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Previously in Part 2: An ethical dilemma that drove John out of one company, the collapse of another, and being fired from Hartford Life at 55 in a line of business he'd never worked in. Catch up here if you missed it.

Now, one might think if you tried and failed at learning a new field, perhaps you should go back to something you did before. I agree that this would be a perfectly rational response, but it was not the one I chose.

While sitting at home collecting unemployment insurance payments from the State of Connecticut, I got a call from a recruiter. Capital Region BOCES in Albany, NY was looking for an actuary to perform OPEB valuations, and they could not find one. "OPEB is easy to learn," the recruiter said.

So, I searched the internet for a few OPEB valuation reports, AND I FOUND A MENTOR. Under the rules of the US actuarial profession, if I enter a new field, I must receive mentoring for one year. I did not get that mentoring at Hartford Life, but I would not make that mistake again.

Next, what is OPEB? Other Postemployment Benefits is a term covering retirement benefits other than pensions. The primary such benefit is referred to as Postretirement Medical. What is this?

A defined benefit (DB) pension plan provides a lifetime income stream in accordance with some benefit formula. Instead of a lifetime income stream, substitute a lifetime stream of insurance premiums paid to a health insurance company (or Medicare), and you get the idea. An OPEB valuation is similar to a valuation of a DB pension plan, but the benefits are future health insurance premiums and are challenging to forecast. The typical pension valuation elements (Accrued Liability, Normal Cost, etc.) apply to OPEB valuations. My pension background from my first actuarial job was very relevant. OPEB plans are different enough from DB pension plans to have their own Actuarial Standard of Practice (ASOP 6). The guiding accounting regulation was the government accounting standard GASB 45 (later replaced by GASB 74/75).

My mentor, Adam Reese, was then and is still one of the leading expert actuaries on OPEB in the US. How did I make contact with Adam Reese? Networking. We had never met before this situation arose, and he was likely recommended to me by someone in my network. Adam was CCA secretary in 2009 and CCA president in 2011.

I would like to spend a little time on Networking. I define this to be finding others to provide me with knowledge or other assistance related to my profession and providing the same when asked. I have often said that "the entire SOA Directory is my network". I mean that I will contact any SOA member who can help me with a particular problem. Networking is an integral part of one's professional life.

Adam had me visit his office in Arlington, Virginia. He and his staff coached me on everything I needed to know. In addition, his firm leased me their proprietary software, which greatly assisted the learning. Once a year, I visited Arlington, and he would update me on the latest developments that he thought I needed to know. This was invaluable to a solo actuary. (I only had one actuarial assistant with no exams as my staff.)

My role at BOCES was to provide OPEB valuations to about 130 municipalities, mainly school districts. In the State of New York, each municipality has its own OPEB plan. I was an employee of BOCES, but I served as a consultant to the municipalities. Each client received a full valuation in year one and then estimated valuations in years two and three; then repeat. I started in April 2009. In the same year, I joined the Conference of Consulting Actuaries and added "FCA" to my name. Adam Reese's signature is on my FCA diploma as the Secretary of CCA. For the first year, I lived in Troy, NY, not far from the office, while Vicki lived in our home in Bloomfield, CT. After that year, they allowed me to live in Bloomfield (technically, out of state) and commute to Albany three days per week, a significant savings in rent but it put several thousands of miles on my Hyundai Sonata. I enjoyed the job very much. From time to time, I would take road trips around the State of New York to visit my clients. Being a former teacher helped me relate to the challenges in Education that my clients faced.

In 2013, Vicki wanted to return to Minnesota. In June 2014, we hired a crew to load a Penske truck and I drove it cross-country to Minnesota while she drove my Sonata. I continued working remotely for BOCES (with occasional visits to the office) until March 2015, at which point I retired from BOCES and started receiving a pension from the State of New York, plus a postretirement medical benefit from BOCES for which I pay 0% of the premium.

Newsletter continues after job posts…

Notwithstanding my retirement from BOCES, I looked for work but found it hard to come by. Fortunately for me, the life insurance regulator for Minnesota, housed inside the Department of Commerce, was looking for an actuary and my life insurance experience made me a good fit. It helped that the health insurance actuary who reported to the Chief Actuary knew me and she was very happy to recommend me to him; that paved the way for their interest in me. Once again, the power of networking was on my side.

