Wendell Milliman
Encyclopedia
Wendell Milliman was a founder of Milliman, Inc.
, formerly Milliman & Robertson, one of the largest actuarial
and business consulting firms in the world. Starting as the Pacific Northwest
’s only independent consulting actuary in a small two-room Seattle office in 1947, Milliman co-founded, with Stuart Robertson
, a company that grew to encompass offices across the nation, first on the West Coast, then in Milwaukee, and then in more than 30 locations throughout the country. It also has offices in 16 countries across the globe. Based on a profit-sharing model that brings together independent consultants under a common corporate banner, Milliman, Inc. looked for and found new opportunities to provide actuarial services to insurers and pension
planners as the United States
dramatically changed and its economy grew during the post-World War II years
.
(UW). He attended Lincoln High School
and then entered the UW, receiving his degree in mathematics
in 1926. It was while attending the UW that he met his future wife, Dorothy Pierce, who was studying library science
. He married Dorothy soon after he obtained a job as a clerk in the actuarial department of Oregon Mutual Life Insurance Company (later Standard Insurance Company
), in Portland, Oregon
.
After two years in Portland, Milliman returned to Seattle for a job with Northwestern Mutual Accident Association
, a predecessor of Northwestern Life Insurance Company
. In 1929, he went to work for the Seattle Employees’ Retirement System, helping develop the city’s new retirement plan. He quickly decided that employment with a large Eastern firm would help his career and accepted a position in the actuarial department of New York City
-based Equitable Life Assurance Society. He worked there for 18 years, during which time he achieved fellowship status in the Actuarial Society (1934) and rose to the rank of vice president in the firm (1945).
firm of sufficient size in the region, he saw the opportunity to act as a consultant to a number of small firms. After conferring with business associates, he became encouraged that this model could enable him to return home. Long-time Washington state insurance commissioner William A. Sullivan soon offered him a retainer
to serve his department in assisting a number of small, local life insurance
companies that needed actuarial help. He also went to work on behalf of the Washington State Employees Retirement System in developing a retirement plan for employees. That, combined with consulting work for Eastern companies, was enough to launch the Milliman office in Seattle, which opened at 914 Second Avenue near the end of 1947. At this time he had a wife, Dorothy, and four children.
A little over two years later, he hired Stuart A. Robertson
, who had been working as an actuary for Northwestern Life Insurance Company. He joined the Milliman firm on April 1, 1950.
to become a vice president in charge of organizing and administrating the firm’s group insurance department at a salary of $25,000 per year, which he accepted.
He arranged to sell the firm to Robertson over the next five years and moved to New York again. However, when he had effectively organized the group practice, he looked once again to Seattle. In 1955, almost exactly five years after selling the firm, he proposed re-establishing the partnership to Robertson and a three-way partnership, including the recently hired Tom Bleakney, was formed.
advanced rapidly, bringing about a simultaneous rise in medical
costs. Concern about covering these costs spurred the development of many kinds of healthcare plans. At the same time, new life and casualty companies sprang up, as labor organizations
negotiated health benefits and pension
plans. Actuaries were needed to work out the longevity
probabilities and incidence of specific illnesses, and provide information and services to the growing insurance industry.
With expansion came the need to specialize. The consultants at Milliman, encouraged to innovate, gradually branched off into different specialties, such as health insurance
or pension
s, giving the firm further reach. On April 1, 1961, the firm opened its first non-West-Coast office, in Milwaukee, headed up by Bill Halvorson. This was an important step toward Milliman’s dream of having a truly national scope.
Over the years, Milliman and his associates built on the firm’s fundamentals. The model was highly entrepreneurial, giving principals the opportunity to invest in new expansion, either geographically or into new practice areas, and enabling them to benefit from successes while taking on some of the risks.
Wendell Milliman retired from the firm in 1971, replaced by Robertson as chairman and chief executive officer. He died on January 31, 1976, at the age of 70.
In addition to co-founding Milliman, Inc., Wendell Milliman played a significant role in a number of professional organizations, including the American Academy of Actuaries
, which he helped form, and the Society of Actuaries
, where he served as president in 1969.
