Troy Weick
Neil Lund, FSA, MAAA, FCA

Workshop Presentation

Kemi Akinyemi, FSA, MAAA, EA
Andrew Chandler

The presenters will discuss the results from this recently released study, conducted by Risk & Regulatory Consulting, LLC on behalf of the Society of Actuaries, Casualty Actuarial Society, and Canadian Institute of Actuaries. The study examines the causes of insurer insolvency from a broad perspective. Property/Casualty, Life, and Health insurers are analyzed together in order to understand the extent to which risk drivers underlying insolvencies are common across these areas. The goal of the study is to assist actuaries, regulators, and other stakeholders in identifying potential risk drivers related to insolvency.

Kemi Akinyemi’s expertise involves a broad range of Life actuarial services including life and annuity statutory reserve analysis; review of asset adequacy analysis as part of actuarial examinations; and training for insurance departments. She also provides actuarial consulting services to pension and Other Post Employment Benefit (OPEB) plans by assisting in their reviews on behalf of corporations and state and local governments. In this role, she evaluates pension plans and reports on their financial soundness to plan members, sponsors, and Federal regulators.

Prior to joining Risk & Regulatory Consulting, LLC, Kemi was a Senior Associate at Grant Thornton, where she prepared actuarial valuation reports for public sector clients under GASB 45 and GASB 67/68, developed tools to project assets and liabilities for mergers & acquisition feasibility studies and supported audits of pension plans and retiree-health plans, and reviewed withdrawal liability calculations for multi-employer plans. She was also a senior consultant at Deloitte Consulting, where she prepared annual valuation reports, financial disclosures and expense reports for required funding and financial accounting purposes under ASC 715 and ASC 960. Prior to that Kemi worked at Allstate.

Kemi is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries, and an Enrolled Actuary and received a Bachelor of Science in Actuarial Science and Mathematics, With Distinction, from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln.

Andrew Chandler is an experienced property & casualty actuary specializing in P&C loss reserving. He provides actuarial support to insurance departments and corporate self-insureds.

Prior to joining RRC, he was a Senior Associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC). In this role, he managed loss reserve analyses across a large client portfolio, worked directly with the Chief Risk Officer of the actuarial group’s largest client to evaluate their loss reserve adequacy, supervised quarterly analyses from initiation to execution and adhered to strict timelines, managed a team of associates and mentored them on constructing loss triangles, data testing, projecting ultimate losses, and estimating future cash flows, and led year-end engagements to assist clients in meeting SAO regulatory filing requirements.

Andrew is an Associate of the Casualty Actuarial Society and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries and received a Bachelor of Science in Statistics and mathematics from the University of Michigan.

Workshop Presentation

Charles F. Larimer, FSA, MAAA
Consulting Actuary
C F Larimer Consulting, LLC

Alex Nathan (PhD candidate)

Charles F. Larimer is a Fellow in the Society of Actuaries, and a Member of the American
Academy of Actuaries, and has over 35 years experience in the health care industry. His
clients include employers, hospitals and physician groups. His projects include incurred but
not reported (IBNR) reserves including pmpm trend analysis and analysis of changes in claim
payment patterns, primary care capitation development and analysis, physician fee schedule
analysis and development, analysis of risk and bonus arrangements, analysis of IPA and PHO
claims, benefit variation cost analysis, and GASB 45 post retirement valuations for public
employer groups.
He was previously a partner at Bob Gold & Associates, Inc., which was acquired by Ernst and
Young, LLC. Bob Gold & Associates, Inc. served over one hundred HMOs, PPOs and Insurance
companies, as well as numerous PHOs, physician groups, and hospitals in dealing with
managed care.
Prior to that he was an Officer at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, and Manager of Pricing at
CNA Insurance Company in Chicago

Alex Nathan is a PhD candidate in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences at Northwestern University. His work focuses on applying advanced analytics and machine learning to better understand consumer behavior and devise strategies for more effectively managing customer retention and acquisition. Alex has worked with various companies in the analytics space, including the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Viacom. He is the cofounder of Alma Analytics, and holds a B.Sc. in Applied Mathematics from Johns Hopkins University. In his free time he enjoys playing tennis, cooking and traveling.

Charles Larimer’s Workshop Presentation

If you would like a copy of Alex Nathan’s Workshop Presentation, please reach out to him directly.

Alietia Coughran, Ph.D.

