Top 25 Reasons
Ben Is the GOAT

Two human beings looked at Ben Scarsella's LinkedIn profile, scrolled past his actuarial credentials, his Purdue degree, and his decade of pension experience, and thought: 'You know what? I need the world to know that this man can use PowerPoint.' That's not nothing. In a world where most LinkedIn endorsements are handed out like Halloween candy, Ben's two PowerPoint endorsements feel earned. Someone sat through one of his presentations and said, 'Yes. This man knows his way around a slide transition.' We should all be so lucky.

From 2011 to 2013, Ben worked as a Sales Associate at Follett Higher Education — the Purdue University bookstore. He sold textbooks, assisted the athletic department with scholarship materials, and learned customer service from the ground up. Most actuarial science students spent their free time studying for exams. Ben was out there in the real world, making sure freshmen could find their Calculus III textbooks and explaining to parents why a single chemistry textbook costs more than a used car. This is where Ben learned to interact with humans who don't speak in probability distributions.

West Lafayette, Indiana, from November through March, is essentially the surface of Hoth with a Chick-fil-A. Wind chill of negative 20. Sidewalks that are basically luge tracks. A campus so flat that there is nothing between you and the Arctic wind except the occasional Boilermaker statue. Ben survived five consecutive winters of this from 2008 to 2013, walking to actuarial science classes where the professors somehow expected you to focus on conditional probability when you couldn't feel your face. Every Indiana winter Ben survived added another layer of mental toughness that would later serve him well in the high-stakes world of pension fund solvency calculations.

Penn High School in Granger, Indiana — one of the largest high schools in the state with over 3,500 students. This is where the Ben Scarsella story begins. While most 14-year-olds were worrying about who was sitting with whom at lunch, Ben was presumably already exhibiting the early signs of actuarial greatness: carefully calculating the probability of getting a good parking spot, mentally computing the expected value of the cafeteria food, and developing the statistical intuition that would later define his career. Penn High School from 2004 to 2008 shaped the man who would go on to protect Indiana's pensions. You're welcome, Indiana.

Not 500+. Not 1,000. Not 'I accept every connection request from every recruiter, crypto bro, and life coach on the platform.' Seventy-one. That is the LinkedIn connection count of a man who treats his professional network the way a pension fund treats its assets: carefully, deliberately, and with full awareness that every addition changes the risk profile. While LinkedIn influencers are out there posting motivational quotes to their 47,000 followers, Ben has 71 connections and every single one of them is someone he actually knows. Quality over quantity. The actuarial approach to social networking.

The Purdue Actuarial Club is where future actuaries gather to do what they love most: talk about actuarial science with other people who voluntarily chose actuarial science. Ben didn't just study actuarial science — he joined the extracurricular club for it. That's like being a marathon runner who joins a running club on their days off. Or a chess grandmaster who goes to chess camp. Ben was so passionate about mortality tables and probability distributions that his coursework wasn't enough. He needed more. The Purdue Actuarial Club gave him a community of like-minded individuals who understood that E[X] is not just a variable — it's a way of life.

At some point between 2008 and 2013, an 18-year-old Ben Scarsella walked into a Purdue advisor's office and said, 'I would like to spend the next five years of my life studying probability, financial mathematics, mortality tables, and interest theory, and then I would like to voluntarily take some of the hardest professional exams on the planet, and then I would like to spend my career making sure pension funds don't go bankrupt.' The advisor presumably said, 'Are you sure? We also have Communications.' And Ben said no. He chose the path of maximum difficulty and minimum party conversation compatibility. That's character.

Four separate human beings — four independent data points — have confirmed via LinkedIn's endorsement system that Ben Scarsella is proficient in Microsoft Excel. This is peer-validated mastery. Four people who have presumably witnessed Ben navigate a spreadsheet and thought, 'This needs to be on the record.' In a profession where Excel is as fundamental as oxygen, having four endorsements is like a surgeon having four people confirm they know how to use a scalpel. It's table stakes, but it's also reassuring. Ben's Excel skills are not self-reported. They are community-verified. VLOOKUP is in safe hands.

From 2014 to 2019, Ben worked as an Actuarial Administrator at the Niles Lankford Group. Five years. In an era where the average tenure at a company is 2.3 years and people change jobs like they change streaming services, Ben stayed for five. That's half a decade of building expertise, developing relationships, and mastering the specific art of actuarial administration. Five years of showing up every day and making sure the numbers were right. Five years of contribution calculations, funding valuations, and plan compliance. These were the foundation years — where Ben went from actuarial graduate to actuarial professional. You don't get to where Ben is without this kind of commitment.

