Carol Bogosian, A.S.A.

Since 2001, the Society of Actuaries has conducted surveys on how the public understands and manages various post-retirement risks. In 2017, the SOA conducted the 9th biannual post-retirement risk survey of pre-retirees and retirees and interviews with retirees age 85 and older and their adult children. Topics of emphasis for the survey are long-term care and caregiving, housing, and financial wellness. The 85 and older interviews build on earlier work of focus groups with individuals retired more than 15 years and more than 10 years. This is particularly interesting, because now the SOA has conducted research at multiple stages throughout retirement. This presentation will provide key up-to-date findings, trends and insights from both studies.

Pension actuaries, as well as those who advise and build retirement products for individuals, will benefit from the insights coming from this research, gaining more knowledge on post-retirement risks and how they are managed.

Carol is the President of CAB Consulting and an Associate of the Society of Actuaries, She 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 a 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 previously served on the Employee Benefits Advisory Board for The John Marshall Law School.

Workshop Presentation

Mervyn Kopinsky, FSA, EA
Pete Miller, ASA, MAAA

The 2003 – 2014 Individual Life Mortality Experience dataset contains the combined experience of over 300 million policy exposure years, with almost 3 million death claims. The session will cover what’s in the data, how it has been collected, where to access it, how to analyze it (CSV files and Excel), and then give an overview of some of the results from the data and caveats about interpretation.

In January, the SOA released the U.S. Population Mortality Observations report, updated with 2016 experience. In addition to overall experience, the top 10 causes of death were covered as well as a section on opioid deaths. Mortality was analyzed over time (1999-2016), by gender and by income level. This session will cover the highlights of the report and discuss methodology.

Mervyn Kopinsky, FSA, EA recently joined the Society of Actuaries in a research position as an Experience Studies actuary. Mervyn has more than 25 years experience working as a consulting pension actuary. He is currently involved in researching the application of Predictive Modeling techniques to large data sets, as well as assisting the SOA with its ongoing experience studies. Mervyn is originally from South Africa where he graduated with an MSc. in statistics

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.

Jeff Holman

Hal Kolpak, ASA, MAA
Aria Zhou, ASA, CERA, MAAA

This session will provide an overview of the recently enacted TCJA provisions that impact life insurance companies. It will focus on the changes to reserve calculations under Internal Revenue Code section 807. The session will also cover actuarial considerations related to the new reserve calculations with respect to life, annuity and health insurance contracts.

Hal Kolpak, ASA, MAAA, is a Manager at Ernst & Young LLP and works in their Hartford, CT office. He has been with the company for 7 years and is responsible for life company tax reserve auditing. His background includes over 30 years of life actuarial experience dealing with life insurance, annuity and health products.

Aria Zhou, ASA, CERA, MAAA, is a Senior at Ernst & Young LLP and works in the Chicago office. She has been with the company for 3 years, working in areas including life company tax reserve auditing and product tax compliance. Her experience includes both life insurance and annuity products.

Workshop Presentation

Jennifer Fleck, FSA, MAAA

The Society of Actuaries’ (SOA) Product Development Section has recently completed a research study regarding waiver of premium/deduction riders attached to individual life products. This session will share the results of the survey that dug into how these riders were designed, developed, managed, and reserved for. The current valuation standard for these riders is based on the 1952 Disability Study of the SOA. We will review the tables included in the 1952 Disability Study and compare them to tables that have been developed since then for use with other disability products. This session will be of interest to any actuary working in life or disability insurance, whether on group or individual products.

Jennifer Fleck is a consulting actuary with the Portland, Maine, office of Milliman specializing in disability and group life insurance. Her areas of expertise include product design, pricing, reinsurance, and financial modeling. Prior to joining Milliman, Jennifer had over 20 years of experience pricing and managing various products, from both a direct and a reinsurance perspective, including group disability, life, retirement plans and health, and individual life and annuities. Jennifer was previously with Sun Life Financial, Unum, and The Hartford, where she held senior actuarial roles in pricing (both large and small cases), modeling, data management, reinsurance pricing and client management. Jennifer is the vice-chairperson of SOA Waiver of Premium Experience Study Committee and a member of the SOA Group Life Experience Committee.

Workshop Presentation (SOA Website)

Michael Beck, FSA, FIA
Nate Bernardi, ASA, CERA, MAAA

At the December NAIC meeting in Hawai’i, much of the talk was surrounding the Quantitative Impact Study updates to AG43 and C3P2. In this session, Michael Beck, FSA, FIA and Nathan Bernardi, ASA, CERA, MAAA provide an overview of the proposed changes to these guidelines as a result of the Quantitative Impact Study.

Michael is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and the Society of Actuaries with experience in both Europe and North America. In his role as a manager at KPMG he performs both audit and advisory work for clients. His primary area of focus is embedded value (both EEV and MCEV) while he is also active in regulatory updates on IFRS 17, NAIC AG43 changes and the ICS.

Nathan is a senior associate in KPMG’s Risk Analytics practice. He has over 5 years experience in both industry and consulting. He performs both audit and advisory work for clients, with a specialization in valuation. He is an Associate of the Society of Actuaries, Member of the American Academy of Actuaries, and Chartered Enterprise Risk Analyst.

Workshop Presentation

Xuan Deng, ASA, MAAA
Cassie He, FSA, MAAA

In today’s world, working with “disruption” has become a high priority agenda for many traditional financial companies. Robotics promises to deliver a solution to automate manual processes, by disrupting traditional work & processes with faster and more cost effective solutions.
In this session, we will introduce the concept of robotics and its uses and potential adoptions within the insurance sector. We will focus on RPA and illustrate some ways where RPA can aid companies with their operational and actuarial processes.

Xuan Deng is a manager in the Insurance and Actuarial Advisory Services practice of Ernst & Young LLP’s Financial Services Office. She is based in Chicago. She has seven years of experience in the life insurance industry, focusing on actuarial transformation, financial modeling, financial reporting and life insurance taxation. Xuan is a graduate of University of Illinois and is an Associate of the Society of Actuaries and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries.

Cassie He is a manager in the Insurance and Actuarial Advisory Services practice of Ernst & Young LLP’s Financial Services Office. She is based in Philadelphia and has five years of experience in the life insurance industry. She is a graduate of University of Waterloo and is a member of the Predictive Analytics and Futurism section council of the SOA. She is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries.

Raymond D. Berry, ASA, EA, MAAA, MSPA

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.

Workshop Presentation

Andrew Gottschalk, ASA, MAAA

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.