Integrating new Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) developments into a current business management framework may require significant effort. Based on new research sponsored by the CIA/CAS/SOA Joint Risk Management Section Research Committee, this session identifies current practice and challenges that may occur in gaining acceptance for an ERM strategy and outlines strategies for achieving stakeholder engagement.

Alietia Caughron is Vice President of ERM at CNA where she is responsible for leading the company’s Enterprise Risk & Economic Capital teams and has oversight of the company’s Own Risk & Solvency Assessment (ORSA). Prior to joining CNA she led several predictive modelling teams and before that spent a number of years in pricing and risk management consulting roles. Alietia holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and is currently Chair of the Casualty Actuarial Society’s Committee for the Theory of Risk and a member of the SOA/CAS/CIA Risk Management Section’s Research committee.

Workshop Presentation

Bruce McNeil

The presentation will involve a discussion of new section 83(i) and changes to section 162(m) of the Internal Revenue Code.”

Bruce J. McNeil is an attorney in Boston, Massachusetts, practicing in the employee benefits area. Earlier in his career, he was an attorney with the Employee Plans Technical and Actuarial Division of the Internal Revenue Service in Washington, D.C. Mr. McNeil received a B.A. from Concordia College (1979), a JD from Drake University Law School (1982), an LLM from Georgetown University Law Center (1983), and an MA in English from Georgetown University (1987). He is a member of the District of Columbia, Connecticut, Minnesota, Iowa, and North Dakota Bars. He is also a member of the United States Supreme Court, the United States Tax Court, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, and a number of district courts.

Mr. McNeil testified before the United States Senate Committee on Finance on executive compensation matters during hearings on the Enron Corporation. He is a Fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel. He was appointed to serve on the U. S. Department of Labor’s Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans by the former Cabinet Secretary of Labor, Elaine Chao. He has been an adjunct professor of Law at the University of Minnesota Law School.

Mr. McNeil was selected by the Plan Sponsor Council of America (“PSCA”) to lead a meeting with the U. S. Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) where the topic of discussion was non-qualified deferred compensation plans. The meeting was spurred by an inquiry to the GAO by Senator Bernie Sanders. Mr. McNeil serves as Chair of the PSCA’s Non-Qualified Deferred Compensation Committee and is considered one of the country’s foremost experts in the area of non-qualified deferred compensation. Mr. McNeil is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Pension Planning & Compliance and the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Deferred Compensation. The journals are both quarterly publications distributed nationally. Mr. McNeil is the author of more than 34 books and the author or co-author of over 100 published articles on employee benefit matters.

Dr. Natalia S. Gavrilova, Ph.D.
Dr. Leonid A. Gavrilov

Finding reliable data on mortality at advanced ages is always a challenge, and determining rates of mortality improvement at those ages is difficult, as well. This 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) with special emphasis on data quality at advanced ages. Mortality modeling, approaches to hazard rate estimation, and analyses of late-life mortality trajectories are presented. Mortality improvement at advanced ages is also 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’s 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 the international journal “Demografie” and a 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 The 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, the National Institute on Aging, the 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 Workshops Meetings of the Chicago Actuarial Association and the 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

Workshop Presentation

Dale Hall, FSA, CERA, CFA, MAAA

As part of the 2017 SOA Strategic Plan, the purpose of the Strategic Research Programs Initiative was to identify the key industry and societal issues that the SOA should focus on as specified research programs in the coming years. This session will cover the steps that were taken to accomplish this goal. A task force was assembled to help with the following objectives:

Identify potential programs and evaluation criteria using facilitated group discussions and interviews with key staff, volunteers, SOA Board members, actuarial employers, stakeholders, regulators and media to create the initial lists of potential program topics and evaluation criteria.
Identify key programs using consistent application of the evaluation criteria and identify 4 ‐ 6 lead programs for SOA focus.
Determine the appropriate volunteer committee and staff structure to effectively and consistently produce research, research dissemination and communications in the selected programs.
Deliver the 2018 Implementation Plan to the SOA Board of Directors.

Workshop Presentation

Jay Jaffe, FSA, MAAA
Elliot Chanen

The session has been designed for both newer and more experienced actuaries. It will cover the following specific topics:

• The concept of professionalism
• Email professionalism
• Conflicts of Interest
• Professionalism inflection points

Each topic will be quickly presented and be followed by a discussion. The goal of the program is to expand actuaries’ understanding and involvement with professionalism.