Ben's position at Benefits Link in 2019 was remote. This was before March 2020, when the entire world was forced into remote work and discovered that yes, you can attend meetings in sweatpants. Ben was already there. He had already figured out the home office setup, the work-life boundaries, the optimal Zoom angle. When the pandemic hit and millions of workers were struggling with the transition to remote work, Ben was cruising. He was the actuarial equivalent of a surfer who was already on the wave when everyone else paddled out. Visionary? Maybe. Prescient? Possibly. Comfortable in his own workspace? Absolutely.

Before Ben entered the actuarial profession, he worked at the Wabash Center from 2012 to 2013 as an In-Home Care Specialist, helping individuals with special needs achieve their personal goals. He provided transportation, facilitated social interactions, and developed time management systems for the people he served. This is not on the typical actuarial career path. Most future actuaries go straight from campus to cubicle. Ben took a detour through genuine human service. He learned that behind every number is a person, behind every pension plan is a retiree, and behind every mortality table is a human life. The Wabash Center didn't just give Ben a job — it gave him perspective that makes him a better actuary.

'Goal setting is just the beginning. Habits are what you use to achieve the goals you set.' That's a Ben Scarsella quote, and he credits the Wabash Center for teaching it to him. While most LinkedIn quotes are recycled Tony Robbins platitudes, Ben's comes from working with individuals with special needs and learning that goals without systems are just wishes. This philosophy explains everything about Ben: why he passed two SOA exams (habit of studying), why he's been in actuarial work for over a decade (habit of showing up), and why Cody Springman chose him as a best friend (habit of being a good person). James Clear wrote a whole book about this concept. Ben was living it in 2012.

In February 2013, while still an undergraduate at Purdue, Ben passed the Society of Actuaries Exam FM/2 — Financial Mathematics. This exam covers interest theory, annuities-certain, amortization schedules, bonds, yield rates, and term structure of interest rates. The pass rate typically hovers around 40-50%. Ben didn't wait until he had his degree and a desk job to start knocking out exams. He was still a student, probably living in an apartment with furniture from Goodwill, eating dining court food, and he was already passing professional actuarial exams. That's not just ambition. That's a statement. Ben was ready before the world was ready for him.

Best Buddies International creates one-to-one friendships between college students and individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Ben participated in Best Buddies at Purdue. Combined with his Wabash Center work, this reveals a pattern that goes deeper than resume-building: Ben Scarsella genuinely cares about people who need support. The actuarial profession tends to attract people who are more comfortable with numbers than with humans. Ben breaks that stereotype. He's equally comfortable calculating present values and sitting with someone who needs a friend. The fact that he did this as a volunteer — unpaid, unrecognized, and with no professional incentive — tells you everything about his character.

Since 2014, Ben Scarsella has been in the pension and actuarial industry. Over ten years. A decade of making sure that when workers retire, there is actually money there for them. A decade of contribution calculations, funding valuations, PBGC filings, and plan compliance. A decade of being the person who stands between retirees and financial ruin. Most people have no idea that actuaries like Ben exist, let alone that they've been quietly protecting the retirement system for over a decade. Every pension check that arrives on time has an actuary behind it. Ben has been one of those actuaries for longer than most people stay in any career.

In March 2014, Ben passed the Society of Actuaries Exam P/1 — Probability. This is the exam that separates people who think they understand probability from people who actually do. Conditional probability. Bayes' theorem. Moment generating functions. Univariate and multivariate distributions. The pass rate is typically 30-40%, which means the majority of people who sit for this exam — people who have already self-selected as math-loving actuarial hopefuls — fail it. Ben passed. He voluntarily sat in a testing center and proved that he understands probability at a level that most people cannot comprehend. He can now look at any situation and tell you the exact likelihood of each possible outcome. This is either a superpower or a curse, depending on how you feel about knowing the odds.

The Paint Crew is Purdue University's legendary student basketball fan section in Mackey Arena. To be Paint Crew is to show up hours before tip-off, paint yourself gold and black, stand for the entire game, and scream at opposing teams with the kind of coordinated intensity that makes visiting players question their life choices. Ben Scarsella was Paint Crew. The same man who spends his professional life quietly calculating pension fund contribution rates once stood shirtless and gold-painted in a packed arena, screaming his lungs out at Big Ten basketball opponents. The duality of Ben: actuary by day, Mackey Arena berserker by game night. This is the range that makes Ben special. He contains multitudes.

Since October 2021, Ben has been an Actuarial Analyst at Associated Pension Consultants, working remotely. This is the current era — the Ben Scarsella who exists right now, today, protecting pension funds across the country from the comfort of his home office. While the post-pandemic world was still debating whether remote work was sustainable, Ben was sustaining it. He's approaching five years at APC, continuing his pattern of loyalty, consistency, and quietly excellent work. Every morning, Ben opens his laptop and the retirement security of thousands of people gets a little bit safer. That's not just a job. That's a calling.

