R. Dale Hall, FSA, CERA, MAAA, CFA
Vice President and Chief Actuary, Life/Health Operations
COUNTRY Financial

Even as a child, Dale Hall had a passion for math and business. Following an actuarial path has allowed him to combine both skills as an adult. “More than ever before, actuaries have to put business meaning into their numbers,” says Hall, vice president and chief actuary for COUNTRY Life.

As a member of the life insurance community, Hall believes the aging workforce crisis is one of today's key issues. "The baby boomer generation is preparing for retirement and is looking to us for financial security products to protect them while in retirement," says Hall. "It is not uncommon for people to live to 100, but it becomes increasingly difficult for the general population to save assets for a 40-50 year retirement period. That is why we focus today on creating financial security programs that can help people protect and stabilize their income."

Moving beyond the expansion of existing programs, Hall believes that true success lies in creating new products and solutions for the betterment of society. Following 9/11, Hall had the opportunity to collaborate with six actuaries to create a catastrophic insurance product. "Our primary focus was to create a life reinsurance model for small scale catastrophic events," says Hall. "As a group, we came together and created something new for the industry. To me, that is the definition of success."

"I've been fortunate to work in an environment where I get to use my actuarial skills on many projects across many lines of business," Hall says. "I've been able to bring some projects to life that some students only get to read about in textbooks, such as mergers and acquisitions and the development of our enterprise risk management program."

Hall is passing on that knowledge to tomorrow’s actuaries. He team-teaches at ISU, where he is able to take the theoretical and put it in a current-world context. "We use technology to model out the students' suggestions on various issues," Hall says. "I know they leave the classroom very well prepared to use those techniques in the real world."