Daniel Wade
FSA, EA, MAAA
Principal & Consulting Actuary
Seattle, WA, US
Daniel Wade is a principal and consulting actuary with the Seattle office of Milliman. He joined the firm in 2003.
Experience
Daniel has 25 years of experience in the employee benefits field, serving primarily public sector clients.
He is lead technical actuary for the Florida Retirement System.
Daniel currently manages pension valuations for more than 20 municipal plans in the Washington state fire and police systems. He also manages LEOFF I retiree medical benefit valuations for most of these same cities.
He has assisted clients with many aspects of defined benefit plans, including:
- Experience studies
- Projections of future contribution rates
- Valuation of pension and retiree medical benefits
- Benefit calculations
- Analysis of pension plan funding policies
- Actuarial audits
- Recent projects include GASB 75 retiree medical valuations for 40 clients
Publications and Presentations
Daniel’s recent presentations include:
- Actuarial and GASB issues for public plans: How can an actuary help you? National Association of Public Plan Attorneys.
- Plan redesign: Debating the pros and cons of current proposals, Public Fund Boards Forum.
- Who created America’s public pension problems? Can actuaries help lead the way out?, Conference of Consulting Actuaries
- GASB 74 and 75.
His recent publications include:
- Setting the discount rate for valuing pension liabilities.
- Case study: Maintaining a healthy funded status in defined benefit retirement systems.
- Overview of GASB Statements 73, 74, and 75.
- Public pension plan funding policy: Effectiveness of amortization methods under deterministic scenarios.
- Public pension plan funding policy: Effectiveness of amortization methods under projected investment scenarios.
- Public pension plan funding policy: Effectiveness of amortization methods under stochastic returns.
Professional Designations
- Fellow, Society of Actuaries
- Member, American Academy of Actuaries
- Enrolled Actuary, ERISA
Education
- BS (Phi Beta Kappa), Mathematics, Stanford University
Publications
Read their latest work
Article
Public pension plan funding policy: Implications for revised Actuarial Standard of Practice No. 4
07 November 2023 - by Daniel Wade, Arthur Rains-McNally, Jessica Gardner
In public pension plan funding, amortization methods with short rolling periods better meet the intent of revised Actuarial Standard of Practice No. 4 (ASOP 4).
Article
Public pension plan funding policy: Effectiveness of amortization methods under stochastic returns
02 December 2022 - by Daniel Wade, Arthur Rains-McNally, Jessica Gardner
We explore, compare, and contrast various methods of amortizing liabilities and their impact on the contribution rates for public sector pension plans
Article
Public pension plan funding policy: Effectiveness of amortization methods under projected investment scenarios
10 January 2022 - by Jessica Gardner, Arthur Rains-McNally, Daniel Wade
We examine how various amortization methodologies react to the volatility inherent in investment markets.
Article
Public pension plan funding policy: Effectiveness of amortization methods under deterministic projections
01 June 2021 - by Daniel Wade, Jessica Gardner, Arthur Rains-McNally
Public pension funding policies have implications, so we present plan sponsors with a framework to understand their choice of amortization method.
Article
Overview of GASB Statements 73, 74, and 75
03 March 2016 - by Daniel Wade
Successful implementation of new accounting rules for public postretirement benefit pension plans will require an understanding of a variety of technical concepts regarding various newly required calculations. We take a look at Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) Statements 73, 74, and 75.
Article
Maintaining a healthy funded status in defined benefit retirement systems
01 October 2015 - by Daniel Wade
Most systems automatically decrease contribution rates when the market begins to recover, which can cause increased strain on budgets later. Is there another way for a pension plan to meet its funding needs?