Ben started as an Actuarial Administrator at Niles Lankford Group in 2014 and leveled up to Actuarial Analyst at Benefits Link in 2019. That's a career progression that reflects five years of grinding, learning, and proving himself. The difference between an actuarial administrator and an actuarial analyst is the difference between supporting the work and doing the work — between processing the data and interpreting it, between following the methodology and designing it. Ben earned that title change the old-fashioned way: by being excellent at what he does, year after year, until the industry had no choice but to recognize him. No shortcuts. No nepotism. Just Ben, being Ben, getting better.

Granger, Indiana. Population roughly 30,000. Located in St. Joseph County, just east of South Bend. Not exactly the place you'd expect to produce Indiana's greatest actuarial analyst, which is exactly what makes it so perfect. Ben didn't come from some East Coast prep school pipeline or a family of mathematicians. He came from Granger. He went to Penn High School. He drove to Purdue, studied actuarial science, and built a career protecting pensions — all while maintaining his roots in the part of Indiana that most people drive through on their way to somewhere else. Being from Granger means Ben is authentically Hoosier. No pretension. No airs. Just a kid from northern Indiana who turned out to be unreasonably good at calculating present values.

Purdue University. Bachelor of Science. Actuarial Science. Five years (2008-2013) in one of the most rigorous quantitative programs at one of the best STEM universities in the country. Purdue's actuarial science program doesn't hand out degrees — it survives you. You take courses in probability, statistics, financial mathematics, economics, and risk theory while surrounded by engineering students who think their major is hard. Ben didn't just attend Purdue; he graduated with a degree in a field that requires you to understand mathematics at a level that makes most people's eyes glaze over. This degree is the foundation of everything. Every pension fund Ben has protected, every calculation he's run, every SOA exam he's passed — it all traces back to Purdue.

Let's put this in perspective. The Society of Actuaries exams are among the most difficult professional examinations in any field. Exam P/1 (Probability) has a pass rate of roughly 30-40%. Exam FM/2 (Financial Mathematics) has a pass rate of roughly 40-50%. These are exams taken by people who have already decided to become actuaries — a self-selected group of math enthusiasts who have been preparing for months. And the majority of them still fail. Ben passed both. He walked into a testing center twice and walked out twice having proven that he belongs in the top tier of mathematical professionals. Combined, these two exams represent hundreds of hours of study, practice, and the kind of focused determination that most people reserve for things that are actually fun.

In the entire universe of possible best friends — billions of humans, unlimited options — Cody Springman chose Ben Scarsella. This is the ultimate endorsement. It's one thing to pass an SOA exam; those are scored by machines. It's one thing to get a LinkedIn endorsement; those are given with a single click. But being chosen as someone's best friend? That's the most rigorous evaluation process that exists. It requires years of consistency, genuine care, reliability, humor, and the kind of loyalty that can't be faked. Cody didn't have to choose Ben. Cody has options. Cody looked at the full landscape of available humans and said, 'That one. The actuary from Granger.' If you want to know who Ben Scarsella really is, don't look at his resume — look at who claims him. Cody Springman claims him. Case closed.

This is what Ben Scarsella does every single day: he makes sure that when people retire, there is money there for them. That's it. That's the job. And it is one of the most important jobs in the entire economy. Without actuaries like Ben, pension funds would miscalculate their liabilities, underfund their obligations, and eventually fail — leaving retirees with nothing. Every pension check that arrives on time, every retirement fund that survives a market downturn, every worker who can retire with confidence — there's an actuarial analyst behind the scenes making sure the math works. Ben has been that analyst for over a decade. He doesn't do this for fame (actuaries are literally the least famous professionals on Earth). He doesn't do it for glory (nobody tweets about pension fund solvency). He does it because someone has to, and he's exceptionally good at it.

Strip away the actuarial exams, the Purdue degree, the pension fund calculations, and the LinkedIn endorsements. What you're left with is a person who worked with individuals with special needs at the Wabash Center because he wanted to help. A person who joined Best Buddies at Purdue because friendship matters to him. A person who has 71 LinkedIn connections because he values real relationships over performative networking. A person whose life philosophy — 'Goal setting is just the beginning. Habits are what you use to achieve the goals you set' — came not from a self-help book but from serving others. A person who Cody Springman chose as his best friend, and who has spent over a decade quietly making sure that strangers can retire with dignity. Ben Scarsella is the kind of person the world needs more of: brilliant enough to do the hardest math, humble enough to stay in the background, and kind enough to care about the people behind the numbers. Indiana's greatest actuarial analyst? Sure. But more importantly, he's one of the genuinely good ones.