Candidate Questionnaire
John W. Robinson, FSA 1994
Retired
Apple Valley MN
Brief description of current work:
On July 30, 2021, I retired from my employment as a life insurance regulator for the State of Minnesota. Separately, I own a consulting firm with one pension plan as a client.
Primary Area of Practice:
Life Insurance
Why do you want to be on the Board?
I have been a leader in some capacity since age 7. I believe that leading is influencing, and even when I was not the leader by title, my influence was felt. I brought that leadership experience to the Board in 2013, and I earned a reputation as a valuable thought leader. I have a long record of leadership and advocacy for DEI. As the SOA embarks on a Long-Term Growth Strategy in which DEI is an important component, having a president with such a record will be uniquely valuable. I am an Amiable Analytic, and I maintain excellent relationships with current and former board members and SOA staff.
Professional Background
Provide a brief description of your professional background and the type of work you have performed and explain how these experiences have prepared you as an Elected Board Member and qualify you in carrying out the strategic direction of the SOA.
My actuarial career started in 1982 with a pension consulting firm in Jamaica, attaining ASA in 1984. In 1985, I emigrated to Ohio and switched to life insurance. Over twenty-three years, I worked for two large and two small life companies, including one year as Appointed Actuary.
I then spent six years as Chief Actuary of a non-profit within New York’s public school system, where I provided OPEB valuations and related services to 130 school districts.
An interest in regulation, particularly principle-based reserves, led me to becoming an actuary for Minnesota in 2016. I represent Minnesota at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) for life insurance and annuity reserves and a range of regulatory issues. The opportunity to influence the direction of regulation in all 56 states and territories is very fulfilling.
Having worked in four fields, in two countries, both as an employee and as a consultant, allows me to see the issues related to the actuarial profession from multiple perspectives.
During my SOA Board service 2013-2016, I earned a reputation for contributing valuable insights. I felt that since the SOA is a global institution, leaders should think globally about the issues we faced. I have been an influential voice in DEI since the 1990s, and, upon joining the Board, I catalyzed the Diversity and Inclusion Research Initiative.
Our profession faces challenges of maintaining and expanding its relevance to the entities that we serve. While the Board has had a few five-year Strategic Plans, the Long-Term Growth Strategy will require a higher level of commitment by the current and successive Boards. Ever since the Diversity and Research Initiative report was published, I have advocated for a long-term commitment to solving the problem of under-represented minorities. I am quite comfortable with the idea of a multi-decade objective.
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.
My volunteer and leadership resumé is as follows:
- President of church youth groups, 1968-1969, 1971-1972;
- Represented staff on Excelsior High School Board, 1977-1978;
- Captain of Mean Reserves Soccer Team, 1986-1995;
- Chaired my employer’s Actuarial Diversity Committee, 1999-2008;
- Vice president (2006-2009) then president (2010-2013) of the International Association of Black Actuaries (IABA);
- Actuaries Without Borders (AWB) Committee, 2013-2016;
- SOA Exam Grader almost every year since 1995;
- Presenter or moderator at several SOA and IABA Meetings, Best Presenter Award 2019 ValAct;
- Friend of International and/or L&D Section Councils since 2010;
- SOA Board 2013-2016;
- Board of Directors of The Lift Garage, 2020-current.
As IABA president, I had the freedom to set the strategic direction of the organization. I emphasized the role of our local affiliates and worked with leadership to create a framework that defined affiliate leaders’ roles and responsibilities. This had a positive impact on IABA’s outreach efforts.
My leadership experience includes leading several soccer teams. This required me to lead by example as a player, inspire my teammates to always do their best and celebrate my teams’ successes.
My SOA Board service exposed me to a group of very talented and insightful colleagues and operating within a multi-year strategic plan.
Agility/Change
What did you learn in the COVID19 pandemic that will help you, post-pandemic?
On the personal side, there are five themes that capture my experience:
- Relationships matter. One of the adverse effects of the pandemic is that it forced people to live at close quarters with family. Some of these relationships were abusive, and reports indicate that the pandemic brought significant increases in the level of domestic violence in many countries studied.
- Leadership matters. There were many failures of leadership around the world that led to hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths. Leadership continues to matter since we need the entire world population to be vaccinated, but the process has been inequitable both within and among countries.
- I am privileged. Fortunately for me, while I had to forego going to the office every day, my salary was not disrupted. Secondly, being a senior citizen allowed me higher priority than others to get the vaccine. Finally, living in the US caused to me get vaccinated before my large extended family in Jamaica.
- Science matters. It is fortunate that the world’s scientists were able to find a solution as quickly as they did. I understand that research towards a vaccine for the entire family of corona viruses is under way.
- Personal risk management matters. Following the science, I took quit seriously the possibility of either contracting or spreading the virus, and applied the recommended risk-mitigation strategies.
Having to adapt to this situation will be helpful because I believe a similar event is likely to occur in my lifetime.
On the work side, I have tried to follow overall trends, both in the US and overseas. My primary concern has been the impact on the 9 life insurance companies domiciled in Minnesota. So far, the impacts have been manageable.
Motivating/Influencing
Describe a constructive conversation you had in a group setting or one-on-one during which opinions varied and you needed to get to a consensus.
