Stuart A. Robertson
Encyclopedia
Stuart A. Robertson was co-founder, with Wendell Milliman
, of Milliman, Inc.
, formerly Milliman & Robertson, which would grow to become one of the largest actuarial and business consulting firms in the world, encompassing more than 30 locations throughout the United States
with offices in 16 other countries. Robertson, who attended the University of Washington
before becoming an actuary
, joined Milliman in the first consulting actuarial practice in the Pacific Northwest
in 1950. Following Milliman’s retirement in 1971, Robertson served as CEO
and chairman until his retirement in 1983.
, died just three months after Stuart’s birth. Eventually, because of their mother’s efforts and working outside of school, all five children went to college.
In 1934, Robertson at first entered the University of Idaho
in Moscow, Idaho
, because of the low tuition. But when he was told he must pay a higher out-of-state rate, he transferred to the University of Washington
where he helped meet the costs of board and tuition by working part-time
as a houseboy in a campus sorority and with a second job at the federally funded National Youth Administration
. During summer breaks, he worked at a pea cannery, earning 37 cents an hour.
In his junior year
at college, Robertson was reconsidering his future course when he saw a recruiting notice for actuaries
on a bulletin board
in the math department. After some research to find what an actuary actually did, he became intrigued. Milliman principal Stan Roberts once described actuaries as “doctors of probability,” in that their occupation involves calculating the likelihood of such things as how long an individual will live after retirement
or how likely someone is to come down with a specific disease. These calculations are used by companies like insurance firms and financial institution
s to calculate rates and decide what services to provide.
From his research, Robertson learned that he could earn the status of Fellow in the Actuarial Institute by passing tests and decided this might better serve his goal than a bachelor’s degree
. A day after his 19th birthday, he began a job as a clerk for the actuary at the Great Northwest Life Insurance
Company in Spokane
, Wash. He also began studying for his first actuarial exam
.
From 1937 to 1947, he rose through the ranks at Great Northwest to become a vice president in the firm. He dealt with multiple aspects of insurance, including actuarial work, accounting, underwriting
, and stockholder and policyholder relations. In 1939, he married childhood acquaintance Marjory Moch, whom he’d been dating since high school. In 1947, he accepted his first actuary-only position at Northwestern Life and returned to Seattle.
At this point, anticipating his final actuarial exam, he began to consider a move to the East Coast to expand his prospects. But then he met Wendell Milliman, who made the case for the potential of actuarial consulting. Milliman had established the first consulting actuarial practice in the Pacific Northwest
in 1947. He worked for state government and firms that were too small to have their own actuarial departments.
In addition to Northwestern Life, Robertson, who by this time had experience working for small insurance firms, was assigned to work for eight or nine such clients. However, just six months after coming to work with Milliman, Robertson found himself in a novel situation. Wendell Milliman had been offered a job with a large Eastern firm, New York Life Insurance Company
, to become a vice president in charge of organizing and administrating the firm’s new group insurance
department. While the pay—$25,000 per year—was good for 1950, it was the challenge that attracted him and he decided to go.
Milliman offered to sell Robertson the firm and, though Robertson had concerns that he had no backup capital of his own, he finally accepted. The terms included $1,000 up front and five yearly payments, which eventually amounted to $9,630. Five years later, however, Milliman made a surprise visit to Robertson, at which point he asked if he would like a partner—namely one Wendell Milliman.
Robertson readily agreed and soon they formed Milliman & Robertson; they were joined by new partner Tom Bleakney, whom Robertson had hired in Milliman’s absence. In 1957, the firm incorporated
. By 1965, it had opened new offices in Los Angeles
; Portland, Ore.;Honolulu; Salt Lake City; Chicago
; and New York City
. At that point, Milliman & Robertson was the second largest actuarial firm in the country.
ial model gave principals the opportunity to invest in new expansion, either geographically or into new practice areas, and enabled them to benefit from successes while taking on some of the risks.
When Milliman retired in 1971, Robertson was named CEO and chairman of the firm. James Curtis became president. At the time, Robertson had been in the actuarial field for 30 years. In 1974, under his leadership, a peer-review process was adopted to check on the quality of work in real time. In 1976, the firm reorganized so that four national directors oversaw four practice areas.
Colleagues praised Robertson for his contribution to the firm’s professionalism and for a slight streak of conservatism
that kept the firm on course. He also proved his skill as a writer when, in 1988, he published his book, Milliman and Robertson: Reflections on the First Forty Years.
s or fishing for crab
near his home in Bainbridge Island, Wash. During retirement, he remained active at hobbies like woodworking
and piano playing and took up bicycling.
Stuart Robertson died on November 4, 2005, at the age of 87. He was survived by his wife Marjory, his son Dick, and numerous grandchildren. As a tribute to Robertson soon after his death, Milliman, Inc. announced the Stuart Robertson Scholarship Fund, to be used to help undergraduates who demonstrate talent in the actuarial field
.
