Discover financial solutions that protect your future and provide peace of mind. Whether you're exploring annuities, life insurance, or understanding employee benefits through your workplace, Pacific Life offers resources and products designed to meet your personal and family goals.
Support your workforce with innovative employee benefits and retirement solutions. Pacific Life partners with business owners, benefits administrators, and pension fund managers to create customized programs that attract and retain top talent while securing their financial future.
Simplify complex retirement and pension risk management with our tailored solutions for large organizations. Pacific Life specializes in working with institutions to address their unique challenges, offering expertise in pension de-risking and strategic retirement planning for a more secure future.
Empower your clients with confidence by leveraging Pacific Life’s comprehensive portfolio of financial products. From annuities to life insurance, we provide the tools, resources, and support to help financial advisors and brokers deliver exceptional value and long-term results.
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Individuals
Discover financial solutions that protect your future and provide peace of mind. Whether you're exploring annuities, life insurance, or understanding employee benefits through your workplace, Pacific Life offers resources and products designed to meet your personal and family goals.
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Employers
Support your workforce with innovative employee benefits and retirement solutions. Pacific Life partners with business owners, benefits administrators, and pension fund managers to create customized programs that attract and retain top talent while securing their financial future.
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Institutions
Simplify complex retirement and pension risk management with our tailored solutions for large organizations. Pacific Life specializes in working with institutions to address their unique challenges, offering expertise in pension de-risking and strategic retirement planning for a more secure future.
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Financial Professionals & Brokers
Empower your clients with confidence by leveraging Pacific Life’s comprehensive portfolio of financial products. From annuities to life insurance, we provide the tools, resources, and support to help financial advisors and brokers deliver exceptional value and long-term results.
John Wirthlin, Director & Actuary, shares his experiences and the pivotal moments that have shaped his actuarial career.
Can you share your actuarial career path so far?
I graduated from The Ohio State University in 2016 and began my career in Birmingham, Alabama, as part of the actuarial student rotation program at another life insurance company. During my time there, I gained experience on both the life pricing and experience studies teams. In May 2020, I joined Pacific Life as part of the model modernization team. After a year of working in modeling, I transitioned to the experience studies team, where I have been specializing in mortality ever since.
My role involves setting and monitoring mortality assumptions, along with a variety of other mortality-related responsibilities. What I enjoy most is the broad cross-functional collaboration it requires. My team partners with reinsurance on RFPs, valuation on regulatory reporting, pricing to establish assumptions for new products, data science to refine assumption development, modeling to implement those assumptions, and risk management to ensure effective challenge and governance.
What does a typical day as a Senior Actuary look like?
A typical day for me starts around 8 AM when I check emails, address any urgent matters from the previous day, and plan out my priorities. At 9 AM, I have a daily check-in with my student, Sydney, where we catch up, set priorities, and focus on the most pressing tasks. Since our team receives frequent requests, effective prioritization is crucial to balancing ad-hoc tasks with progress on long-term projects. After our call, I typically have meetings with key stakeholders and dedicate time to advancing larger initiatives, such as rebuilding our best estimate mortality table.
How would you describe the culture of your team?
I would describe my team’s culture as close-knit, despite most of us working remotely. The leader of our team, Lindsay, cares a lot about getting to know people at a personal level and that trickles down to the rest of the team. I'm also continually impressed by the level of talent on our team. For example, my manager, Mark, is a Harvard graduate and an industry-leading expert in mortality, and I have the opportunity to work alongside highly skilled data scientists like Sean and Arie, who I learn from every day. It's inspiring to be part of a team with so many talented individuals!
How has Pacific Life supported your actuarial career?
The opportunity to manage interns and students has been very valuable to me! I’ve had some great interns and students so far (shoutout to Charlene, Sasha, and Sydney). It has been very rewarding seeing them join our team, make meaningful contributions, and grow in their careers. Mentorship has also been very valuable to me. Despite having a large team under him, my mentor always makes time for me if I need to ask for career advice.
What sets Pacific Life apart from other companies?
What sets Pacific Life apart is its strong culture of development. Leadership prioritizes internal mobility and the growth of well-rounded actuaries, creating opportunities that employees might not have had elsewhere. I’m grateful to be part of a company that encourages continuous learning and professional development, allowing me to grow, take on new challenges, and expand my skill set.
If you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?
My advice is to find a mentor! Over the past few years, I’ve received invaluable guidance from mentors that has completely changed the way I approach my work—I only wish I had sought one out earlier. I've found that experienced actuaries are more than willing to support the next generation, so don’t hesitate to reach out and learn from their expertise!
What’s something you’re proud of accomplishing?
Our team conducts quarterly deep dive meetings, where we present detailed mortality analyses to key stakeholders across various departments. After spending years modernizing our data infrastructure, it has been incredibly rewarding to finally showcase the valuable insights we've gained from it!
What hobbies bring you joy outside of work?
I love playing tennis! I play about 3 times per week. I play on a mixed doubles team, a singles ladder, and play USTA tournaments throughout Orange County.
How do you recharge?
Aside from playing tennis, one way I like to recharge is walking on the beach and listening to music. I can walk down to the pier after work, it’s a great way to relax and decompress from the day!
