Richard J. Roth, Jr.

Mr. Roth is a Consulting Actuary affiliated with the California office of Bickerstaff, Whatley, Ryan & Burkhalter. He joined the firm on September 1, 2001. Mr. Roth was the Chief Property and Casualty Actuary for the Department of Insurance, State of California, for 20 years, leaving in October, 2000, to work as a consulting casualty actuary.

A Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society (1980), Mr. Roth specializes in the financial examination of insurance companies, reinsurance, workers compensation, automobile insurance, and insurance against natural hazards. His specialty is loss reserving and the solvency of insurance companies. He currently advises on all issues related to the regulation of insurance, including the formation and licensing of new insurance companies.

From 1984 to 1990, he held the position of Assistant Commissioner, an appointed position reporting directly to the California Insurance Commissioner.

Mr. Roth was very active in the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), representing California. This is the official national association of state insurance commissioners, which coordinates the regulation of insurance in the United States. Mr. Roth was the Chairman of the Casualty Actuarial (Technical) Task Force at the NAIC, which is the permanent committee at the NAIC overseeing casualty actuarial issues. During those years:

  • He was instrumental in developing the Schedule P in the Annual Statement for Property/Casualty companies. Schedule P is the actuarial schedule, which enables insurance examiners to evaluate the loss and expense reserves of an insurer and is used as an important tool for monitoring the solvency of insurance companies.
  • He also contributed to the development of the current Schedule F, which reports in detail the insurer's reinsurance transactions over the past year, ceded and assumed.
  • He was also instrumental in developing the Actuarial Opinion requirement, in which most insurers must have an appointed actuary opine on the adequacy of the loss and expense reserves each year.
  • He was active on issues related to catastrophe insurance and the special reporting requirements for monitoring the solvency of insurers, including the NAIC Risk Based Capital requirement.

Mr. Roth served on the Board of Directors of the Casualty Actuarial Society twice. He has been one of the delegates representing the Casualty Actuarial Society to the International Actuarial Association. He is now a delegate representing the Conference of Consulting Actuaries and attends meetings outside of the United States each year.

Employment history
2000 to present – Consulting Actuary, Bickerstaff, Whatley, Ryan & Burkhalter, consulting actuaries.
1990-2000 – Chief Property/Casualty Actuary, California Insurance Department.
1984-1990 – Assistant Commissioner (appointed position), California Insurance Department
1980-1984 – Chief Property/Casualty Actuary, California Insurance Department
1976-1980 – Economist & Strategic Planning, AVCO Corporation, a large, diversified corporation.
1974-1976 – Consultant, Booz, Allen & Hamilton, management consultants.
1970-1974 – Graduate Student, Stanford University
1964-1970 – Engineer, Pratt & Whitney Aircraft, maker of large jet engines.

Education
BS (Mathematics) Stanford University, 1964.
MS (Statistics) Stanford University, 1974
MA (Economics) Stanford University, 1974
JD (Law) University of Connecticut School of Law, 1970 (Admitted to practice law in Connecticut).
Fellow, Casualty Actuarial Society, 1980 (After passing all national actuarial examinations).

Member
Casualty Actuarial Society (Fellow)
Conference of Consulting Actuaries (Fellow)
International Association of Consulting Actuaries
Earthquake Engineering Research Institute
American Risk & Insurance Association

Awards

In 2006, Mr. Roth was the recipient of the Matthew Rodermund Service Award by the Board of Directors of the Casualty Actuarial Society for significant volunteer contributions to the actuarial profession over the course of his career. The award is presented once a year.

Publications

1. "Analysis of Surplus and Rate of Return Without Using Leverage Ratios," Insurer Financial Solvency, Casualty Actuarial Society Discussion Paper Program, 1992, Volume I, pp. 439-464. This paper is required reading for all casualty actuarial students.

2. Roth, Jr., Richard J., Earthquake Basics - Insurance (a monograph), 1997, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, Oakland, California. This is an introduction to the principles of insurance for scientists and engineers.

3. Chapter 4, "Earthquake Insurance Protection in the United States," in Paying the Price, Joseph Henry Press, 1998.

4. "Insurance, Climate Change, and Landslide Damage Mitigation: Thinking Outside of the Shear Box," paper presented at the 1st North American Landslide Conference, Vail, Colorado, June 3-9, 2007. This is a paper on the insurability of landslide damage presented to a conference of engineers and scientists. Subsequent versions of this paper were presented in Madrid, Spain (2008) and Beijing, China (2008).


Contact Mr. Roth
Bickerstaff, Whatley, Ryan & Burkhalter Consulting Actuaries
8821 Baywood Drive
Huntington Beach, CA 92646
(714) 964-7814 - telephone
(714) 964-2896 - facsimile

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David R. Bickerstaff | Patrick L. Whatley | Kevin M. Ryan | Christopher J. Burkhalter | Richard J. Roth Jr. | Windrie Wong | August B. Lashley | Lenora C. Kirchner

Revised - 03/28/04