How do I legally challenge an actuary's conclusion?

[franksi]

What is the name of your state? CA

An actuary identified the estimated present value (EPV) of a CA PERS retirement account. His analysis has me living longer than my wife, while Tbl 8/9 of the National Vital Statistics Report, Vol. 54, No. 14, April 19, 06; (www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr54/nvsr54_14.pdf), statistically shows a me dying before her (62 yr old black female will outlive a 63 yr old black male by 4.5 yrs).

I care about this anomaly because in my present divorce settlement, the proposed payout to me of the retirement value, is being reduced by future payments that I will be receiving by my outliving my ex-wife - who by the government tables will outlive me!

How does an individual's health affect this calculation and by what specific method is that health identified and validated, in order to take variance with the government provided tabular data? How can I effectively challenge the actuary's assumptions?

 

[nextwife]

So, if she were diabetic and an overweight smoker, and you were a healthy,slim, low cholesterol, low BP male, likely to outlive her, does that mean you'd theoretically be entitled to a lopsided, in your favor, share of your or her 401K?

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state? CA

An actuary identified the estimated present value (EPV) of a CA PERS retirement account. His analysis has me living longer than my wife, while Tbl 8/9 of the National Vital Statistics Report, Vol. 54, No. 14, April 19, 06; (www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr54/nvsr54_14.pdf), statistically shows a me dying before her (62 yr old black female will outlive a 63 yr old black male by 4.5 yrs).

I care about this anomaly because in my present divorce settlement, the proposed payout to me of the retirement value, is being reduced by future payments that I will be receiving by my outliving my ex-wife - who by the government tables will outlive me!

How does an individual's health affect this calculation and by what specific method is that health identified and validated, in order to take variance with the government provided tabular data? How can I effectively challenge the actuary's assumptions?

If you somehow had an actuary involved in your calculations (which would actually be quite unusual) its likely that the actuary would be accurate in their assessment. Actuaries are INCREDIBLY precise and accurate....and incredibly objective. An actuary would base the calculation strictly on the two of you, vs government tables based on "average" circumstances.

The only way that you could fight the actuaries results, would be to prove that the input data was inaccurate.

 

[nextwife]

Why should someone's general genetic probable lifespan have ANY bearing on their right to their share of assets? Gee, if my mom had breast cancer, and I might die of it (statistically), should my husband, theoretically, get MORE of my retirement? I thought genetic discrimination was illegal.

 

[Ohiogal]

I agree with all the other posters.
The only way you are going to discredit the expert is to get your own expert that agrees with you on your PERSONAL situation. Be prepared to shell out lots of money for that and have a battle the experts and then it would be up to the judge to decide.