foundation. In addition to representing inventors, he is an active member of the Independent Group (IG) of international experts participating in the search for the vanished Malaysian Airlines flight MH370.

Juliet Spector, FSA, MAAA

We will discuss the current state of the LTC market including challenges and opportunities (LTC reform, combo products, and short term care).

Juliet is a Principal & Consulting Actuary with the Chicago office of Milliman. She joined the firm in 2002.

Juliet offers guidance and experience to both providers and insurers in understanding and estimating the complex financial risks associated with healthcare costs.

Juliet lends actuarial expertise to enable providers to understand a patient-centered quality care delivery system.  She develops customized actuarial cost models to allow her provider clients to maximize revenue when implementing changes to reimbursement strategies or capitation rates. She develops customized utilization and cost benchmarks to enable a focus on quality of care and best practices.  She has experience analyzing and pricing bundled payments and doing longitudinal analysis of specific disease states.  She helps providers with commercial, Medicare, and Medicaid reimbursement arrangements.

Juliet is adept at analyzing large data sets and applying different statistical techniques in order to draw meaningful conclusions and create benchmarks.

Juliet has consulting experience working with individual and small group health insurance companies and their products, including long-term care. She has experience in product development and pricing, state insurance department rate filings, experience analysis, and financial modeling.  She has significant long-term care valuation expertise.

Juliet received her BA in Mathematics from Northwestern University.  She is a member of the Long-term Section Council of the Society of Actuaries.

Adam Coolman, FSA, MAAA

Reinsurers have been using “Big Data” (i.e. client data) for years to perform experience studies. Come learn about the nuances of actual to expected reporting and the numerous varieties of experiences studies reinsurers may undertake.

At Swiss Re since 2002, Adam Coolman has acquired 15+ years of experience related to Life & Health pricing. Past experiences revolved around deal reviews, pricing tool support, open treaty reviews, and pricing accuracy experience studies. In his current role as a client actuary, his primary focus is on pricing and approving traditional life reinsurance deals.

Kevin Poenisch, ASA
Geoff Bridges, FSA, MAAA, FCA, EA

The financial health of public pension plans has been a source of concern to plan sponsors and taxpayers.  This session will examine the assumption landscape used by public sector pension plans, and discuss issues especially for underfunded plans.

Kevin Poenisch is a Senior Actuarial Analyst with Gabriel, Roeder, Smith & Company and an Associate of the Society of Actuaries. He has four years public sector pension consulting experience.

Geoff Bridges is a Senior Consultant and Actuary in Segal’s Chicago office with over 20 years of experience consulting to sponsors of defined benefit pension plans. His responsibilities include reviewing actuarial valuations and projections, and assisting with actuarial cost studies and experience studies. Mr. Bridges’ expertise includes deterministic cost and funding level projections, plan design analyses, experience studies and actuarial audits.

Prior to joining Segal in 2017, Mr. Bridges was a Senior Consultant at an insurance company with a defined benefit consulting practice. In this position, he managed and analyzed defined benefit and post-retirement welfare benefit valuations and assisted clients with various funding, accounting, administrative and plan design issues.

Mr. Bridges received a BA in Mathematics from Reed College and a MS in Applied Mathematics from the University of Washington. He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries, a Fellow of the Conference of Consulting Actuaries and an Enrolled Actuary.

William J. Gorski, FSA, MAAA, FRM
Stephanie T. Crownheart, FSA, MAAA

This session will cover the following:

• Introduction
• GAAP Liabilities
• Retrospective Unlocking
• Assumption Unlocking
• Discount Rate Unlocking
• Disaggregation
• Accounting for Expenses
• Market Risk Benefits

Our objective is not just to list the changes coming under ASU2018-12 (LDTI), but to describe the impact from the perspective of someone whose job will be to report and explain the GAAP earnings results.

Bill Gorski has a diverse background of more than 25 years in life insurance in both the US and internationally. He began his career doing pricing and product development with ING in the US. Prior to joining L&E, he spent 7 years overseas in Australia and then in Switzerland. During that time, he specialized in financial reporting, market consistent valuation and solvency capital models. His international financial reporting background, first under Australian GAAP and during the development of IFRS 17, brings a different perspective to the recent changes to US GAAP.

Stephanie Crownhart, FSA, MAAA is a Vice President in the Kansas City office of Lewis & Ellis and has 10 years of life insurance experience.  She began her career as a pricing actuary at Generali USA Life Reassurance which was later acquired by SCOR Global Life. She held this position for 5 years and was exposed to a wide range of life products offered in the life insurance industry. Her consulting role at Lewis & Ellis has provided experience in the areas of enterprise risk management, experience studies, policy form review, pricing and product development.  Her recent experience includes statutory and GAAP actuarial audit work, asset adequacy analysis, valuation and financial reporting for life insurance.