Wendell Milliman
Wendell Milliman was a founder of Milliman, Inc., formerly Milliman & Robertson, one of the largest actuarial and business consulting firms in the world...
, of Milliman, Inc.
Milliman
-Corporate Overview:Milliman is a large international, independent actuarial and consulting firm, with revenues of $676 million in 2010. Founded in Seattle in 1947, by Wendell Milliman and Stuart A. Robertson, the firm operates 54 offices worldwide with 2,500 employees, including more than 1,300...
, formerly Milliman & Robertson, which would grow to become one of the largest actuarial and business consulting firms in the world, encompassing more than 30 locations throughout the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
with offices in 16 other countries. Robertson, who attended the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
before becoming an actuary
Actuary
An actuary is a business professional who deals with the financial impact of risk and uncertainty. Actuaries provide expert assessments of financial security systems, with a focus on their complexity, their mathematics, and their mechanisms ....
, joined Milliman in the first consulting actuarial practice in the Pacific Northwest
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...
in 1950. Following Milliman’s retirement in 1971, Robertson served as CEO
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
and chairman until his retirement in 1983.
Early life and career
Stuart Robertson was born on February 28, 1918, in Montesano, Wash., in Gray’s Harbor County about 95 miles southwest of Seattle. The family was shaken when the father, a civil engineerCivil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...
, died just three months after Stuart’s birth. Eventually, because of their mother’s efforts and working outside of school, all five children went to college.
In 1934, Robertson at first entered the University of Idaho
University of Idaho
The University of Idaho is the State of Idaho's flagship and oldest public university, located in the rural city of Moscow in Latah County in the northern portion of the state...
in Moscow, Idaho
Moscow, Idaho
Moscow is a city in northern Idaho, situated along the Washington/Idaho border. It is the most populous city and county seat of Latah County and the home of the University of Idaho, the land grant institution and primary research university for the state...
, because of the low tuition. But when he was told he must pay a higher out-of-state rate, he transferred to the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
where he helped meet the costs of board and tuition by working part-time
Part time
A part-time job is a form of employment that carries fewer hours per week than a full-time job. Workers are considered to be part time if they commonly work fewer than 30 or 35 hours per week...
as a houseboy in a campus sorority and with a second job at the federally funded National Youth Administration
National Youth Administration
The National Youth Administration was a New Deal agency in the United States that focused on providing work and education for Americans between the ages of 16 and 24. It operated from 1935 to 1939 as part of the Works Progress Administration . Following the passage of the Reorganization Act of...
. During summer breaks, he worked at a pea cannery, earning 37 cents an hour.
In his junior year
Eleventh grade
Eleventh Grade is the eleventh, and for some countries final, grade of secondary schools. Students are typically 16 or 17 years of age, depending on the country and the students' birthdays.-Brazil:...
at college, Robertson was reconsidering his future course when he saw a recruiting notice for actuaries
Actuary
An actuary is a business professional who deals with the financial impact of risk and uncertainty. Actuaries provide expert assessments of financial security systems, with a focus on their complexity, their mathematics, and their mechanisms ....
on a bulletin board
Bulletin board
A bulletin board is a surface intended for the posting of public messages, for example, to advertise things to buy or sell, announce events, or provide information...
in the math department. After some research to find what an actuary actually did, he became intrigued. Milliman principal Stan Roberts once described actuaries as “doctors of probability,” in that their occupation involves calculating the likelihood of such things as how long an individual will live after retirement
Retirement
Retirement is the point where a person stops employment completely. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours.Many people choose to retire when they are eligible for private or public pension benefits, although some are forced to retire when physical conditions don't allow the person to...
or how likely someone is to come down with a specific disease. These calculations are used by companies like insurance firms and financial institution
Financial institution
In financial economics, a financial institution is an institution that provides financial services for its clients or members. Probably the most important financial service provided by financial institutions is acting as financial intermediaries...
s to calculate rates and decide what services to provide.
From his research, Robertson learned that he could earn the status of Fellow in the Actuarial Institute by passing tests and decided this might better serve his goal than a bachelor’s degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
. A day after his 19th birthday, he began a job as a clerk for the actuary at the Great Northwest Life Insurance
Life insurance
Life insurance is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the death of the insured person. Depending on the contract, other events such as terminal illness or critical illness may also trigger...
Company in Spokane
Spokane
Spokane is a city in the U.S. state of Washington.Spokane may also refer to:*Spokane *Spokane River*Spokane, Missouri*Spokane Valley, Washington*Spokane County, Washington*Spokane-Coeur d'Alene-Paloos War*Spokane * USS Spokane...
, Wash. He also began studying for his first actuarial exam
Actuarial exam
Actuarial exams are a series of professional level examinations which must be passed in order to be admitted into an actuarial society, if the society has a "membership through examination" requirement...
.
