Michael Finke, Ph.D., CFP

Michael Finke, PhD, CFP, is a professor of wealth management and Frank M. Engle Distinguished Chair in Economic Security at The American College of Financial Services. 

He received a doctorate in consumer economics from the Ohio State University in 1998 and in finance from the University of Missouri in 2011. He leads the O. Alfred Granum Center for Financial Security at the American College and is a research fellow at the Retirement Income Institute, and a member of the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association Academic Advisory Council. He also serves on the board of the Puerto Rico Pension Reserve Trust. 

He is a nationally known researcher in the areas of retirement income planning, retirement spending, life satisfaction, and cognitive aging. He is a frequent speaker at financial planning conferences and was named one of the 25 most influential people in the field of investment advising in 2020 and 2021 by Investment Advisor Magazine.

Michael V. Gisonda

Michael V. Gisonda is the CEO of The Bridge Group and has been in the insurance and financial industry for over 25 years, continuing our founder Victor Miranda's legacy for many years. Michael has extensive knowledge and experience in the financial service arena which includes insurance, estate, business, investment and exit planning.

Michael has been awarded designations from The American College in studies of "Charter Life Underwriter", "Chartered Financial Consultant" and "Life Underwriting Training Council Fellowship". He is also a member agent of The Nautilus Group®, a highly selective elite group of skilled professionals, a service of New York Life Insurance Company. In addition, Michael is also one of the Founders of Master Minds, a national study group which meets multiple times per year. Michael is a member of the Boca Raton Estate Planning Council.

Michael began his career in the financial services industry in 1996. In 2000 Michael joined forces as an agent with The New York Life Insurance Company where he met and soon thereafter partnered up with Victor R. Miranda. He enjoys a deep sense of satisfaction from helping individuals, families, and businesses achieve and focus on their financial goals and needs. Personally, and professionally, Michael thrives on maintaining balance. He feels a tremendous responsibility to his clients, some of which have been clients of the firm through 2 or 3 generations.

Scott Grandmont, CLU, FALU, FLHC, FLMI, AIRC, ARA

Scott Grandmont is Vice President of Strategic Underwriting Initiatives. He leads a team that drives underwriting innovation through thought leadership, program development, research & development and data & analytics functions. In addition, his organization supports RGA’s Risk Dimension (rx scoring solutions) and underwriting workbench capabilities. He brings a wealth of experience relating to market, product and underwriting program development.

Prior to joining RGA in 2015, he was Executive Director of Underwriting Automation at Clinical Reference Laboratory (CRL). Previously, he was the Chief Underwriter for Phoenix Life and an Underwriter at Mass Mutual. His Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in business administration is from Western New England College and his Master of Science (M.S.) degree in management is from the American College. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Life Underwriters (FALU), a Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU), and a Fellow of the Life Management Institute (FLMI). He is also a past president of the New England Home Office Underwriting Association (NEHOUA), a past AHOU Planning Committee member, and a past member of Association of Life Underwriters’ exam group.

Michel Hébert, FSA, FCIA

Michel Hébert is an actuary and Fellow of the Society of Actuaries. As the Senior Vice President at Optimum, Michel leads the actuarial pricing for all lines of business and manages the analytics team. This team is renowned for developing the PEARL benchmarking tool for Final Expense and Fully Underwritten business, utilizing predictive analytics to deliver valuable insights that help insurance companies manage and improve their profitability. With 30 years of actuarial experience, Michel has held various roles at Optimum over the past 16 years. Outside of his professional achievements, Michel is a competitive individual who enjoys playing tennis, cycling, fishing and performing as a saxophonist in a jazz band.

Nathan Hill, FSA, MAAA

Nathan Hill is a Vice President and Actuary within RGA's US Individual Life division, where he is responsible for pricing traditional individual life YRT and Coinsurance quotes since 2019. Prior to his current role, Nathan worked in RGA's Financial Solutions area with a focus on financial reinsurance and reserve financing pricing and risk management starting in 2012. Prior to RGA, Nathan worked at The Hartford and Country Financial on the direct side, and has been working as an actuary for over 18 years. Nathan is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA) and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries (MAAA). He holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Mark James, Certified FALU, FLMI, ACS

Mark James, Certified FALU, FLMI, ACS is a member of the Underwriting Innovation Team with RGA’s U.S. Individual Life division. He joined RGA in 2023 and has worked in the industry for over a decade, serving in underwriting capacities for both direct carriers and reinsurers. Mark’s current focus is on the analysis of digital health data and underwriting rules, as well as in initiatives around application and product design. Mark is active with several industry associations, and previously served on the ALU committee as an Exam Writer.

Al Klein

Al Klein is a Principal and Consulting Actuary with Milliman, located in Buffalo Grove, IL.

Al’s expertise includes mortality and longevity.  He is responsible for Milliman’s life experience studies, which includes traditional products, final expense, COLI/BOLI, and simplified issue and consults with his clients on all of these topics.

Al has been a regular attendee of the LIC Final Expense Workshop for about 15 years and is a frequent speaker at this and many other industry meetings.

Bill Mehilos

Bill Mehilos is a Principal and Consulting Actuary at Milliman based in Indianapolis

He joined the firm in 2017 and has 20+ years of experience with life insurance products. Bill’s life insurance experience includes:

• Product/Actuarial consultant on countless whole life, term, and universal life products in all markets
  • Product development lead and subject matter expert on pricing and underwriting for many final expense whole life products in the senior market and term products in the younger market.
  • Lead actuarial consultant to many carriers working with the leading technology driven IMO’s (Insurance Marketing Organizations)
  • Actuarial and product strategy consultant to most worksite life carriers
• Consultant and modeler in various capacities for valuation and other financial reporting, where he led:
  • Liability modeling in several actuarial appraisals used in merger/acquisition analysis
  • Quarterly and annual financial reporting exercises for companies of various sizes
  • Illustration actuary for two mid-sized companies

Bill is a co-author and lead consultant for Milliman’s annual Worksite Life Surveys since its inception in 2018 and serves as a board member of NASBI (National Association of Supplemental Benefit Insurers). He also volunteers his time to assist on the Society of Actuaries’ Innovation and Technology Steering Committee and the Life Insurance Counsel with its annual Final Expense surveys. He regularly speaks on life insurance trends in product and actuarial topics at many industry events.

Before joining Milliman, Bill worked at Trustmark Insurance Company for 15 years, where he was responsible for the life insurance pricing and profitability monitoring.

Rebecca Riehm

Becky Riehm is Executive Director for the Strategic Underwriting Initiatives team at RGA Reinsurance Company. She has over 35 years of experience in the life insurance industry.

Currently, she manages application design projects which include program management, creating/refining applications including reflexive questions, automating underwriting rules, and analysis and implementation of third-party evidence rules. She collaborates with client companies on monitoring performance data and refining rules to increase straight through processing.

Prior to joining RGA in 2019, she was a Staff Underwriter at TruStage (formerly CUNA Mutual Life Insurance Company) working as an underwriter, auditor and representing new business and underwriting in numerous life and annuity product development initiatives. She served as liaison to compliance/legal to ensure regulatory forms and procedures were in place.

Becky received her Bachelor of Arts Degree from St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa in Business, Economics, and Finance. She is a Fellow of the Life Management Institute* (FLMI), Associate, Customer Service (ACS), and a Certified Professional Underwriter. She currently serves as board chair at her local credit union and is board treasurer at her local humane society.