Thomas Q. Chamberlain, ASA, MAAA
Charles Deak, FSA, CERA, MAAA

This session will walk through simplified term life and payout annuity examples of actuarial balances and GAAP book profits under FASB TI and practical considerations during implementation.

With FASB’s Long Duration Targeted Improvements coming down the pike, this session will cover detailed examples for simplified term life and payout annuity products. Examples will cover GAAP reserves and DAC at issue and transition under the new guidance.

The session will also cover challenges and practical considerations that have been identified and discussed within the industry.

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.

Charles Deak is a Manager in Deloitte’s Actuarial & Insurance Solutions practice with over 10 years of experience working in the life insurance industry. He specializes in Actuarial Modernization with an emphasis on modeling and financial reporting for life insurance and reinsurance companies. He currently leads internal FASB LDTI model and training development.

Charles provides modeling solutions and assists insurance companies with improving their systems and processes. Charles also serves Deloitte’s audit clients and has relevant knowledge of audit expectations and controls. He co-authored the Society of Actuaries’ report on Actuarial Model Governance.

Workshop Presentation

Jackie Sabey, ASA, MAAA
Melanie Sager, ASA, MAAA
Aria Zhou, ASA, CERA, MAAA

An actuarial career is challenging enough, particularly while you are studying to pass exams.  How do you make time for the rest of your life, too?  Three millennial actuaries discuss their experiences balancing their job responsibilities, studying for exams, family and care giving responsibilities, household responsibilities, relationships and social circles, and other important aspects of their lives.

Jackie Sabey is a Senior Director at Health Care Service Corporation.  She currently works on ancillary product integration, and she previously priced Medicare Supplement and MAPD.  Prior to joining HCSC, Jackie worked for actuarial consulting/audit firms.  She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Madison.  Outside of work, Jackie enjoys time with her family and friends and cherishes time with her one year old.

Melanie Sager is a Senior Actuarial Associate at Allstate Life and Retirement, where she works on product development, and modeling PBR reserves for UL products.  She came to Allstate in 2017 after 5+ years at Munich American Reassurance Company in Atlanta, GA.  Melanie worked her way up from Actuarial Intern to Actuarial Associate at Munich Re, working in financial reporting on MCEV and ERC, pricing for individual life reinsurance quotes, and enterprise risk management.  Melanie earned her ASA in 2016.  She is taking exam ILAFVUS this spring, then needs to complete the DMAC and FAC to earn her FSA.  Melanie holds an A.B. from Bryn Mawr College in math and chemistry and an M.A from Princeton University in chemistry.  She is married and has a three-and-a-half year old daughter.

Aria Zhou is a senior in the Advisory Services practice of Ernst & Young LLP. She had been with EY for 4 and half years, focusing on modelling and financial reporting, especially tax reserve. She is an experienced modeler in AXIS and MG-ALFA. She has been working with various life and annuity products, including fixed indexed annuities, variable annuities, universal life with secondary guarantees and other traditional life products.  Aria is one module away from achieving her FSA.

Carl Luft, Ph. D.

Cryptocurrencies are defined by the Bank of International Settlement, BIS, as a currency that is electronic, functions like cash in peer to peer transactions, and are not the liability of a financial institution. They are created by individuals, not governments or central banks. Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency. I will discuss both the Bitcoin cash market and the Bitcoin futures contracts traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Dr. Carl Luft earned his Ph.D. in Finance in from Georgia State University in 1983 and is an Associate Professor of Finance at DePaul University. In October of 2011 Dr. Luft became the Academic Director of the Arditti Center for Risk Management at DePaul University. Dr. Luft was associated with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange from 1987 through 2008.  Between 1990 and 2000 Dr. Luft was the DePaul University program administrator for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange/DePaul University Futures and Options Certificate Program. From 2012 through 2014 Dr. Luft was the program administrator for the DePaul/Chinese Financial Futures Exchange Program which provided extensive instruction in applied derivatives for Chinese Financial Futures Exchange, CFFEX, executives. In 2016 Dr. Luft accepted an appointment to the National Introducing Broker’s Association, NIBA, Advisory Board.

Dr. Luft has published books and articles on derivative instruments, hedging, and alternative investments.

Workshop Presentation

Pete Miller, ASA, MAAA
R. Jerome (Jerry) Holman, FSA, CFA, MAAA

In January, the SOA released the U.S. Population Mortality Observations report, updated with 2017 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 (1999-2017), by gender and by income level. This session will cover the highlights of the report and discuss the methodology used in the analysis.

Motor vehicle accidents were the number one cause of accidental deaths in the United States from 1999-2016 and number two in 2016. Are things getting better or worse out on the road? There isn’t one answer because it depends on your riding status, age, gender and other factors. This presentation will give an overview of the experience of those variables from 1999-2016.

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.

R. Jerome (Jerry) Holman, FSA, CFA, MAAA is Principal of RJH Integrated Solutions LLC. Mr. Holman’s firm, RJH IS, provides actuarial services to the life insurance industry. Prior to forming RJH IS, Mr. Holman was Senior Actuarial Officer for CNA Institutional Markets where he was responsible for overseeing all product management and ALM aspects of the business. More recently, as Principal of RJH IS, Mr. Holman has performed model reviews, led the actuarial management of the SOA Credit Risk Loss Experience Study: Private Placement Bonds and produced various mortality and morbidity research. Mr. Holman has served on numerous committees addressing various life insurance industry initiatives. He presently serves as an industry technical advisor to the NAIC on bond RBC and is a current Co-chair of the AAA C1 Work Group.

