SOA Elections

Candidate Questionnaire

Alvin Soh, FSA 2012
Vice President, Head of Manpower Development
Singapore Agency & Financial Advisory Channel
Great Eastern Life Assurance
Singapore

Brief description of current work:

Recruit and retain agency sales force. Design agency compensation and financial schemes grow agency manpower. Negotiate with experienced financial advisors to join the principal. Motivate and empower agency leaders to recruit and grow their team size.

Primary Area of Practice:

Life

Other Areas of Practice

Education

Why do you want to be on the Board?

I bring along my professional experience in various countries and functions to help lead the SOA and the actuarial profession. I have experience working across many countries especially in Asia, including China, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam. I also have hand-on and leadership experience in various functions: actuarial, investment, risk management, product, strategy, M&A, and distribution.

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.

In my past 11 years of experience in life insurance industry, I worked across different:

1. Countries in Asia: China, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam
2. Cultures: British, Chinese, Japanese, Singaporean, Vietnamese
3. Functions: Actuarial, Product Management, Investment, Risk, Procurement, Strategy, M&A, Agency distribution, Bancassurance distribution
4. Business roles:
1. Business unit office: senior management and P&L holder
2. Regional corporate office: control functions and project management
3. Council to the Board: on digital and cultural transformation of the group

As part of my passion in business and education, I also:

1. Published actuarial study material for a few ASA exams;
2. Founded a restaurant chain;
3. Served as advisor of an online recruitment startup.

I feel fortunate to be trusted and given the opportunities for these experiences. They have humbled me and shaped me to be a person that listens emphatically and relates effectively with personnel of different backgrounds and positions. In retrospect, I could not be the person I am today without the rigorous training of SOA. Therefore, I would like to give back.

I believe these experiences have prepared me as an Elected Board Member, as I can contribute by providing unique:

1. multicultural;
2. cross-functional; and
3. entrepreneurial perspectives to the SOA Board.

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.

I was born and raised in a low-middle income class family. I used to work hard with the motivation that I could become somebody in the future. Passing all FSA written exams by age of 22 was one of the ways to prove myself.

Looking back, I know that my progress in life could not have happened without help received from many selfless souls. Their sharing, guidance and other acts of help had made a great impact on me although those may be a small gesture for them. Over the years they inspired me to resolute that my life must also be meaningful by constantly growing and giving. I have been on the receiving end; it’s time to be on the giving end.

My governance and volunteering experience are listed as follow:

• Church in Petaling Jaya: volunteered for gospel preaching and expansion work (2006 - 2010)
• A&J Study Manual: authored for SOA exams for international students at low cost (2009 – 2014)
• Sushi Flash restaurant: served as founder and director (2013 - 2016)
• Popiwork: served as strategic advisor to founder without fee (2018 - current)

Agility/Change

What did you learn in the COVID19 pandemic that will help you, post-pandemic?

Let me share 2 learnings that inspired me in the COVID19 pandemic.

Back in early 2020, the concerns of increasing COVID19 cases had caused the Singapore government to take drastic actions. Various social rules were introduced, and eventually circuit breakers were announced. Residents of Singapore ought to stay home and are not allowed to meet each other except close family. This had undoubtedly created great challenges for the insurance sales force across all channels. While many insurers left their destiny to fate, a small number of insurers had decisively redesigned non-face-to-face sales processes and technology, just within a month. And looking back today, these insurers achieved 2020 sales results that were record-high and even greater than the years before- while the others suffered negative growth.

Learning 1: There will be winners and losers in any circumstances. Adopt a winner’s mindset, and act decisively.

Towards the end of February 2020, the stock market tumbled in the fear of COVID19. The US government continued the quantitative easings, pumping more money into the economies. Interest rates were kept low. Unemployment continued soaring. The legendary investor Warren Buffet made an unprecedented move to sell all airline stocks. Personally, I did not believe in America without airlines. Therefore I studied the 6 main airlines in the US and invested in one of them- as this particular airline company had numerically and historically demonstrated superior cost-control, solvency management, and exemplary customer service. Various stress-testing shows that the company could recover- even without the government bailout that came a few months later. Today, the stock price of the airline had soared beyond the pre-COVID19 level.

Learning 2: Data and insights generate advantage. Befriend data, and invest to get them.

Both learnings point to the same principle that actuaries believe: Risk can be opportunity!

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.

This was a conversation between my insurer and 17 agency directors on the competitiveness of transition allowance. Transition allowance is a financial package offered to experienced agencies to replace their income lost as a result of terminating their agency contract with their existing principal to join a new one. The payout of transition allowance involves upfront sign-on fee and regular allowance with terms and conditions.

The conversation started with a one-dimensional consideration on the offer amount. The directors insisted that market pressure was strong and cited real cases. Strong emotional comments were made to challenge the sincerity of my insurer to grow.

