Category Archives: 2019 Workshops

Market Framework and Outlook for Autonomous Vehicles

Dale Hall, FSA, MAAA, CERA, CFA

With technology constantly driving forward, what should actuaries and insurance companies be monitoring to assess how autonomous vehicles will impact personal and commercial coverages?  This session will review the history and current events surrounding autonomous vehicles, the potential impacts on the insurance industry, a framework for actuaries to understand the potential future evolution, and key indicators on how the insurance industry may evolve.

R. Dale Hall, FSA, MAAA, CERA, CFA is Managing Director of Research for the Society of Actuaries (SOA). In his role, Dale coordinates the SOA’s strategic research partnerships, oversees SOA experience studies, coordinates research across the SOA’s wide variety of actuarial practice areas and markets, and directs the SOA’s data-driven in-house research initiatives. He is a frequent speaker at insurance and retirement industry meetings to highlight SOA research, including presentations to the actuarial task forces of the NAIC and congressional committee testimony on pension plan mortality rates.

Prior to joining the SOA in 2013, Dale spent over 20 years in the US insurance industry, primarily as Chief Actuary for the Life/Health companies of COUNTRY Financial.

Dale earned his MBA in Finance from Capital University and his BS in Mathematics from John Carroll University.

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Introduction to Using R

Mervyn Kopinsky, FSA, EA, MAAA

R is the most rapidly growing language used in the data science arena. The session will provide an introduction to using R and RStudio. (RStudio provides a simpler programming interface for running R than native R itself.)

We will cover how to load and use packages, different data types and basic R commands for programming, loading, summarizing and exploring data. We will then move on to preparing graphs of data and build some simple linear models with the data.

We highly recommend that you download R (https://www.r-project.org/) and RStudio (https://www.rstudio.com/) onto your computers before attending the session. It would also be helpful to download and unzip this dataset: https://www.soa.org/Files/Research/Projects/2017-gltd-recovery-mortality-tree-data.zip

Mervyn Kopinsky has more than 25 years’ experience working as a consulting pension actuary. Mervyn joined the Society of Actuaries during 2017 in a research position as an Experience Studies actuary. Mervyn is also currently involved in researching the application of Predictive Modeling techniques to large data sets. Mervyn is originally from South Africa where he graduated with an MSc. in statistics.

Beyond Clinical and Claims Data: Where Can You Find Your Hidden Risks?

Won Gabriel Chung, MD, MBA
Tom Britt, FSA, MAAA, MSML

Find out why clinical & claims data are not enough to determine health outcomes

Hear the story of Matt vs. Jim and how you can predict Jim’s poor outcome

Discover an improved disability high-claims prediction and an improved life high-loss prediction using Carrot Likely2TM models and scores.

Won Gabriel Chung, MD MBA, is Chief Medical Officer & Co-founder, Carrot Health.  At Carrot Health, Won and his team have built an integrated suite of solutions to determine and manage the health risks of an individual not only as a patient or member but also as a consumer. Until recently, Won was an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at University of Minnesota and has completed the Archibald Bush Fellowship in Healthcare Innovation.

Tom Britt, FSA, MAAA, MSML, is the AVP of Group Life and Accident Pricing at SCOR in the Minneapolis office. He runs the pricing of all group life and accident block of business, and works on the concentration risk analysis for the reinsurance team. In the past, Tom has had experience on the direct side as well, at Nationwide Financial, in reserving for Individual Life and Annuities, and over 10 years pricing Group Life and Health and the market leading COLI/BOLI products line. Most recently, Tom has been active in the innovation space, seeking ways to provide value-added solutions for the market, including risk measures, for both life and health clients. Given that disruption is the only certainty in the market, it is critical to seek “best in class solutions” in order to best facilitate our partners’ profitable growth.

Career Development – Redefining the Journey

Margaret Resce Milkint

The actuarial field and the insurance industry as a whole stand amid a rapidly evolving marketplace. The industry is face-to-face with ground-breaking changes, forcing shifts and overhauls of its traditional business models. Technology continues to sweep across the industry impacting the way we work and lead. In this age of disruption and innovation, navigating the career journey can prove challenging. This session will take a three-step approach to help actuaries embrace the changes and stay ahead of the curve for their rapid advancement and success.

Trends and Shifts: Understand the changes in the insurance industry’s landscape and their impact on actuarial talent.

Actuarial Impacts: Gain insights into the top skills employers are looking for in their actuaries, including soft skills and innovative thinking.

Best Practices Toolkit: Develop best practices and strategies for managing your career, including networking, development and personal branding.

Margaret Resce Milkint is a talent strategist and a diversity and inclusion catalyst.

As Managing Partner of The Jacobson Group and a member of the firm’s Executive Management Team, Margaret is a key ambassador in establishing strategic client relationships and broadening the firm’s breadth of insurance talent solutions. Her passion lies in counseling clients on leadership selection and she has successfully managed countless executive searches during her more than 30 years with the firm.

Margaret is a Trustee for The Actuarial Foundation and a Board Member for the Illinois Technology Foundation. Additionally, she serves as a member of the Society of Actuaries Employers Council and is a member of the Chicago Finance Exchange. Her expertise on career and recruiting issues is widely-recognized; and as such, she is an active industry speaker and thought leader.

Margaret received her bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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Investment Challenges to USA Today

Daniel Winslow, FSA, CPA

How are Tariffs, Trade Wars, changing economic growth rates, immigration changes, China’s challenges and other economic factors challenging your investments and future retirement?  What about the quiet epidemics that are reducing USA life expectancy?

