Skip to main content

You are here

Advertisement

From the Executive Editor

Hello ASEA—

Welcome to the first ASEA Monthly. The ACOPA Monthly is no more.

Another change is how crazily busy I have been for this March deadline. I don’t recall ever being this stressed out this early in the year. At least not in the last decade. Between that and the coronavirus, not feeling as great as usual.

Anyway, at the Leadership Council meeting a couple of years ago, I thought that fellow member Eric Brandon, EA, MAAA, MSPA, FCA,  a Pension Actuary at Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, looked familiar. Turned out we attended the State University of New York at Binghamton together. Cut to January 2020, and Eric was kind enough to join me at our alma mater’s networking night, where the two of us represented the actuarial profession. We gave guidance to the young would-be actuaries, and it was great having Eric there to help out and share his opinions. Eric wrote an article on the experience, which you can find here

The next article is one that I used as reference years back and thought that newer members of ASEA would benefit from reading. Noman Levinrad, our former executive editor, as well as the 2018 Edward E. Burrows Distinguished Achievement Award winner, President and Chief Actuary of Summit Benefit & Actuarial Services, Inc., and most importantly, the man who showed me that actuaries can have great senses of humor and still be professional, wrote this article years ago for his company’s website. I had found it on the internet and used it as a guide in discussing real estate as an investment with clients. Many thanks to Norm for letting me reprint his article for this issue. You can find Norm's article here.

The next article is a recap of the recent ASEA webcast on the Miners Act and SECURE Act, which was presented by Executive Director Marty Pippins and Jim Holland, Chief Research Actuary at Cheiron, Inc. The article by ARA Senior Editor John Iekel, which includes a link for ordering the webcast on demand, can be found here.

Last but not least, Marty Pippins has also written up a sneak preview of ASEA’s first virtual conference, tentatively scheduled for June. I haven’t yet attended such a conference, but it seems interesting—like a televised event that you can interact with (and earn CE credits). You can find Marty’s article here.

Okay, all—I didn’t get in my usual quota of jokes or humor, but more data coming in with an expectation of results being provided by March 15. 

Be well, ASEA. See you all soon, I hope. — Alan