Candidate Questionnaire
Karen Burnett, FSA 2002, FCIA 2002
Senior Director, Retirement
WTW
Toronto, ON
Brief description of current work:
Advisory and Consulting services in retirement plan management of defined benefit, defined contribution pension plans and other savings programs.
Primary Area of Practice:
Retirement
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.
During my over 25 years in the pension consulting industry, I have specialized in strategic consulting in all aspects of retirement plan management of defined benefit and defined contribution pension plans. My consulting experience includes advising clients on a wide variety of retirement-related topics, including pension plan design, implementation and administration, and advice related to the financing of benefit plans. Since 2014, I have been a leader for DC advisory services in Canada with a particular interest in emerging trends focusing on retirement readiness, financial wellbeing and more recently integrating ESG and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) into employer sponsored programs.
I have held people management responsibilities over the years for a large group of consultants at various levels, working with each one to define and achieve their long-term career goals while also achieving their shorter-term objectives and ensuring that they had work opportunities that were interesting to them and helped them grow.
As a consultant I have the opportunity to work with a large variety of clients and help them solve their unique challenges. It also routinely has me interacting with their Boards and constantly learning.
My experience building strategies for retirement programs, working on developing a holistic approach to DC plan management for employers along with my enthusiasm and passion for the emerging trends in ESG, DEI and wellbeing will be extremely helpful in fulfilling my SOA board responsibilities.
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 progressive roles on both the SOA examination and education committees, along with my role on the Association of Canadian Pension Managers (ACPM), make serving as a SOA board member a natural next step. I have a great desire to continue to give back to the organization that has allowed me to have a very fulfilling professional career and help to shape the future of the profession.
Volunteer Experience:
SOA:
Exam and education -- Retirement FSA exams
- Sorter: 2020-2022
- General Officer: 2014-2019
- Chair: 2012-2014
- Vice-Chair: 2007-2012
- Question writer/grader: 2003-2007
The Association of Canadian Pension Management:
Ontario Regional Council
- Chair: 2022 – present
- Vice-Chair: 2021
- General Member: 2014 – 2020
National Conference Planning Committee
- General Member: 2019 – present
Ajax Acros Gymnastic Club
- Board member and treasurer: 2011-2013
Forest Brook Dragon Boat Club
- Executive council member and treasurer: 2011-2022
Agility/Change
Describe a significant change that you led in the workplace or in your volunteer activities. Explain what worked well and what could have gone better.
When I took on the role of the DC leader for Canada back in 2014, our services were quite narrowly focused on the investment side of DC plans mostly related to investment structures and monitoring. My goal was to develop a holistic approach to DC plan management, develop our go-to-market strategy and build the team that would execute the strategy.
By working with a diverse team of colleagues we successfully articulated a strong holistic strategy that improves employee outcomes, enhances efficiencies for both employees and companies, and delivers increased impact on the company’s DC investment and employee savings. The strategy has been very successful and continues to resonate well with employers. We have built a strong team, tools and methodologies that support an effective delivery and helped dozens of employers measure and improve the retirement outcome of their employees in a sustainable way.
Although the strategy has been well received, it has taken a very long time to get some colleagues comfortable consulting in this space and to believe in the value we can add for DC plan sponsors. Looking back, I would have approached the roll-out of the strategy and colleague training and education differently and more focused on one-on-one coaching in the early days. Getting early buy-in and support from all stakeholders throughout the process is important to maximize success – and always worth the investment of time when measuring the return obtained.
Motivating/Influencing
Describe a difficult situation or disagreement that you had in a professional setting during which opinions varied and you worked through the issues that led to a successful result.
In 2021 as I was co-leading our Canadian Defined Contribution Survey, we had a broad cross line of business team working on developing the survey, analyzing the results, and putting together the survey results material and insights to take to the marketplace and clients: Significant efforts went into ensuring the questions in the survey and the resulting final presentation would be useful and action oriented to clients and would also provide consulting and/or revenue generating opportunities for our consultants and overall business.