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, one of the largest actuarial
Actuarial science
Actuarial science is the discipline that applies mathematical and statistical methods to assess risk in the insurance and finance industries. Actuaries are professionals who are qualified in this field through education and experience...
and business consulting firms in the world. Starting as 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...
’s only independent consulting actuary in a small two-room Seattle office in 1947, Milliman co-founded, with Stuart Robertson
Stuart A. Robertson
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...
, a company that grew to encompass offices across the nation, first on the West Coast, then in Milwaukee, and then in more than 30 locations throughout the country. It also has offices in 16 countries across the globe. Based on a profit-sharing model that brings together independent consultants under a common corporate banner, Milliman, Inc. looked for and found new opportunities to provide actuarial services to insurers and pension
Pension
In general, a pension is an arrangement to provide people with an income when they are no longer earning a regular income from employment. Pensions should not be confused with severance pay; the former is paid in regular installments, while the latter is paid in one lump sum.The terms retirement...
planners as the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
dramatically changed and its economy grew during the post-World War II years
Post-World War II baby boom
The end of World War II brought a baby boom to many countries, especially Western ones. There is some disagreement as to the precise beginning and ending dates of the post-war baby boom, but it is most often agreed to begin in the years immediately after the war, ending more than a decade later;...
.
Early life and career
Wendell Milliman was born December 13, 1905, in Seattle. He grew up in the family home on 15th Avenue NE, north of the University of WashingtonUniversity 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...
(UW). He attended Lincoln High School
Lincoln High School (Seattle, Washington)
Lincoln High School is a former public high school in the Seattle Public Schools district of Seattle, Washington, USA.-History:The school was built in 1906 to handle the growth in the area. It was founded in 1907; until 1971 it was a three-year high school, thereafter a four-year high school...
and then entered the UW, receiving his degree in mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
in 1926. It was while attending the UW that he met his future wife, Dorothy Pierce, who was studying library science
Library science
Library science is an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary field that applies the practices, perspectives, and tools of management, information technology, education, and other areas to libraries; the collection, organization, preservation, and dissemination of information resources; and the...
. He married Dorothy soon after he obtained a job as a clerk in the actuarial department of Oregon Mutual Life Insurance Company (later Standard Insurance Company
Standard Insurance Company
Standard Insurance Company, also branded as The Standard, is an American insurance and financial company which is a subsidiary of StanCorp Financial Group, headquartered in Portland, Oregon....
), in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
.
After two years in Portland, Milliman returned to Seattle for a job with Northwestern Mutual Accident Association
Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company
Northwestern Mutual is a mutual company based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin that offers financial services, including life insurance, long-term care insurance, disability insurance, annuities, mutual funds, and employee benefit services...
, a predecessor of Northwestern Life Insurance Company
Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company
Northwestern Mutual is a mutual company based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin that offers financial services, including life insurance, long-term care insurance, disability insurance, annuities, mutual funds, and employee benefit services...
. In 1929, he went to work for the Seattle Employees’ Retirement System, helping develop the city’s new retirement plan. He quickly decided that employment with a large Eastern firm would help his career and accepted a position in the actuarial department of 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...
-based Equitable Life Assurance Society. He worked there for 18 years, during which time he achieved fellowship status in the Actuarial Society (1934) and rose to the rank of vice president in the firm (1945).
The birth of an independent actuarial consulting firm
He wanted to return to Washington and, although there was no single insuranceInsurance
In law and economics, insurance is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, uncertain loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for payment. An insurer is a company selling the...
firm of sufficient size in the region, he saw the opportunity to act as a consultant to a number of small firms. After conferring with business associates, he became encouraged that this model could enable him to return home. Long-time Washington state insurance commissioner William A. Sullivan soon offered him a retainer
Retainer
Retainer may refer to:* Retainer , a person, especially a soldier, in the service of a lord in the late Middle Ages** Retainer sacrifice, the sacrifice of a human servant* Retainer...
to serve his department in assisting a number of small, local 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...
companies that needed actuarial help. He also went to work on behalf of the Washington State Employees Retirement System in developing a retirement plan for employees. That, combined with consulting work for Eastern companies, was enough to launch the Milliman office in Seattle, which opened at 914 Second Avenue near the end of 1947. At this time he had a wife, Dorothy, and four children.