Motor Vehicle Accident Deaths 1999-2016

Workshop Presentation

Lisa Schilling, FSA, EA, FCA, MAAA

Many state and large-city public pension plans in the U.S. carry significant unfunded liabilities. A pension plan’s funded status reflects the accumulation of a variety of historical and current factors. This session explores recent SOA research comparing contributions of large public pension plans to benchmarks that measure whether contributions paid down unfunded liabilities without factoring in other influences (e.g., investment returns).

In the role of Retirement Research Actuary at the Society of Actuaries, Lisa Schilling is responsible for developing and completing objective research on U.S. retirement systems for the purpose of advancing knowledge in order to inform public policy development and public understanding. She brings more than 30 years of experience to this role, having previously served as chief actuary for a large pension fund and a consultant at Hewitt Associates.

Jordan Givan, FSA, CERA, MAAA

With the rollout of Principle-Based Reserving (PBR) comes important considerations of mortality credibility for a company’s valuation. This presentation will cover 1) credibility considerations which impact the decision to implement PBR, 2) how various levels of credibility affect reserving, 3) ways reinsurance influences credibility, and 4) sources for potentially enhancing credibility.

Jordan Givan is a Vice President and Actuary on the US Life and Health Products team at Swiss Re. His areas of focus encompass pricing, terms of trade, innovation, and Principle-Based Reserving. He has been with the company since 2010. Jordan earned his B.S. degree in Actuarial Science and Mathematical Economics from Ball State University.

Lamont Black, Ph.D.

Blockchain is an emerging technology that has the potential to transform financial services. In this session, we will discuss the basic features of blockchain technology and how it works.  This will cover aspects such as the distributed ledger and the consensus mechanism.  The focus will then shift to potential applications of blockchain in financial services.  There are numerous opportunities being explored by financial markets and institutions, including applications in insurance.

Lamont Black is an Assistant Professor of Finance in the Driehaus College of Business at DePaul University in Chicago and the Academic Director for DePaul’s Center for Financial Services. He has taken an active role in the development of fintech and blockchain initiatives at DePaul.

Dr. Black teaches graduate courses on commercial banking and capital markets in the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business at DePaul.  He also teaches money and banking at the undergraduate level. His research has been published in several journals, including Journal of Financial Intermediation and Journal of Banking and Finance.  Prior to joining the faculty of DePaul, Dr. Black was an economist at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington, D.C. from 2005 to 2013.  Dr. Black received a Ph.D. in Finance from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, as well as a Ph.D. in Economics.

Workshop Presentation

Jennifer Leazzo, FSA, MAAA
William Olaprath, FSA, CERA, MAAA

PPACA outlined legislatively how the government would operate ACO and CMMI has authority to try new programs to achieve reduction in health care cost delivery for Medicare Beneficiaries.  Commercial carriers are trying to follow suite but have a unique set of challenges that the Medicare population does not have.  How can (and do) payors and providers work together to solve this dilemma?

William Olaprath will present the Payor side, and Jennifer Leazzo will present the Provider side.

Jennifer Leazzo spent 20+ years on the payor side spanning from Clinton’s proposed health care reform in 1993 through the implementation of the Affordable Care Act in 2014.    In 2014 she decided to take her actuarial expertise to help providers understand how to be successful under the ACO structure in the new legislation doing provider consulting for Optum.  In 2016 she joined Boncura to lead analytics used by DMG to be successful in all the various value based care contracts in which they are engaged.

William Olaprath is Sr. Managing Actuary, Provider Payment Innovation & Analytics, at Health Care Service Corporation (BCBS – IL, TX, OK, NM, MT).  He has 5 years of experience with measuring TX commercial ACO financial performance as well as experience with various commercial ACO measurement models. He has assisted with designing and implementing the current TX commercial ACO measurement model and presents and explains ACO financial measurement results to hospitals and physicians.

Workshop Presentation

Craig Hanford, FSA

• An examination of the forces driving the movement to predictive models and accelerated underwriting
• A brief review of different types of predictive models
• Tips on how to evaluate a predictive model
• A detailed overview of how such models are used in life insurance accelerated underwriting
• Recommendations on approaches to assess the performance of the model.

Craig Hanford has more than thirty years of industry experience, with a significant focus on a variety of reinsurance roles.  His current responsibility is building and enhancing customer relationships by providing both traditional and non-traditional solutions for life and health reinsurance.  He currently works at Swiss Re.

Workshop Presentation

Sally Ezra

Sally Ezra has spent her career recruiting actuaries, developing strong professional relationships and a vast network of clients who value her commitment, resourcefulness, her personal attention, and her high level of professional ethics. Sally works with all levels of actuaries, from students to Fellows and has placed senior-level actuaries, including Chief Actuaries and consulting firm practice leaders.  She genuinely enjoys guiding actuaries through their careers. Sally is ingrained within the Actuarial profession – she attends a wide variety of professional SOA and CAS functions each year, publishes in various Actuarial publications, and performs volunteer services for the Actuarial Societies.

Sally Ezra and Claude Penland founded Ezra Penland with the goal of serving the Actuarial and related modeling fields at all levels. Ezra Penland has deep experience within the related predictive modeling and catastrophe risk modeling fields as well, and the firm is excited to be at the forefront of the insurance analytics field.

Workshop Presentation