Young Professional Advisory Council: Who I Want to Be - The Struggles, Hopes, and Dreams of a Career Changer and Experienced Actuary

Host Danny Moore, FSA, MAAA, CERA and guests John Nolan and Marc Marion from Octaviant Financial discuss the challenges of specialized high-cost drug treatments, their efficacy, and potential vehicles to manage the unique risks involved with these treatments.

In this episode, host Ankit Nanda, FSA, MAAA, FCA, speaks with Dr. Mei Sum Chan, Head of Medical Analytics, R&D at Pacific Life Re, about the science of biological aging and what it means for actuaries. The conversation covers how biomarkers of aging are measured, what real-world data can (and cannot) tell us about health and longevity, and how these developments are beginning to shape actuarial work in health and longevity risk.

The Young Professional Advisory Council's Adam Krompiewski speaks with Cristi-Alice Danielson, Director of Individual Products & Pricing at Wawanesa Insurance, about building a unique actuarial career with a smaller company in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and the lessons she has learned along the way.

Host Ankit Nanda, FSA, MAAA, FCA, speaks with Paul Skrtich, ASA, MAAA, ACIA, Senior Vice President, Accident and Health at OdysseyRe, about how health insurance looks from the reinsurer's seat, where the tail of the claims distribution drives the economics. The conversation covers lasers on known high-cost claimants, emerging cost drivers from skin substitutes to GLP-1s and cell and gene therapies, and how ACOs and provider-payer alignment of interests reshape the risk reaching the excess layers.

Jeff Dunn, President and CEO of Cooperative Benefits Group, joins host Ankit Nanda, FSA, MAAA, FCA, to map the U.S. payer landscape and the forces reshaping it. Drawing on a career that runs from managed care pharmacy into benefits consulting, he sets out how employers, health plans, pharmacy benefit managers, providers, and consultants fit together, where incentives genuinely align and where they only appear to, and what the fiduciary and transparency environment means in practice. The conversation closes on where the market is heading over the next three to five years and what health actuaries should do differently in trend, pricing, and plan design work.