Ben Mermelstein PhD, FCAS
Partner
Ben Mermelstein has a breadth of experience performing quantitative analysis used in reserving, settlement support, and expert testimony. He worked in-house for a top-10 commercial insurance company, annually reviewing the Mass Tort and Asbestos books of business along with providing settlement scenario analysis and reserve estimates for the highest profile losses.
Prior to working within the insurance industry, Dr. Mermelstein worked in litigation consulting focusing on insurance allocation and forecasting. He developed software to handle complex insurance allocation in the context of litigation and in-house reserving analysis. He has additional experience supporting antitrust experts in litigation pertaining to mergers, price-fixing, and anti-competitive behavior.
Dr. Mermelstein has a PhD in Economics from Northwestern and is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society. He serves as a Syllabus Chair on the Casualty Actuarial Society Exam Committee.
Selected experience
Submitted expert report on behalf of joint defense group of insurers in response to an insured’s attempt to recover losses under a retroactive all sums allocation.
Organized the claim oversight review for asbestos and pollution losses reinsured under a $4B loss portfolio transfer. Created an asbestos model that forecasted future liability to hundreds of individual insureds and allocated that liability according to applicable law and coverage-in-place agreements. Model used for reserving scenario analysis and identification of under-the-radar accounts.
Ran the claim review for retained environmental and mass tort losses. Developed survey methodology to collect relevant reserving information for hundreds of accounts. Prepared loss reserve estimates for abuse, product liability, and pollution accounts with largest potential losses.
Part of the cross-departmental team tasked with creating estimates of CNA's COVID-related losses. Owned the models for the Aging Services, Workers Compensation, and Property lines of business. Leveraged state-of-the-art epidemiological models along with initial claim data to forecast potential future loss scenarios.
Created settlement scenario models and provided settlement support for multiple abuse accounts. Analyzed the impact of occurrence definition in the context of bankruptcy proceedings. Calculated losses potentially allocated to multiple lines of coverage. Estimated the impact of large per-claimant deductibles on losses allocated to excess policies.
Part of team tasked with creating initial opioid loss estimates. Provided economic expertise of the pharmaceutical supply chain to allow for scenario modeling of opioid liability.
Provided settlement support for asbestos/talc-related bankruptcy that triggered multiple policy charts and had limited claim settlement history. Assisted with understanding reinsurance implications within the context of a loss portfolio transfer.
Provided support and structure for estimating potential losses due to wildfires, mass casualty events, and construction defect.
On behalf of a group of automobile manufacturers, analyzed the number and value of pending and future claims related to the Takata airbag recall. Identified key modeling assumptions that drove claims estimates.
Supported experts in the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) investigation of Sinclair Broadcast Group’s proposed $3.9 billion deal to acquire Tribune Media. Analyzed potential competitive effects of the merger, which would have expanded Sinclair’s reach to more than 70% of US homes. Tribune ultimately terminated the merger agreement.
Supported testifying expert on behalf of DOJ in its challenge of Electrolux’s proposed acquisition of General Electric’s major appliance business. After four weeks of trial, the parties announced they were abandoning the sale.
Supported testifying expert on behalf of an insurer in litigation against a policyholder. Designed methodology to predict date of first exposure distributions for future asbestos claimants.
Supported testifying expert on behalf of the ASARCO Unsecured Creditors Committee in ASARCO bankruptcy proceedings. Estimated potential future asbestos-related personal injury claims for two subsidiary companies and performed valuation of unfunded and “prepack” claims.