About the Authors

Denise Fagerberg Tiller

Ms. Tiller  is a graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries. She recently earned a Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science from Emporia State University. 

Ms. Tiller began her actuarial career with CNA and worked at Maccabees Mutual Life Insurance Company as Manager of Life Actuarial prior to joining Transamerica Occidental Life Insurance Company as Manager of Reinsurance Pricing in 1980. She later moved to Tillinghast Towers Perrin where she focused her consulting services on individual life insurance product development and reinsurance.

Ms. Tiller has served as Treasurer of the Section Council of the Reinsurance Section of the Society of Actuaries and chaired the Society’s Professional Development Committee. She organized the Society’s first Symposium on HIV and AIDS, and was a faculty member for the 1988 Society of Actuaries Seminars on Financial Reinsurance. She has participated in numerous panels and workshops at Society meetings. Ms. Tiller served as president of the Los Angeles Actuarial Club and on the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles Junior Chamber of Commerce. She has been married to her coauthor, John Tiller, since 1983. 

John E. Tiller

Mr. Tiller is a graduate of Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California. He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and a Chartered Enterprise Risk Analyst. Mr. Tiller began his career as an insurance agent before joining Transamerica Occidental as an actuarial student in the systems department. He escaped to the reinsurance line of business where he became Vice President and Actuary and helped establish the company as a leader in the reinsurance market.

He then joined Tillinghast Towers Perrin where he became a principal and the unit manager for the Irvine, California office. His consulting activities covered a broad range of assignments, many of which involved indemnity and assumption reinsurance from both the ceding and assuming companies’ sides. Mr. Tiller subsequently became Executive Vice President and Chief Actuary for Resource Deployment, Inc. In this role, he oversaw the actuarial functions of twenty-two insurance companies including American Health and Life Insurance Company, Transport Life Insurance Company, Voyager Life Insurance Company, and Primerica.

Mr. Tiller became National Director of the Life Insurance Actuarial Consulting Practice of KPMG in 1993. While he was responsible for a wide range of actuarial and general consulting services, he maintained his leadership role in reinsurance. He was later named the first National Director of KPMG’s Insurance Consulting Practice, responsible for all insurance and actuarial consulting services. In 1999, Mr. Tiller joined General Electric’s Employers Reinsurance Corporation where he became President and Chief Executive Officer of their $3 billion Global Life and Health Reinsurance Business. Following ERC’s decision to exit the life and health reinsurance business, he became a founder and President and Chief Executive Officer of the newly formed Wilton Reassurance Company. He then joined Unified Life Insurance Company in Kansas as President and Director. He is now Chief Executive Officer of Butterfly Financial Consultants, dedicated to services in the areas of reinsurance, acquisitions, capital management, and litigation support. 

Mr. Tiller has been active in the Society of Actuaries. He served on the original Reinsurance Section Council and was elected to a second term, becoming an officer both times. He has also served as Vice Chair and Chair of the Non-traditional Marketing Section Council and as a member of the Futurism Section Counsel. He has been Chairman of the Society’ of Actuaries’ Program Committee and Continuing Education Committee. He has also been a member of the Services to Members, Research Policy, and Professional Development Committees and the first Task Force on AIDS. He chaired the ACLI’s special task force on taxation of reinsurance transactions in the early 1980s and served on the American Academy of Actuaries’ task force on risk classification. Mr. Tiller is a frequent speaker at industry meetings, both actuarial and non-actuarial. He was a faculty member for the Society’s seminars on reinsurance in 1981 and 1988. Mr. Tiller married his co-author in 1983, and his five favorite productions are his daughters, and he takes pride in his three grandchildren. He enjoys having more time for sailing on his 34-foot catamaran, Miraposa, and for perfecting his Texas-originated barbeque skills.