I decided that I needed to address the emotional intensity and chunk-up our discussions to make progress. I affirmed that our collective objectives were to ensure that (1) the offers put on the table must be attractive enough; and (2) the investment amount must be within the appetite of the insurer. I further motivated the directors that these two conditions can be achieved if we put our heads together.

With the tension subsiding, my team and I then spent a lot of the time listening- how they recruit, what were the recruitment pitch, what were the concerns of the recruits. As we were listening, we sought clarifications with jokes cracked in between to light up the mood.

The 3.5-hour meeting ended with a collective refined understanding of the situation. We concluded that the interest of the recruit was actually the upsides- which can be resolved by embedding some options in the allowance design. Whereas the interest of my insurer was ROI and budget control- which can be resolved by agreed terms & conditions in the embedded options, plus enhanced monitoring in the offering process.

The meeting ended well with clarity in decisions and action plans.

Diversity

Describe how your awareness of diversity, equity and inclusion has evolved throughout your life.

My home country is a multi-racial and cultural country. Throughout the years, I have friends and colleagues who are from different backgrounds. However, we have not had any issues working together as we all share the same spirit of inclusion and teamwork- with full respect to each other’s religious and cultural practices. Inclusion has been in my blood since young.

I celebrated it when I first learned about Warren Buffett making the comment that he could not get where he is had the females in his generation been given the equal opportunity as males. This created a strong echo from me because even in my generation I see many talented female friends of mine gave up their bright careers and let their husbands take the front seat. Very rarely, I encountered some very successful females- none of them need not go the extra mile to overcome the social pressure to get to where they were. Therefore I fully support my wife (who’s also a FSA) to pursue her own career and that I would play my part to support her just as she does for me.

I believe that being able to create value to people around us is of utmost importance- regardless of one’s religion, race, gender, age, sexual-orientation, nationality and political preference. Since ‘value’ means different things to different people, the extent of the application of diversity, equity and inclusion in any decision-making is contextual. For the Society of Actuaries, its importance is unequivocal. SOA is a global organization in a digital age. Diversity, equity and inclusion are hygiene factors.

International

How would your experiences strengthen your understanding of international issues?

My experiences with multinational insurers had scaled up my understanding of international issues. Combining my tenure with past few insurers, I had exposure to countries including the US, Canada, UK, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and 4 other Southeast Asian countries. These experiences have been the channel for me to acquire international awareness.

During my experience with Prudential plc, the company was in the midst of implementing economic capital models to aim for capital advantage under European Solvency II regime. In the capital management team I had the unique opportunity to work with colleagues across the group as this was a centralized initiative from the group office in London. I had the chance to learn about business and implementation issues from different countries.

My subsequent experience with Tokio Marine Life in Singapore gave me exposure in Japan and Singapore. Both countries have the same market characteristics: affluence and longevity. Interest rate risk management is key for both markets but managed with a very different distribution model.

With Aviva plc, my experiences were further elevated when I was appointed as a member of the Evolution Council, providing strategic advice to the Chairman and Group Executives. During the service tenure I had the opportunity to work with members from various countries and business lines of the group to address the strategic agenda that the Chairman had. I had the privilege to bring Asian perspectives to the council and at the same time, implement group-wide agenda by localizing them to my business unit as the Chief Strategy Officer.

At this point I reminisced about an interview question by the HR director for my first job: “Do you think you are a local talent, or a global talent?”. My answer was global talent and I got the job.

Emerging

How does the SOA need to change to meet emerging challenges and opportunities?

SOA operates in an increasingly globalized and digitalized environment. The emerging challenges will be more volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous than before. SOA needs to accelerate transformation in the following areas to meet those challenges:

1. Expanding the SOA brand promise into the territory of managing Smart Organization. “Smart Organization” is a modified term used by the Chief Strategist of Alibaba to describe an organization that operates with highly integrated (1) data intelligence; and (2) network coordination. Actuaries have been well trained to be authoritative experts in turning data into insights and actions. That corresponds to the “intelligence” part of a Smart Organization. However, to bring the profession to the next level, our members need to carry more and more credibility around the “data” part of data intelligence. This also means SOA must bring more technological perspectives into our research, education, and partnerships with other organizations.
2. Elevating the SOA brand perception on the leadership capabilities of the members. It is not surprising to hear these descriptors for actuaries: smart, analytical, numerically savvy, strategic, insightful, and intellectual. Nonetheless, these descriptors are not enough for the new world. Actuaries need to be seen as not only someone who understands the problems and can formulate solutions, but also someone who can mobilize resources to execute the solutions. Our FSA courses such as DMAC have provided a fantastic foundation around effective decision-making. I think we can do more around other critical leadership areas such as communication, negotiation, stakeholders, and people management.

I believe these two areas are achievable and will significantly reposition SOA’s value to a wider group of stakeholders and wider scope of contribution, without compromising the very core value and strengths of our members.