Society Of Actuaries Podcasts Feed

The SOA launched a new initiative, the emerging topics community, as a pilot in 2021.  In this short discussion, we explain what the emerging topics community is, how it is structured and what benefits it brings to the SOA community.  Information is also provided on how anyone can volunteer and contribute. Joe Alaimo interviews volunteer leaders in the community Kevin Durand, Laura Whitaker and Nick Miller View the SOA professional opportunities such as webcasts and topic calls: https://www.soa.org/pdopportunities If you are interested in contributing by writing an article, speaking at a conference or joining a podcast send an email to communities@soa.org  

Host Jackie Lee and Robert Lynch discuss a different method for calculating IBNR when there is not run out available, called the Average Paid PMPM Method. Based on his recent HealthWatch article, Rob discusses how this method can produce more reliable results with less volatility. Learn about the method, and be sure to check out the article with step by step instructions on the method.

Young Professional Advisory Council’s Silver Zhou, FSA, MAAA, discusses the importance of personal brand and building your reputation with Aree Bly and Jon Forster, ASA, MAAA. Also learn more about the SOA Next Generation Leaders Summit, where Aree will be leading a session on this topic. 

Host Rong Rong, FSA, CPCU, talks with inspirational entrepreneur Aree Bly about Aree's entrepreneurial journey and other fun things.

Host Jackie Lee discusses the 340(b) Drug Pricing Program with Tony Pistilli of Axene Health Partners. Learn about the program's history and the significant growth it has seen in recent years to now account for almost 8% of all outpatient drug sales while concerns about potential abuse and unintended consequences have also increased.

Dave Dillon hosts a conversation with Brian Tajlili as he discusses his role leading business planning for a health insurance organization and similarities and differences with traditional actuarial roles.

Data science is all the buzz! Listen in on the conversation between YPAC member Philip Wright, ASA, and his colleague Nick Laffey, FSA, as they discuss the application of a data science skillset to an actuarial role. 

This is the fourth in a 4-part series where Anders Larson and Shea Parkes discuss predictive analytics with high cardinality features.  In the prior episodes we focused on approaches to handling individual high cardinality features, but these methods did not explicitly address feature interactions.  Factorization Machines can responsibly estimate all pairwise interactions, even when multiple high cardinality features are included.  With a healthy selection of high cardinality features, a well tuned Factorization Machine can produce results that are more accurate than any other learning algorithm.

Dave Dillon welcomes guest Jon Forster, former executive for Medical Risk Managers for a discussion about current Market conditions of the stop loss industry. We’ll cover current stop loss products in the market, the pipeline of cell and gene therapy, and new underwriting uses of AI.  Jon has 20 years’ experience in actuarial leadership positions and recently moved to work full time with the Society of Actuaries to accelerate  professional development offerings.  

This podcast is the third in our series “Drink in the Details,” featuring casual discussions with experts on a variety of financial reporting topics. Join Chris Whitney, as he discusses the ‘sunrise of LDTI’ with Matthieu Bousetta, Mark Billingsley, Dieter Van de Stock and Nathan Worrell over a tequila sunrise.

Join YPAC member Harrison Smith, ASA, as he talks with Nathan Worrell, FSA, to learn about found success and growth within the actuarial profession. Hear Nate’s suggestions to define and pursue success including how to utilize your skillset, volunteering to gain access to knowledge, and finding resonance in your work. 

This episode focuses on the evolution of underwriting techniques to the current use of predictive models.  Topics include what carriers might consider when launching a model, reflections on when not to use results from a model, current regulatory concerns and activity around predictive models, and other topics carriers may run into once a model is up and running.

This is the third in a 4-part series where Anders Larson and Shea Parkes discuss predictive analytics with high cardinality features.  In this episode they focus on feature engineering via the hashing trick.  The hashing trick is most applicable for extremely high cardinality, and at first glance can seem almost ridiculous.  In a lot of ways, it is the same as bucketing values at random.  But there are times that it is more valuable to include randomly engineered buckets than to exclude the original high cardinality feature entirely.

This is the second in a 4-part series where Anders Larson and Shea Parkes discuss predictive analytics with high cardinality features.  In this episode they focus on y-aware feature engineering.  Y-aware feature engineering is all about carefully bleeding information from your training response back into your engineered features without grossly misrepresenting your ability to generalize to new data.

Join the Young Professional Advisory Council (YPAC) Board liaison Melody Prangley, FSA, MAAA, EA, FCA, as she discusses upcoming and future initiatives for YPAC, exciting engagement opportunities, ways for members to elevate their networks and skillsets and how to manage and delegate a team.

Anthony Weatherspoon, ASA, MAAA, and Kiu Yuen, FSA, MAAA introduce the latest addition to the SOA’s podcast lineup. Discover what to expect from the Young Professional Advisory Council series, how often to tune in, and topics to be covered in upcoming episodes.

Host Jackie Lee discusses the impacts of food intervention with Lauren Driscoll of NourishedRx. Learn about how this important basic need impacts the health and well-being of under-served populations and how health plans and actuaries should think about this impact in health care costs. Lauren explains how these services can create a deeper connection between consumer and their health plan. The State of US Health, 1990-2016, Burden of Diseases, Injuries and Risk Factors Among US States  

This is the first in a 4-part series where Anders Larson and Shea Parkes discuss predictive analytics with high cardinality features.  In this episode they focus on introducing what high cardinality features are, why you might want to work with them and some of the basic approaches to including them in predictive models.

  Title: Leadership Series: John Robinson Description: Jackie Lee discussed with John Robinson about his new role as SOA President. He talks about his background and how he got to this prestigious and monumental role. They discuss his Presential Speech, which is found here.