Karen Mallett has over 30 years of actuarial experience in employee benefits as well as group and individual insurance. For the past 25 years, she has concentrated on employee benefits consulting.
Prior to becoming one of the initial Cheiron founders, Karen was President of Fait Accomplis, a consulting company she started in 1994.
Karen's employee benefit consulting assignments have included: Developing annual contribution rates, cash flow projections, liability projections, and actual vs. projected analysis for health and welfare plans; evaluating and negotiating with healthcare providers, healthcare administrators, and investment managers; assisting in multiemployer negotiations for pension plans and health and welfare plans; developing plan design options and analysis for pension and health plans; providing competitive assessments of benefit programs including benefit surveys; providing total compensation analysis and options; benchmarking utilization, procedure costs, and total costs for health programs; developing financial management policies and asset allocation for pension plans; assisting in drafting and editing participant communications including newsletters, COBRA notices, Medicare Part D notices, Summary Plan Descriptions, Summary Annual Reports, etc.; completing government filings including Medicare Part D attestations and 5500 forms; calculating FAS106/158, SOP 92-6 (as amended), SSFAS 5, GASB 43/45 figures; providing annual health and welfare and pension valuations; calculating various reserves and underwriting procedures for the financial management of health and welfare plans; assisting the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation in negotiations with large pension and retiree health plan terminations; and pricing of corporate takeovers / mergers for all employee benefits.
Karen's experience also includes product development, reserve calculations, underwriting, administration, and analysis for group and individual health insurance, including HMOs, PPOs, and indemnity insurance, group and individual life insurance, individual disability, and individual variable annuities. Additional experience includes product line profit and strategic planning and developing terminal funding proposals. She has developed internal corporate policies and procedures as well as assisted in the management and training of staff. She has worked for both a major consulting firm (Milliman) and a major insurer (Transamerica Occidental Life).
Karen's clients have included multiemployer funds, single employer funds, public sector funds, special regulated funds, labor unions, employers, non-profit organizations, quasi-government organizations, disease management firms, and law firms.
Karen is a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries and a Fellow in the Society of Actuaries. She graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a Bachelors degree in Math, Applied Science, Actuarial Plan.