Daniel Winslow, FSA, CPA, is a Fee Based Financial Planner with Winslow Financial LLC since 2005.   Mr. Winslow helps high net worth clients and 401(k) clients with investments and tax planning to meet their goals.  Investments with tax efficiency, low annual fees and no sales commissions are emphasized. From 1987 to 2005 his roles at Trustmark Insurance Company included Vice President and Actuary from 1992.

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Mortality Patterns at Advanced Ages

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

This session outlines results and conclusions for a new project “Mortality of 1898-1902 Birth Cohort” sponsored by the Society of Actuaries. Project describes mortality after age 85 years by gender and geography based on data from the Social Security Administration Death Master File. Effects of errors in age reporting on late-life mortality are also presented. Project report is now available at https://www.soa.org/research-reports/2018/birth-cohort/.  Mortality modeling, analyses of late-life mortality trajectories and historical changes of mortality at extreme ages are discussed. New follow-up study of late-life mortality recently published in peer-reviewed journal: (https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000148) will also be presented.

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). Dr. Natalia Gavrilova is currently working at the University of Chicago and the 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 30 years of professional experience in this area of research and 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 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 currently working at the University of Chicago. Read more at: http://longevity-science.org/CV-gavrilov.htm

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Financial Perspectives on Aging and Retirement Across the Generations

Steven Siegel, ASA, MAAA

The Society of Actuaries’ (SOA) recently released the results of a study focused on probing the financial perspectives of Americans across five generations–Millennials, Gen X, Early Boomers, Late Boomers and the Silent Generation—on aging and retirement. This study launched the SOA’s new Aging and Retirement Strategic Research Program which encompasses the wide of range research the SOA conducts and sponsors in this area.

This new study sought to understand how the habits and behaviors from earlier in life played out in the later years of retirement. This session will present findings from the study including aspects focused on Millennials; a comparison of financial priorities; family obligations, and financial risk concerns. Material related to the Aging and Retirement Strategic Research Program will also be discussed.

Steven Siegel is a Senior Practice Research Actuary on staff at the Society of Actuaries. He manages a wide range of research focused on several actuarial practice areas.

Workshop Presentation

Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Creation Industry Interpretations

Thomas Q. Chamberlain, ASA, MAAA
Ryan Kiefer, ASA, MAAA

This session will walk through some common interpretations applied to the recent tax reform laws. While IRS technical guidance has been limited, there is a series of common interpretations and assertions.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Creation legislation significantly changes the tax reserves for insurance companies.  The changes to the law were replaced with less clear guidance that has resulted in several questions and misunderstandings. We will discuss some of the more common interpretations and feedback within the industry related to interpretations and recent technical guidance form the IRS. This session will cover:

  • Summary of the changes to tax reserve guidance and interpretations of the IRS 807 code for various product groups
  • Industry perspective as to best practices and interpretations where guidance is unclear
  • Changes in the calculation process and tax reserve ownership due to TCJA
  • Operational considerations for items beyond reserves (e.g. 807 (f) 10 year spreads, cash flow testing, RBC)
  • Control considerations under the new tax regime

Tom Chamberlain is a Managing Director in Deloitte’s Actuarial & Insurance Solutions practice with over 20 years of experience working in the life insurance industry and life insurance consulting. He specializes in Financial Reporting related issues that impact US GAAP, Statutory and Tax Actuarial Valuation.

Recently, Tom has been working with Deloitte Tax to interpret and evaluate the industries response to the tax reform included in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Creation Act (“Tax Reform”) and the new financial reporting requirements included in the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) long duration targeted improvements changes (“LDTI”) included in ASU 2018-12.

Tom co-leads the Deloitte Technical Excellence group which evaluates, interprets and analyzes how new regulatory requirements across various capital and financial reporting paradigms impact the insurance industry. This group provides on-site LDTI and TCJA training.

Ryan Kiefer is a manager at Deloitte Consulting and has 11 years of experience serving as a consultant to the life insurance industry.  His primary focus is financial reporting where he manages several of the firm’s largest external audits of GAAP, statutory, and tax reserves and intangible assets.   Ryan has also led Deloitte’s life actuarial center of excellence which is focused on efficiently executing detailed tests of policyholder reserves in support of external audits.

He also assists advisory clients seeking to enhance or improve their financial reporting processes, analysis and financial controls.

Workshop Presentation

Professionalism: 3 Untraditional Topics

Jay Jaffe, FSA, MAAA

The presentation will discuss:

  • ACTUARIAL SCIENCE: Are we artists or scientists?
  • MENTORING: Paying forward your real professional dues
  • THE 100-YEAR OLD ACTUARY: CE for a century long life and career

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 in 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.”

Introduction to Predictive Analytics: A Practical Approach

Andrea Huckaba Rome, FSA, MAAA, CERA

This presentation will provide a broad overview of predictive analytics, when to use in a business context, examples of available PA tools and models, and a healthcare case study.  Participants will leave with a greater understanding of the fundamentals, and how they might apply predictive analytics in their own companies.

Andrea Huckaba Rome, FSA, MAAA, CERA, is a Vice President in the Kansas City office of Lewis & Ellis.  She began her career in the actuarial department at a regional Blues Plan, helping to implement the Affordable Care Act in all its complexities.  She gained experience in the areas of pricing, reserving, experience studies, ACA implementation, competitive studies, and rate filings. She was instrumental in moving her company to start a formal Enterprise Risk Management program, and Own Risk Solvency Assessment (ORSA) Reporting, including development of risk appetite, risk identification and risk modeling. In 2015, she joined Lewis & Ellis where she works on the Health Team with several other FSAs and a team of dedicated professionals. She focuses on pricing and rating, regulatory analysis, data analytics, and model building for clients of all sizes and stripes.

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