Now I had been curious about the regulatory world but had not seriously considered it until the opportunity seemed available. At the time of my first meeting with Chief Actuary Fred Andersen, they had a low-level actuarial position available, and they were working on creating a higher-level actuarial position for which I would likely be suited. He encouraged me to accept the low-level position now which would increase my chances of getting the higher-level position later. The higher-level position was referred to colloquially as "the PBR Actuary". I started work in March 2016 in the lower-level position, though my work was at the level of "the PBR Actuary".

The hiring process for government roles is very different from that of the private sector. If a private company likes my resume, they can hire me on the spot; with government, the role must be advertised so every person who might be qualified and interested has an opportunity to apply for it. So, the promotion to "the PBR Actuary" could not be guaranteed. I did get the promotion in due time, since no one else applied. A little patience paid off.

My work consisted of:

Serving as a regulatory actuary brought with it much respect from the actuaries whose work I was charged with reviewing, primarily because I showed them the respect that they deserved. The companies varied in size and complexity, and I was impressed by the high quality of work generally produced. For some contract filings, I found it much easier to resolve issues by phone, and my "clients" appreciated this because it accelerated the approval process.

During 2015, between my jobs at BOCES and the Department of Commerce, I founded Robinson Associates LLC. I got a referral to perform GASB 67/68 pension valuations for the City of Monticello, Minnesota. They became my first and ultimately, my only client. Thanks again to my network, I developed an Excel workbook that met all the needs for this valuation. The group is a group of volunteer firefighters, connected to the city, and the benefits for the many groups of this kind throughout the state of Minnesota are defined in Minnesota Law. The retirement benefit is a lump sum, less than ideal from a retirement income perspective; however, this eliminated the need to consider postretirement mortality. At any given time, there were about 30 lives covered by the plan.

In 2016, I performed the YE2015 GASB 67/68 valuation for the plan. I performed both a formal valuation, as required by the regulations, and a funding valuation that I designed myself. I continued this every year until 2026, when they decided to give the job to the actuary for their OPEB plan, a decision that seemed reasonable to me. This ended my career from a technical work perspective.

My firm still exists as a registered entity and is currently supported by my earnings from grading SOA exams.

I became aware of the IABA in 1995. I served on the Board of Directors, an important leadership opportunity. In 2006, I was asked to serve as vice-president to Jeffrey Johnson FSA, MAAA, who was serving in that capacity for the second time. This requires a little explanation: the IABA president is elected for one year at a time; but presidents typically serve multiple years in succession. Jeff served as president from September 1998 to August 2000 and again from September 2006 to December 2009. In that sense, he is the IABA's only two-time president. I served as Jeff's vice-president in his second "term".

In 2009, I was elected to succeed Jeff for calendar year 2010, and re-elected three more times, serving as president four years total. My vice-president was Monique Hacker-Patterson, who succeeded me as president.

The Annual Meeting was our main event; but the organization needed to be more than just an annual meeting. I continued the work of Stafford Thompson Jr., one of my predecessors as president, and worked to strengthen our City Affiliates. Today, each City Affiliate has its own leadership and organizes events for its Affiliate members. In 1999, 35 of us met at the Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL. The Annual Meeting attendance record is now 611 (2025).

Up to my term as president, the president had the privilege of implementing his or her vision. Near the end of my term, Monique led the development of our first multi-year Strategic Plan. This was a significant development in the IABA's maturity. Today, as it is with the SOA, the president must support the Strategic Plan.

It is fair to say that the leadership opportunities afforded me by the IABA made me the actuarial leader I am today. My leadership philosophy is that "leading is influencing"; as long as I am having an influence, I am providing leadership.

Next week, the finale: John runs for the SOA presidency - loses twice - and then wins by 211 votes. Part 4 of 4 concludes the series.

John Robinson served as President of the Society of Actuaries in 2023, the SOA's first Black president, but his path there was anything but conventional: from teaching high school math in Jamaica, to failing more Fellowship exams than he passed, to reinventing himself in an entirely new practice area after being fired at 55.