In this Inside RGA Q&A, David Lipovics, Head of Institutional Markets, Americas Financial Solutions, discusses his journey into the actuarial field and key trends influencing the pension risk market – including new options for 401(k) plan sponsors.
What first got you interested in insurance and actuarial work?
Growing up in Budapest, I attended a public International Baccalaureate high school and studied advanced math there. For a long time I was torn between following a traditional math-oriented path and one of economics and diplomacy. But when I attended university at The London School of Economics and Political Science, I shifted to actuarial science. I was fascinated by how actuaries used math to solve critical real-world problems.
What was your journey to RGA? What do you do in your current role?
After a brief stint at AON, I pursued an actuarial graduate program while working as a consultant with PwC’s capital management and asset liability management teams. I discovered how life insurers were involved in large commercial deals that really made a difference for pensioners and the institutions sponsoring those pension programs. I also learned about reinsurance and the key role reinsurers played in these transactions. RGA was a quiet force at the center of many of these deals, and I eagerly joined their team in London when I had the opportunity.
After a few years leading reinsurance transactions supporting the UK pension risk transfer (PRT) market, I had the opportunity to lead the team tasked with building RGA’s presence in the US PRT market. We had to figure out our strategy with regard to these risks and how we could carve out a presence for RGA. That was a mission big enough and exciting enough for me to uproot my young family and move to RGA’s headquarters in St. Louis.
In my current role as Head of Institutional Markets, Americas Financial Solutions, I lead the businesses that service the US institutional retirement market. We are at the center of two major societal trends that will affect millions of people in the US: aging populations and the retirement protection gap. Like the rest of the developed world, a huge portion of the US population is either retired or approaching retirement. This shift will put an excessive burden on Social Security, a pressure compounded by increasing longevity – people are living longer and living longer with chronic diseases. For all those reasons, the insurance industry has an important role to play.