Jay Jaffe, FSA, MAAA is President of Actuarial Enterprises, Ltd. He provides actuarial and marketing consulting services to insurance companies, banks, and insurance agencies/TPA’s. In addition to being a frequent speaker at actuarial meetings, Jay has made presentations to numerous insurance and marketing conferences throughout North American, Europe, and Australia. He has been a frequent author for Bests, Direct Marketing, The National Underwriter and several actuarial publications. Because of Jay’s experience in both actuarial science and marketing, he provides a very unique perspective to his clients. He is particularly adept at developing new and innovative insurance products and programs. One of his best-known concepts is the “Dog Bone New Product Rating System.” Jay earned his AB at Brown University in 1962 and his MS at MIT in 1964.

Elliot Chanen is a Consultant at The Terry Group just starting down the actuarial path. He graduated from Stanford University in 2016 with a BS in Mathematical and Computational Science. After a post-graduate gap year, during which Elliot traveled and pursued passions, he returned to his home town of Chicago. He started at The Terry Group in September of 2017 and has been sped into crash courses on data science, predictive analytics, health care, and the actuarial path as a whole. Elliot passed his first exam (P) in September and (***by the time the event happens, will have***) passed his second exam (FM) in February. When Elliot is not studying for exams, he enjoys playing card games and cheering for Chicago sports teams.

Workshop Presentation

Alex Zaidlin, FSA, MAAA, ACIA
Benjamin Farsnworth, FSA, MAAA, CFA

When was the last time your company reviewed its model governance framework? How much resource and time investment does it take for you to implement a model change? Do you have an effective model control framework in place?

Imagine model governance that accelerates the ability to make changes and make controls more effective. The time is now to focus on establishing model governance standards, build out the model control framework and carry out periodic model validation. Model governance in the production environment can be time consuming if not managed properly and you could risk your model getting clunky and cumbersome. Model owners need to balance competing priorities and manage their off-production cycle calendars very carefully. This session will take a fresh look at considerations around building model governance, discuss components of the model governance framework and guidance for successful execution of model governance in a production environment.

Alex is a Director at the Risk Analytics practice of KPMG LLP. He has over 12 years of experience with consulting, insurance and reinsurance firms. His actuarial experience includes transformation engagements, actuarial modeling and model enhancement projects, pricing and valuation, actuarial software conversions, actuarial audits, experience analysis, product and assumption development. Alex has helped multiple clients across North America build, implement and maintain their model governance frameworks around actuarial modeling. Alex is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, Member of the American Academy of Actuaries and Associate of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries.

Ben is a director in KPMG’s Risk Analytics practice with over 15 years’ experience in the life insurance industry. His current areas of focus include financial transformation, business analytics, model validation and risk analysis, and actuarial audits. Ben has also worked to develop a new model governance framework as part of transformation projects and reduce the model risk that has existed with legacy model processes. He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, Member of the American Academy of Actuaries and CFA charter holder.

Workshop Presentation

Arsen Arutyunov, ASA
Phil Weeber

The topic of this session will focus covering the current practices surrounding hedging the base contract of a Fixed Index Annuity (FIA). The presentation will detail capital market principals employed in the evaluation of embedded derivatives and hedge strategy assessment. Risk assessment through performance attribution will also be covered for common FIA hedge derivatives. The presentation will conclude by reviewing emerging trends in hedge practices that surround FIA products.

Arsen is a Senior Pre-Sales Financial Engineer at Numerix and provides actuarial solutions to clients focusing on hedge strategy design and implementation, liability modeling, and risk-neutral valuation with a focus on Fixed Index Annuities and Variable Annuities.

Prior to joining Numerix, Arsen served as an Associate Actuary for Sammons Financial Group working on experience studies and financial planning models for fixed indexed annuities and indexed universal life. Arsen is an Associate of the Society of Actuaries.

Phil is an Executive Director within Chatham Financial’s Insurance practice which advises on financial risk management and provides outsourced hedging and accounting operations. Previously, Phil was the Executive Director of Chatham’s global Commodity Risk practice where he designed and implemented risk management strategies for airlines, mining companies, and industrial manufacturers. Since joining Chatham in 2003, Phil has worked across asset classes – interest rates, currencies, equities and commodities – advising clients with risk strategy, hedging implementation and execution.

Phil holds a MBA from Emory (Goizueta) University, a Masters in Environmental Engineering from the University of North Carolina, and a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Michigan.

Workshop Presentation