Ben's primary areas of AXIS and actuarial expertise are annuity modeling and valuation, ALM, stochastic simulation, scenario generation, and process automation.
Ben is a Principal and Consulting Actuary at August Actuarial Consulting (AAC) with 19 years of experience in the insurance industry.
While consulting at AAC over the past two years, Ben’s AXIS experience includes:
- Converted IVA block of business from ALFA to AXIS for valuation (VM21) and capital calculations
- 100k policies, ~$19B Account Value
- Converted FIA AXIS appraisal model into valuation/projection model for an FIA Reinsurer
- 500k policies, ~$65B Account Value
- Valuation use cases added: US Stat/GAAP, Bermuda BEL
- Projection use cases added: CFT, Plan (projected CFT/Stat/GAAP/BEL)
- All use cases above fully automated within a single model
- Added indexed crediting and US GAAP Valuation to an existing AXIS model for two blocks of FIA business for an FIA Reinsurer including automation of all processes
Prior to forming AAC, Ben was a Director at Moody’s Analytics and led Customer Success for AXIS in North America. In Ben’s 12 years with GGY and Moody’s, he used AXIS daily as a senior member of the Client Support, Sales/Marketing, and Customer Success teams. Ben’s primary areas of AXIS and actuarial expertise are annuity modeling and valuation, ALM, stochastic simulation, scenario generation, other equity linked products, and system topics such as governance and process automation. However, Ben is also familiar with other life insurance products and related AXIS functionality to the point of developing examples and providing training for clients on these topics.
In his various roles at GGY and Moody’s, Ben:
- Managed all aspects of client interaction from the early stages of the sales process through the successful implementation of AXIS
- Developed sample and other models for demonstration, support, and training purposes
- Reviewed client models and made recommendations to optimize model setup for ease of use, ease of update, governance, and performance
- Developed and communicated best practice recommendations to clients regarding the setup and use of AXIS models
- Provided training spanning virtually all aspects of the AXIS system including model and process development and optimization
- Provided client support services including troubleshooting AXIS model issues, reconciling AXIS calculations, providing indicative model configuration, and more
- Identified required enhancements based on client requirements, developed specifications, performed testing, and provided training for new features
As a result, Ben has a unique set of actuarial modeling and system capabilities – for AXIS and EnterpriseLink in particular. His extensive knowledge of AXIS and EnterpriseLink system design and intended use allows him to support the development of efficient and effective actuarial models and associated production processes to maximize model and process performance.
Prior to Moody’s, Ben started his career in the Aerospace division of ITT Industries as a Simulation Engineer after obtaining Bachelor’s degrees in Math and Physics from Indiana University in 2001. In 2006, he obtained an MBA from Purdue University with a concentration in Finance and a fellowship in the commercialization of disruptive technology. From 2005 to 2009 Ben worked for Conseco Services (now CNO) as part of the ALM and UL GAAP valuation teams.