Candidate Questionnaire
Zorast Wadia, EA 2004, MAAA 2004, FSA 2006, CFA 2017
Milliman, Inc.
Principal & Consulting Actuary
New York, NY
Brief description of current work:
Defined benefit retirement plan funding and accounting valuations, compliance testing, plan design studies, experience studies, benefit calculations and asset-liability modeling
Primary Area of Practice:
Primary: Retirement
Secondary: Investments
Other Areas of Practice:
Predictive Analytics, International
Professional Background
Provide a brief description of your professional background and the type of work you have performed and explain how these experiences have uniquely prepared you as an Elected Board Member and qualify you in carrying out the strategic direction of the SOA.
I work as a retirement and investment consulting actuary within Milliman’s employee benefits practice. I provide pension risk management solutions to corporate plan sponsors. My work covers the areas of valuation, compliance testing, plan design, asset-liability modeling, and pension risk transfer. My role as a trusted business advisor to my clients has prepared me for SOA Board member service. I also participate on SOA examination committees and was an elected member of the Retirement Section Council, and have an established track record of successful collaboration with fellow actuaries and administrative staff.
I am passionate about defined benefit pension plans, retirement income solutions and volunteerism. I am the principal author of the Milliman Pension Funding Study and Pension Funding Index which examines the funded status of the largest US corporate defined benefit plans. As a consultant, I am trained to listen carefully and understand the financial risks that my clients are facing, and to recommend customized strategies for their consideration.
As a SOA Board member, I expect to use my background to understand the challenges that the SOA and its members face and to work with colleagues to develop a pathway forward. I believe more must be done to address the looming retirement crisis as future generations of retirees will have inadequate savings and retirement income sources. I am very attuned to the retirement industry and look forward to adding value with respect to retirement and investment policy considerations.
Volunteer, Governance and Personal Experience
Describe how your volunteer, governance and personal experiences would strengthen your contributions to the SOA Board, the organization, and strategic plan execution. Please list your relevant volunteer experience. Please include the name of the organization, your role, and approximate dates.
The work that the SOA and its members do in finding solutions to the financial risks faced by society is critical to the future of our profession. I would make for an effective Board member given my leadership and volunteer record.
At Milliman, I am one of the leaders of our actuarial practice and a member of our quality assurance committee. I manage several analysts and consultants within our Northeast region and work with employees in multiple countries. I provide oversight for our professional development unit in Southeast Asia and was a past manager of our actuarial study program. I like mentoring junior staff and seeing them achieve their professional goals. I also enjoy working with senior leaders in providing strategic direction for our Northeast employee benefits practice.
I have always believed strongly in volunteerism and involved myself with SOA professional development activities ever since attaining fellowship. I have been an active member of education and examination committees since 2007, starting out as an exam content writer and currently serving as a vice-chair for question review. I was an elected member of the SOA Retirement Section Council from 2018 – 2021 where I worked on several sub-committees including the Communications subcommittee. I contributed articles for the Retirement Section News publication and currently serve as co-editor of the quarterly publication.
I have a strong record of collaboration with various colleagues inside and outside of my firm and am a results-oriented professional. I would be very pleased to participate in the execution of the Society of Actuaries’ strategic plan and contribute further to retirement income and financial wellbeing solutions.
Agility/Change
Describe a significant change that you led in the workplace or in your volunteer activities. What were the largest obstacles you overcame, and what would you have done differently to ensure greater success.
In 2017, the Milliman employee benefits practice decided to move from our in-house valuation software to a propriety vendor model. This was a significant change that affected all of our current and future defined benefit plan valuations. Per statutory IRS guidelines, all of the defined benefit plans for which Milliman was the actuary had to undergo conversions between the old and new valuation software to demonstrate no significant variance in plan liabilities. I was tasked with managing the valuation conversions for our New York region.
The conversion process involved planning, working with a dedicated team over extended hours, technical coding and review, and documentation of results. The number of conversions that had to be completed in relatively short order certainly presented a challenge. Advanced planning and communication of expectations and deadlines helped to ensure timely completion. Areas of the conversion process that could have been handled better included dealing with coding complexities on certain cases and better sharing of solutions across conversion teams. At times a problem can initially appear to be unique; however, through collaboration with other professionals, new ideas and inspiration can help set the pathway towards a more efficient solution. As professionals, we are often completing projects with time sensitive deadlines leading to siloed work, but we must not ignore the benefits collaboration, including cross collaboration with colleagues from other practices if we want to collectively grow and offer innovative solutions.
