FORTY Under 40: Nick Gurgone

Nick Gurgone, consulting actuary, Pinnacle Actuarial Resources.

Gurgone serves as account executive or project manager for dozens of group and single-parent captive insurance companies, risk retention groups, self-insurance programnes, public entities and traditional insurance companies. 

He regularly performs loss reserve, funding and feasibility analyses, as well as loss cost projections, risk distribution analyses and development of industry benchmarks. He currently signs SAOs for several captive insurance companies.

Gurgone has worked with clients writing enterprise risk coverages, and numerous traditional coverages such as commercial multi‐peril, workers’ compensation, auto liability, general liability, auto physical damage and property. He also has experience with warranty programnes and undertakes research on insurance industry trends for exposures such as property, cyber risk and commercial auto. 

His career began at Pinnacle in 2015 after graduating with a degree in actuarial science from Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois. He is a fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society (FCAS) and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries (MAAA). He is a qualified actuary per the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) and is qualified to sign statements of actuarial opinion (SAOs) per the AAA. He is based in Chicago.

Looking back at your journey over the past year, what accomplishment are you most proud of, and how has becoming a FORTY Under 40 finalist influenced your perspective on that achievement?

I have focused heavily on building and mentoring my team and improving my leadership skills, while continuing to provide quality work for clients. I am proud to be able to balance a high volume of work and perform high-value actuarial work on projects that a relatively small amount of actuaries ever have the opportunity to work on. The honour of being included on this list provides me a moment to step back, and think about my long-term professional and personal journey. It’s easy to get lost in day-to-day commitments and responsibilities, but this long-term perspective helps to refocus me on my goals. 

What key challenge did you face in your work this year? How did you overcome it and what did it teach you about leadership at this stage of your career?

At this stage of my career, I frequently need to balance several priorities, all in direct competition for my time. I take pride in providing quality and timely service to the many clients that I work for, but inevitably and frequently, their deadlines overlap. This is always a challenge, and in past years my solution was simply to work more hours. While sometimes that is still necessary, I’ve found that this isn’t always the best solution. I’ve realised the importance of building a team around me and developing younger actuaries. Time and workload demands have also taught me the need to delegate certain responsibilities when possible. Trusting others with work that I once considered mine certainly gave me some initial anxiety. It was a new concept to me. I always felt that things entrusted to me were solely my responsibility, and that my responsibility meant taking care of every aspect. 

I have come to see, however, that there are many benefits to building project teams and delegating certain roles – for myself, for the team and for the client. Doing so allows me to take on additional responsibilities and growth opportunities I otherwise would not have capacity for. But it also provides growth opportunities for the team, and may often improve the client deliverable with additional perspectives and diversity in opinions and approaches to an analysis. 

“Even traditional projects benefit from stepping back and thinking creatively, rather than automatically repeating what was done historically.”

In what ways have you tried to push innovation or rethink traditional approaches within your sector, and what impact has that had on your team or organisation?

In the captive industry, we often need to think outside the box. In that mindset, I make a point to question whether standard approaches and assumptions are necessarily best suited for a project at hand. A small tweak to methodologies used in an analysis can sometimes result in a materially more accurate result, benefiting the project and client. We frequently receive requests related to obscure, niche risk, and these can require a creative problem-solving approach. Sometimes even traditional projects benefit from stepping back and thinking creatively, rather than automatically repeating what was done historically, or for a similar project. 

Seeing a wide variety of project types and types of risks allows me to draw parallels from different projects that might not seem analogous at first glance. I have found this has allowed me to improve models or lines of reasoning and deliver more accurate and more valuable analyses to our clients. 

How do you see your role evolving over the next three to five years, and what initiatives are you most excited to pursue as you continue to grow professionally?

Over the next few years, I hope and plan to grow my practice as I build professional relationships within the industry. I am excited to continue to see a wider variety of clients and projects. I also see myself continuing to dedicate substantial time to developing my teams and am equally excited to see them grow into their own careers. Additionally, the insurance industry can be fascinating and innovative, despite some belief to the contrary.

We know that the future will bring new and unique risks to the insurance and captive insurance industries. It is exciting to be among a small number of actuaries that analyse new, niche types of risks, and I know for me, that those opportunities will continue.

Many of the FORTY Under 40 winners are recognised for both business success and broader impact — how do you balance professional excellence with contributions to your community or industry landscape?

Since finishing my actuarial exams in 2019, I have volunteered on a number of committees within the actuarial societies. My goals are to stay connected to the profession and give back to the organisations that develop actuaries and help maintain the profession’s positive reputation. Some of these volunteer assignments can be significant time commitments, but they are essential in keeping our profession strong and growing. I recognise that the professional reputation of actuaries has much to do with those in my shoes in years past, and I believe it’s important to provide that for those in my shoes in the future.

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