What is the Retirement Section Council? An Interview of SOA Retirement Section Council Chair
By Patrick Ring
Retirement Section News, July 2023
The Retirement Section Council (RSC) of the Society of Actuaries facilitates the professional development of its members and their adaptation to changes in the retirement industry by:
- Conducting meetings, webcasts, seminars, and research studies;
- generating and disseminating literature in the retirement field;
- providing a forum for its members to connect; and
- providing leadership opportunities.
I had the pleasure of interviewing the recently nominated Chairperson Hal Tepfer, who shares insights about the RSC.
Patrick Ring (PR): How did you become the chairperson of the RSC?
Hal Tepfer (HT): Thank you, Patrick, for asking me to talk about the RSC. I’ve been a member of the RSC for the last three years and—as you know—am the current chair. I have also been the RSC’s vice chair and the RSC’s treasurer. I have found the experience rewarding and enjoyed working with other RSC members and the SOA staff.
The RSC members elect all of the leadership positions in the section council. There are nine of us, each of whom has been elected by the section council members during the SOA election.
In my case, I was the vice chair in the 2021/2022 year, and I was honored to have been asked by the RSC to take over the chair position when the term of the prior year’s chair, Todd Tauzer, ended.
PR: What is the structure of the RSC, and how do you become a member?
HT: The RSC has nine members, with cohorts of three being elected each year as three members roll off from the council. The term for a member of the RSC is (typically) three years, which means that this coming fall, three of us on the current RSC will leave the council, and three new members will take our place. I’m excited to see what these new members will bring.
Since becoming a member of the RSC is done through elections, you have to run for the position, and for the upcoming year, the election will start soon. Membership in the RSC is open to SOA members in the Retirement Section, which means anyone reading this is a possible candidate!
PR: What are some challenges facing the RSC?
HT: The RSC is one of roughly 20 sections the SOA has for its members. Sections provide members who have a specialty (both in what they do for their jobs and interests they may have) to learn more about their areas through targeted newsletters (like our Retirement Section News), webinars, podcasts, and sessions at SOA meetings.
As I’m sure other section councils will tell you, the challenge that all sections (and their councils) face is to provide a high degree of service to the members of the section. In the 2021–2022 year, the RSC reached out to our members and asked a series of questions with the intent of finding out what our members are looking for. The results were fascinating; we’ve been working on several projects to address those needs.
Most Retirement Section members focus on defined benefit plans, but we know many members work with Defined Contribution (DC) plans. To be of service to members who work in the DC area, our section is working on a variety of items. One important one is the upcoming issue of the “Retirement Forum,” which will focus on DC plans. I, for one, am really looking forward to that issue!
So, the RSC’s role is to essentially manage the Retirement Section’s work through the communication tools I have mentioned and through funding retirement-based initiatives.
We also provide funding for other SOA initiatives. At a recent meeting we heard about two very exciting new research projects, those details should be communicated in the coming months. Both will help our community get a deeper understanding of how retirement is perceived and what future challenges lie ahead for us.
It’s an exciting time to be a retirement actuary!
PR: How do you plan to address these challenges?
HT: As I mentioned, the RSC’s approach has been to understand what our members are looking for and then provide those services and tools to our members.
A great example is the recently completed “What Employees Want” project that RSC member Lee Gold led. The results were amazing, and I know that many section members have been dissecting and analyzing those responses.
Another initiative has been incorporating information relating to DC plans into the section. Rob Reiskytl’s team has been working diligently to include information in the recent Retirement Section News newsletters, and has the upcoming forum on its agenda.
It’s projects like these that the RSC has sponsored and impelled forward that—we believe—provide our members with services and tools they can use for the vital work that we are all doing.
PR: How has volunteering on the RSC impacted your professional career?
HT: Being on the RSC has allowed me to work with other outstanding professionals in our field, who I would never have had the chance to meet otherwise. In addition, there are regular meetings of the chairs of each SOA section. Through those meetings, I have learned a lot about the work that actuaries in other fields are doing.
PR: Is there anything else you would like to tell us about the RSC?
HT: I want to encourage anyone who is a section member to consider taking a leadership role. If not this year, then maybe next year.
The RSC meets regularly (on Zoom), and our meetings are open to anyone interested. Attending those meetings is an excellent way for section members to learn how the RSC is run, what is important to us, and who the members are. I think joining one of our meetings as a “Friend of the Council” would be a good experience for anyone practicing in the retirement area.
Finally, thanks for the opportunity to get together and talk about this, Patrick.
Statements of fact and opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and are not necessarily those of the Society of Actuaries, the newsletter editors, or the respective authors’ employers.
Patrick Ring, ASA, volunteers as chair of the SOA Retirement Section Council’s Communications Team. He can be reached at pringactuary@gmail.com.