Motivating/Influencing
Describe a time when you helped resolve a difficult situation in a professional setting. Describe the situation, the actions you took, and the outcome.
Being a people manager, it’s very important for me to motivate staff in addition to setting workplace goals and objectives. I take pride in seeing the professionals on my team achieving success.
One instance of a challenging situation that I’ve dealt with involved addressing mutual complaints between consultants related to performance. I had worked with both members in the past and knew that they were both capable of doing good work. The current disagreement involved a project having to be redone leaving both team members frustrated. Both consultants expressed differing reasons for the work product revision. My role in this situation was to address both team members’ concerns and help them to find a common purpose. Their ultimate objective of meeting their common client’s expectation was satisfied; however, they both had different ideas regarding how to get the work done. I initiated a post-project meeting for the three of us to discuss what had gone right and what hadn’t. Once a common purpose was established, it became apparent that the difference in ideas on work approach wasn’t the problem. The central issue was that there wasn’t enough communication between the team members on project methodology and intermediate steps. This led to erroneous assumptions and expectations that fell short. Poor communication between team members can often lead to professional disagreements and misunderstandings. Once proper dialogue was reestablished, future intermediate check points were agreed upon, and the meeting concluded on a satisfactory note. Regular communication between team members during pre and post project meetings have helped future projects to run smoothly.
Diversity
What steps might the SOA take to improve its diversity, equity and inclusion? You can read more about current efforts by the organization at www.soa.org/programs/diversity-inclusion.
At Milliman, I have the opportunity to mentor and inspire others from diverse backgrounds so that they can have a better chance of achieving their professional objectives and aspirations. I believe additional actions by the Board to promote mentoring and scholarship opportunities can improve diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) within the SOA. Focusing on strengthening awareness of the actuarial profession to diverse groups of students can allow more people to get their foot in the door. My personal experience was not to have heard of the term actuary until my senior year of high school. I believe we need to do a better job with student and faculty awareness if we are to both grow the actuarial professional and become a more diverse and inclusive body.
While increased mentoring can help to create a steady pipeline of diverse candidates, it is also important to create pathways for success for diverse candidates within management and leadership roles. Employee training, mentoring and education can help. While measurable change is expected to take time, it is important to routinely assess goals, have a method to track progress and make appropriate adjustments.
International
The 2022-2024 Strategic Plan includes an objective to Accelerate International Growth. Please explain how you will help the Board accomplish this.
To better balance the needs of our global members, it is important for the SOA Board to invest in more continuing education and training opportunities in specific localities. This would include working with actuarial organizations and their respective board members in multiple countries.
I have experience working with employees in multiple countries. It is critically important to provide hands-on training opportunities and local mentors to develop the skillsets of our employees working in other countries. Frequent communication and exposure to a diverse set of projects helped our team members working out of different countries to develop familiarity and a good rapport with one another.
It is also important for select SOA Board members to periodically visit different localities when possible. An investment of time and personal presence can demonstrate our commitment to grow our global membership. Having had the opportunity to visit several Milliman offices outside of the United States via my involvement with our quality assurance committee, I’ve personally benefited from diversity of thought processes and practices and exposure to different cultures. After each visit, I’ve come away with new education, friendships, and future collaboration opportunities.
Furthermore, it would be beneficial for global growth to ensure that there are opportunities for our global members to have representation in leadership positions within the SOA. Engagement from leading risk professionals from other countries can help to spread awareness and accelerate international growth for the SOA.
Emerging
The SOA Long-Term Growth Strategy outlines the six critical issues our research has identified as the trends changing our environment and impacting our work as actuaries. How might the Board address any of these issues to keep the SOA successful?
A steady pipeline of new candidates is important for the future growth of the SOA. Increasing global awareness of the SOA brand can certainly help to attract new candidates from different locations. Focusing on a strategy to improve DEI efforts within the SOA can also lead to membership gains. In addition, I would recommend increased investment in innovation like that for microinsurance, and in emerging areas such as green energy and predictive analytics. Moreover, surveying potential employers on the risk management skills they would most like to see future employees possess and then adapting our education and examination syllabus materials to create more of a direct correspondence is a must. Better preparing our next generation of actuaries for the impact of artificial intelligence can lead to better risk management, more engagement of the actuarial community and growth of our membership. Data science and artificial intelligences gains cannot be ignored, and we must explore new pathways of actuarial employment accepting that our work will change. Further input from employers on the examination process and recommendations for change can also provide insight into changes that need to be prioritized.