We as team were very pleased with the insights we created and the last step before releasing it, we needed to get leadership approval. We thought that this would happen quickly. To our disappointment, this was not the case. We were asked to attend meetings where the material was reviewed in great detail. Several different leaders were providing opinions and it felt that each insight was being questioned. We were put in a position of having to defend everything that was included, in particular trending information such as ESG and DEI. At the time, I personally felt disrespected.
After a few additional challenging interactions, I agreed to meet with 2 of the original leadership group to review their concerns and suggested changes to the material. Before that meeting, I ensured that I was going in with an open mind, ready to listen to the concerns, while presenting our reasoning for including various items in the material. This meeting was very successful for all and in the end, little changed in the final material and the few changes we did make made the final presentation stronger – a testament to the importance of listening and how diverse voices make everything better. The survey rollout went very well and client feedback was extremely positive, leading to successful client engagements.
Diversity
What additional actions do you think the Board should take regarding diversity, equity and inclusion?
The definition and scope of DEI is constantly evolving and the SOA needs to be able to evolve with it. How the SOA defines DEI needs constant adaptation depending on the region, culture, language, and evolving societal issues to name a few. All aspects of the long-term strategy need to have DEI goals and how success will be measured should be clearly articulated and communicated.
The Board needs to question itself on whether they are doing enough to support full inclusivity and equality. There are numerous areas where DEI matters, such as recruiting new members, attracting actuaries to the profession, representation on its Board, committees, leadership, staff and within SOA internal promotion and pay practices as well as in interactions with other actuarial bodies and international communities. The Board should also seek member input frequently on what DEI means to them and what more can be done.
The Canadian Institute of Actuaries recently released a study on Women in the Actuarial Profession. It reported that only 33.5% of CIA membership are women and only 37.5% are in CIA leadership. More startling, a focus group poll revealed that 18% had been explicitly told to imitate masculine characteristics (i.e., “be more like a man”) to achieve success in their career, while 72% had been told the same message implicitly. This data will be invaluable in helping us meaningful move the needle – the profession will be stronger for it.
As a governing body, the SOA needs to be able to help its members continue to learn and evolve in this space. We need to feel a strong sense of responsibility for ensuring that our members are representative of the broader population – and support research and education, similar to the CIA study, that helps us get there more quickly.
International
What can the SOA Board do to balance the needs of our global membership? How will your experience help the Board accomplish this?
The SOA Board can help to balance the needs of our global membership by having that global representation on the Board and to seek input from the global membership on their needs and wants from the SOA. The Board should also continue to work with Employers and regulatory bodies in different regions to be able to tailor the educational and research opportunities to address their local concerns. The board should also ensure that there is global representation on the various SOA committees, staff and leadership to ensure that the international lens is well represented.
Differences between countries can create different challenges for the SOA to achieve its strategic plan and long-term growth strategy. For example, from a Canadian perspective challenges could arise from potential diverging priorities of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries, differences in Canadian actuarial programs in post-secondary institutions, our very different health care system, differing societal issues or even differences in regulations, i.e., privacy legislations. As a Canadian, I will bring a non-US perspective to the Board and will ensure that a broader global perspective is consistently considered.
Emerging
Recently, the number of new candidates for actuarial exams has been declining. What additional actions should the Board take on this topic in relation to keeping the SOA successful?
Future success of the SOA depends completely on the pipeline of future actuaries. Education and promotion in schools and post-secondary institutions of the profession and the significant societal impact the SOA and its membership have is important to generate excitement in future potential candidates. The Board should make sure that issues important to youth looking at career options are fully integrated into SOA education system and proactively engage actuaries to talk about these issues to the younger generation. These include many of the items already in the mind of Board members such as Diversity and Inclusion, ESG considerations particularly around climate change and the global road to reduce carbon-footprints and ensuring that the actuarial career path considers the needs of students and employers in an increasingly global perspective.
I feel that success would be achieved if future candidates move away from asking “Why should I be an actuary?” to “Why would I even consider being anything but an actuary?”
Research shows us that Gen X is more purpose-driven than previous generations and we need to be able to articulate how being an actuary will help them create a more equitable and sustainable world.