A little over two years later, he hired Stuart A. Robertson
Stuart A. Robertson
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...
, who had been working as an actuary for Northwestern Life Insurance Company. He joined the Milliman firm on April 1, 1950.
Early partnership
Six months later, Milliman received an offer from New York Life Insurance CompanyNew 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 group insurance department at a salary of $25,000 per year, which he accepted.
He arranged to sell the firm to Robertson over the next five years and moved to New York again. However, when he had effectively organized the group practice, he looked once again to Seattle. In 1955, almost exactly five years after selling the firm, he proposed re-establishing the partnership to Robertson and a three-way partnership, including the recently hired Tom Bleakney, was formed.
The firm’s first growth spurt
The renewed partnership of Milliman and Robertson confronted new opportunities as post-war prosperity continued to surge in the late 1950s. This in turn brought about growth in insurance and new concerns for financial security. Soon, Milliman & Robertson would open an office in San Francisco and begin to take on new principals, who would all be given equal shares in the company. It was the decision by Milliman and Robertson to share profits among the partners that set the stage for further expansion and innovation in coming years.A boom in actuarial consulting
In the early 1960s, medical technologyMedical technology
Medical Technology encompasses a wide range of healthcare products and is used to diagnose, monitor or treat diseases or medical conditions affecting humans. Such technologies are intended to improve the quality of healthcare delivered through earlier diagnosis, less invasive treatment options and...
advanced rapidly, bringing about a simultaneous rise in medical
Health care
Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...
costs. Concern about covering these costs spurred the development of many kinds of healthcare plans. At the same time, new life and casualty companies sprang up, as labor organizations
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
negotiated health benefits and pension
Pension
In general, a pension is an arrangement to provide people with an income when they are no longer earning a regular income from employment. Pensions should not be confused with severance pay; the former is paid in regular installments, while the latter is paid in one lump sum.The terms retirement...
plans. Actuaries were needed to work out the longevity
Life expectancy
Life expectancy is the expected number of years of life remaining at a given age. It is denoted by ex, which means the average number of subsequent years of life for someone now aged x, according to a particular mortality experience...
probabilities and incidence of specific illnesses, and provide information and services to the growing insurance industry.
With expansion came the need to specialize. The consultants at Milliman, encouraged to innovate, gradually branched off into different specialties, such as health insurance
Health insurance
Health insurance is insurance against the risk of incurring medical expenses among individuals. By estimating the overall risk of health care expenses among a targeted group, an insurer can develop a routine finance structure, such as a monthly premium or payroll tax, to ensure that money is...
or pension
Pension
In general, a pension is an arrangement to provide people with an income when they are no longer earning a regular income from employment. Pensions should not be confused with severance pay; the former is paid in regular installments, while the latter is paid in one lump sum.The terms retirement...
s, giving the firm further reach. On April 1, 1961, the firm opened its first non-West-Coast office, in Milwaukee, headed up by Bill Halvorson. This was an important step toward Milliman’s dream of having a truly national scope.
Over the years, Milliman and his associates built on the firm’s fundamentals. The model was highly entrepreneurial, giving principals the opportunity to invest in new expansion, either geographically or into new practice areas, and enabling them to benefit from successes while taking on some of the risks.
Wendell Milliman retired from the firm in 1971, replaced by Robertson as chairman and chief executive officer. He died on January 31, 1976, at the age of 70.
In addition to co-founding Milliman, Inc., Wendell Milliman played a significant role in a number of professional organizations, including the American Academy of Actuaries
American Academy of Actuaries
The American Academy of Actuaries, also known as the “Academy” or the AAA, is the body that represents and unites United States actuaries in all practice areas...
, which he helped form, and the Society of Actuaries
Society of Actuaries
The Society of Actuaries is a professional organization for actuaries based in North America. It was founded in 1949 as the merger of two major actuarial organizations in the United States: the Actuarial Society of America and the American Institute of Actuaries...
, where he served as president in 1969.