From 1937 to 1947, he rose through the ranks at Great Northwest to become a vice president in the firm. He dealt with multiple aspects of insurance, including actuarial work, accounting, underwriting
Underwriting
Underwriting refers to the process that a large financial service provider uses to assess the eligibility of a customer to receive their products . The name derives from the Lloyd's of London insurance market...
, and stockholder and policyholder relations. In 1939, he married childhood acquaintance Marjory Moch, whom he’d been dating since high school. In 1947, he accepted his first actuary-only position at Northwestern Life and returned to Seattle.
At this point, anticipating his final actuarial exam, he began to consider a move to the East Coast to expand his prospects. But then he met Wendell Milliman, who made the case for the potential of actuarial consulting. Milliman had established the first consulting actuarial practice in the Pacific Northwest
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...
in 1947. He worked for state government and firms that were too small to have their own actuarial departments.
Partnership with Milliman
Robertson joined Milliman in his two-room office at 914 Second Avenue in Seattle, bringing Northwestern Life along as a client. In one room, the two shared a phone and an enormous desk, with a top consisting of a five-foot-by-five-foot oak slab. The desk had “a full complement of drawers on either side,” Robertson later recalled. Milliman and Robertson were so busy that they “spent little time conversing other than to say ‘pass the telephone.’”In addition to Northwestern Life, Robertson, who by this time had experience working for small insurance firms, was assigned to work for eight or nine such clients. However, just six months after coming to work with Milliman, Robertson found himself in a novel situation. Wendell Milliman had been offered a job with a large Eastern firm, New York Life Insurance Company
New York Life Insurance Company
The New York Life Insurance Company is one of the largest mutual life-insurance companies in the United States, and one of the largest life insurers in the world, with about $287 billion in total assets under management, and more than $15 billion in surplus and AVR...
, to become a vice president in charge of organizing and administrating the firm’s new group insurance
Group Insurance
Group insurance is an insurance that covers a group of people, usually who are the members of societies, employees of a common employer, or professionals in a common group....
department. While the pay—$25,000 per year—was good for 1950, it was the challenge that attracted him and he decided to go.
Milliman offered to sell Robertson the firm and, though Robertson had concerns that he had no backup capital of his own, he finally accepted. The terms included $1,000 up front and five yearly payments, which eventually amounted to $9,630. Five years later, however, Milliman made a surprise visit to Robertson, at which point he asked if he would like a partner—namely one Wendell Milliman.
Robertson readily agreed and soon they formed Milliman & Robertson; they were joined by new partner Tom Bleakney, whom Robertson had hired in Milliman’s absence. In 1957, the firm incorporated
Incorporation (business)
Incorporation is the forming of a new corporation . The corporation may be a business, a non-profit organisation, sports club, or a government of a new city or town...
. By 1965, it had opened new offices in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
; Portland, Ore.;Honolulu; Salt Lake City; Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
; and New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. At that point, Milliman & Robertson was the second largest actuarial firm in the country.
Evolution of the firm
Over the years, Milliman and Robertson built on the firm’s fundamentals. An entrepreneurEntrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
ial model gave principals the opportunity to invest in new expansion, either geographically or into new practice areas, and enabled them to benefit from successes while taking on some of the risks.
When Milliman retired in 1971, Robertson was named CEO and chairman of the firm. James Curtis became president. At the time, Robertson had been in the actuarial field for 30 years. In 1974, under his leadership, a peer-review process was adopted to check on the quality of work in real time. In 1976, the firm reorganized so that four national directors oversaw four practice areas.
Colleagues praised Robertson for his contribution to the firm’s professionalism and for a slight streak of conservatism
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
that kept the firm on course. He also proved his skill as a writer when, in 1988, he published his book, Milliman and Robertson: Reflections on the First Forty Years.
Personal life
Robertson enjoyed the outdoor life and could frequently be found shucking oysterOyster
The word oyster is used as a common name for a number of distinct groups of bivalve molluscs which live in marine or brackish habitats. The valves are highly calcified....
s or fishing for crab
Crab
True crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" , or where the reduced abdomen is entirely hidden under the thorax...
near his home in Bainbridge Island, Wash. During retirement, he remained active at hobbies like woodworking
Woodworking
Woodworking is the process of building, making or carving something using wood.-History:Along with stone, mud, and animal parts, wood was one of the first materials worked by early humans. Microwear analysis of the Mousterian stone tools used by the Neanderthals show that many were used to work wood...
and piano playing and took up bicycling.
Stuart Robertson died on November 4, 2005, at the age of 87. He was survived by his wife Marjory, his son Dick, and numerous grandchildren. As a tribute to Robertson soon after his death, Milliman, Inc. announced the Stuart Robertson Scholarship Fund, to be used to help undergraduates who demonstrate talent in the actuarial field
Actuary
An actuary is a business professional who deals with the financial impact of risk and uncertainty. Actuaries provide expert assessments of financial security systems, with a focus on their complexity, their mathematics, and their mechanisms ....
.