Steve Kopp

Room 284, Western Science Centre

519-661-2111, ext 86288

kopp@stats.uwo.ca

Education

Honours B.A. Mathematics and Economics, 1982, UWO

M.Sc. Statistics, 1984, UWO

Fellow, Society of Actuaries, 1995

Fellow, Canadian Institute of Actuaries, 1995

I worked for over 4 years at the London Life Insurance Company (1990-94). I worked in three different areas. First, I worked in the group retirement products area working on large employer sponsored pension and RSP plans. My next rotation was to the individual retirement products area, which had been amalgamated with group retirement products. My responsibilities were increased to include month end reports, weekly interest rate setting for individual annuity products and introduction of no-load market fund products. My final rotation was to the group life and health area. While there I worked on our group extended health plans and helped redesign our group supplementary life product.

I also spent one summer at the Canada Life Insurance company working in coporate actuarial in the summer of 1983..

My teaching career at Western began after graduating from the Master’s program in Statistics in 1984. I spent six years teaching undergraduate courses along with being the academic counselor for the department.  I also spent the summer of 1985 teaching two introductory statistics courses at the University of Manitoba. After leaving UWO in 1990 to work for London Life, I continued teaching the night section of Actuarial Science 153, Mathematics of Finance.

In September 1994, I returned full time to teaching at UWO. Since then I have taught Actuarial Science 153, 223a, 224b, 423b, 424a, 442b along with Statistics 135 and 222a/b. I have also resumed my role as an academic counselor.

I was an invited lecturer at the Summer Actuarial School, Warsaw, Poland (1993 and 1995).

I am also the coordinator of our department’s Industry Internship Program.

My office hours for the first term, 2000

Tuesday  3 to 4:30 pm, Wednesday 2 to 3:50 pm

Counseling Hours first term 2000

Monday 1:30 to 3 pm,  Thursday 1:30 to 3 pm

(For other counseling hours, see Mary Millard, room 272, Tuesday 9:30 to 11:00 am, Wednesday 2 to 3:30 pm)

Courses I will be teaching in 2000-01

Actuarial Science 153 (section 001 -- MWF 11 to 11:50 am)

Statistics 222a (secton 001 -- MW 4 to 5:30 pm)

Health Sciences 401 (First term only -- MW 10 to 10:50 am, Th 11 to 11:50 am)

Health Sciences 201 (Second term only -- MWF 1 to 1:50 pm)

1. Member (and former chair) of the Undergraduate Affairs Committee (since September 1996), which has included overseeing the complete overhaul of our 3 year and 4 year undergraduate programs, plus changes to our honours Actuarial Science program to meet the needs of students for the year 2000 and beyond.
2. Outreach committee -- a committee designed to increase knowledge of actuarial science and statistics at Western  among high school students, industry people and Western students.
3. Department representative on COMPASS (Committee On Mathematics Post and Secondary School)
4. Society of Actuaries, Course 2 and Course 4 Exam Committees

1. Pension Plan Turnover study (summer 1996 to fall of 1997)

• this project was commissioned by the Pension Section and the Health Section of the Society of Actuaries to create tables of pension plan turnover/retirement rates
• in addition, the analysis included determining the impact of early retirement windows on the turnover rates and determining the impact of several variables (such as industry code, region, compensation type, city size and gender) on the turnover rates.
• the final report was approved in the fall of 1997 and will appear in an upcoming TSA Reports. A advanced copy of the report can be obtained from the Society of Actuaries.

2. A Benefit Value Comparison of a Cash Balance Plan With a Traditional Final Average Pay Defined Benefit Plan study (1997)

• this project was an offshoot of the pension plan turnover study and was commissioned by the Pension Section Council of the Society of Actuaries
• the data from the pension plan turnover study was used to compare the benefit costs of two hypothetical pension plans: a cash balance plan and a final average defined benefit plan
• the final report was approved in March, 1998 and a copy of the report can be obtained from the Society of Actuaries