2020 Board Member Candidate

Roger Loomis, FSA 2007, MAAA
Actuarial Resources Corporation

Election Message:           

The complexity of the financial world is growing at an exponential rate. This is leading to a dramatic increase in both risks and opportunities. In order to maintain and increase the value actuaries offer the marketplace, we must drive and master the innovations required to manage this increasing risk and take advantage of the emerging opportunities.

My motivation for seeking election to the SOA board is to help us stay focused on the research and education required to maintain and enhance the value of the FSA and ASA credentials. This includes mastering modern data analysis and forecasting techniques, learning how to best apply these techniques to the pricing and valuation problems that are our traditional areas of expertise, and learning how to clearly and persuasively communicate our insights.

Brief description of current work:

I am a consultant and equity principal at Actuarial Resources Corporation with a focus on risk management, innovative pricing and forecasting models, measuring and minimizing the intrinsic riskiness of LTC products, and providing management with better digital tools.

Primary Area(s) of Practice:

Health

Bio:

My original career ambition was to be an Economics professor. Realizing the supply and demand for Econ professors was dismal, I took an aptitude test which suggested I would make an excellent actuary. I took my first actuarial exam and soon found myself on a rewarding career path.

Throughout my career, my natural disposition has been to take a step back and clarify the real problem my work was trying to address, and consider whether there were better ways of solving the actual problem. For example, at one company I designed a valuation DataMart that held all of our reserves over time and served as the single source of truth for all valuation reports on all reporting bases. For this project, I was presented with a prestigious company award from the CFO for developing the concept that made the biggest improvement to the entire finance division of the company.

Since earning my FSA, I’ve had several opportunities to volunteer, conduct research, and share my insights in industry presentations. Some highlights include:

• Helping develop the new Predictive Analytics exam including helping write the original syllabus, create the modules, and write and grade the exams.
• Researching the relative pricing stability of LTCI policies issued in 2000, 2007, and 2014 and presenting the results at virtually all SOA meetings as well as to the ACLI, NAILBA, NAHU, AIFA, AALTCI and to the ILTCI in a keynote address.
• Writing the paper “Understanding the Volatility of Experience and Pricing Assumptions in Long-Term Care Insurance,” which is now referenced in the LTC Model Regulation and is required reading for the SOA’s Life Product Management exam.
• Chaired the Long-Term Care Think Tank where we investigated a solution to financing the United States’ LTC needs.
• Serving on the Long-Term Care Section Council.
• President of the Kansas City Actuary’s Club.
  
  

I was awarded the SOA’s Presidential Award in 2019.                     

Additional Information:

I took off a couple of years in college to volunteer for a service organization in Argentina. I fell in love with a lovely Argentine lady while I was there, and we have now been married for 27 years. For the first few years of our marriage, Spanish was the first language of our household. Being fluent in Spanish has led to many professional opportunities to work for international companies throughout Latin America. This has given me a cosmopolitan approach to actuarial problems where I draw upon the insights of actuaries I’ve worked with in different cultures and regulatory environments.

In my spare time, I enjoy noodling around on my guitar, barbequing, bicycling, walking my dog, and gardening.