The Life Actuarial Task Force (LATF) is the committee within the NAIC that is responsible for setting life insurance and annuity reserves policy. The Valuation Manual, which took effect on 1/1/2017, provides principle-based reserves guidance for life insurance and variable annuities. Last year, LATF asked the Annuity Reserve Working Group (ARWG), a group of experts within the American Academy of Actuaries, to develop principle-based reserves guidance for non-variable annuities.
As the ARWG’s work develops, there are several checkpoints at which LATF must select a direction. These discussions are substantive. In general, regulatory actuaries cover a wide range of topics, and many of us lack the specialized knowledge that experts such as the members of ARWG have. Nevertheless, regulators must make these decisions.
The three broad classes of non-variable annuities are fixed deferred annuities, fixed indexed deferred annuities, and fixed immediate annuities. The question at issue was whether to value all non-variable annuities together, or partition them into Reserving Groups.
It was my view that fixed immediate annuities should be treated separately from the other two classes. I therefore took the lead in proposing that non-variable annuities be partitioned into two Reserving Groups: immediate and deferred. I argued that not doing so would foreclose on the possibility of providing explanations of the results to management and regulators. The counterargument, put forward by the AWRG, was that there can be reserve offsets among the three classes, and it is theoretically appropriate to recognize this by valuing them together.
Discussions spanned several meetings. After weighing all the arguments, regulators voted. The result was 8-6 in favor of my proposal.
While a 100% consensus was not reached, an important decision was made. I was, of course, gratified that regulators accepted my proposal.
Diversity
Describe how your awareness of diversity, equity and inclusion has evolved throughout your life.
My first exposure to Diversity occurred in 1993. Our chief actuary, an early advocate, insisted that all senior actuaries, plus me, attend a Diversity training in which they were challenged by the trainer as to the privileges they enjoyed due to their race (white) and gender (male). While those actuaries felt they were being treated unfairly, their sense of equity motivated them to embrace the concept. Diversity was also recognized as a potential business advantage.
In 1995, I joined the International Association of Black Actuaries (IABA). I rose to the leadership of the IABA, serving as vice-president and then president. The IABA’s mission is to increase the number and career success of black actuaries.
From 1999 to 2008, I chaired my employer’s Actuarial Diversity Committee. Starting with the obvious race and gender, we expanded the definition of Diversity to 13 attributes. Our mission was to educate Actuarial about all forms of Diversity.
Running for election to the SOA Board in 2013, I stated in my campaign video that any good Board needs Diversity. Shortly after my election, I initiated a discussion to perform a research project that would help the IABA determine the optimal way to deploy its limited resources. That rather limited suggestion catalyzed the formation of a Diversity Task Force within the Board, followed by the formation of a permanent Diversity Committee. The Diversity and Inclusion Research Initiative’s report was published in late 2016.
Over the years, I have learned that the enslavement of Africans has institutional effects that continue today, long after enslavement ended. I find that those effects are more strongly felt by African Americans than I experienced in my native Jamaica. This has intensified my motivation to advance DEI in general, and in particular, to solve the problem of minority underrepresentation in the US actuarial profession.
International
Issues come before the SOA Board where there may be different perspectives or needs for North American members versus international members. How would you think about balancing these competing priorities or issues? Do any examples come to mind?
Ensuring that SOA is meeting its global mission is paramount. My first Board experience of this was serving on the Policy Committee. While reviewing our policies and procedures, it became clear to me that their relevance outside North America was questionable. My colleagues found me persuasive as I proposed new approaches.
An area that has long concerned me is the SOA’s system of FSA tracks. Under the current system, Fellowship candidates are required to select a specialty track. This high degree of specialization may be justifiable in the US or Canada; but in less developed countries, an actuary may be called upon to practice in multiple fields, so highly specialized training may not be ideal.
International pre-Fellow members who seek multiple specialties may find their needs better met by the IFoA’s curriculum, under which a Fellowship candidate can potentially obtain a solid foundation in three actuarial fields.
I am on record for proposing that the SOA eliminate this track-selection requirement and provide greater flexibility to match the needs of a particular member’s situation. The ability to specialize would, of course, still be available. I am curious to see whether the recently announced modernized and modularized education system will better address this situation.
In general, in addressing competing priorities, I think the key is to look for an approach that meets both sides’ needs. In doing so, we must be willing to change the status quo.
Emerging
How does the SOA need to change to meet emerging challenges and opportunities?
I can think of three areas for change or more change, and one that should remain constant.
Areas for change or more change:
- Expand our research efforts beyond “typical” actuarial analyses. The SOA can be a great provider of research in other areas of society, both in the US and internationally.
- Keep abreast of developments and paradigm shifts in technology, for the benefit of members. As we have seen with Artificial Intelligence, ethical issues arise once these changes impact people.
- Expand our certificate offerings to non-actuarial audiences. The concept was born during my first term, and seems to have been limited to Data Analytics. This is beginning to change.
The area that should remain constant is staying true to the profession’s traditional ethical values. At the dawn of “Big Data”, terms like “evidence-based” and “fact-based” were touted as the basis for quick, accurate decision-making. As digital transformation and Artificial Intelligence become more widespread, we are learning that biases in the data can lead to biases in the decisions. Furthermore, where the data involves past human behavior, human biases will inevitably be reflected in the data. To maintain these values, we must address the issues of inequity and discrimination that arise.
Significant re-structuring is already in progress at the SOA, and exciting changes lie ahead.