Spotlight Profile: Chengchen Li, FSA, MAAA, CLMS

By Aneesha Deshpande

Innovators & Entrepreneurs, July 2021

This series of articles will interview actuaries in non-traditional, innovation-focused roles. With this series, we hope to expand awareness of the ever-growing reach of the profession in the E&I arena. If you know of someone that should be featured in this series, please reach out to us.
—Happy reading! Aneesha Deshpande, Editor, E&I Section Newsletter

Chengchen Li is founder and CEO of Penguin Benefits, a company focused on helping families access benefits with ease. Penguin Benefits helps families piece together parental leave through a combination of company HR policy as well as insurance benefits access and support.

Chengchen Li, FSA, MAAA, CLMS,
is founder and CEO of Penguin Benefits.

Before she founded Penguin Benefits, Chengchen had been an actuary for over eight years primarily working in life insurance product development. She then decided to pursue a master’s in management at Stanford Graduate School of Business. It was during a project at Stanford that Chengchen stumbled across a surprising problem. “I was interviewing new parents about their insurance needs,” she said, “and the topic of parental leave came up—something I immediately resonated with,” having experienced the frustrating process herself when having a baby three years before.

Parental leave is surprisingly hard to navigate. An intricate web of federal, state employment laws, disability insurance, state paid family leave, employer paid time off policies and group short-term disability makes it exceedingly hard for new parents to piece together—at a time that is already fraught with new life changes. Having an employer that’s out of state only increases the complexities. The interviews taught Chengchen that her experience was not an outlier and that there was a problem that needed solving. “I went deeper into the problem and tried to understand it from the perspective of the other stakeholders as well—like the employers and the insurers,” she says.

Going solo has its challenges and Chengchen is no stranger to them. “When I started, there was no team, no product, no customers.” Armed with her own research and experience, as well as prior industry knowledge as an actuary, Chengchen decided she needed something more—specialized leave management knowledge that she acquired through a certificate course. Prioritizing tasks effectively has been a key learning lesson for her.

Support from family, help from friends and guidance from mentors helped her in making steady, stepwise progress toward setting up Penguin Benefits as it currently stands. Early product feedback was crucial in her journey as well. Chengchen mentions how “early product users and experts I’ve met on this journey who are passionate about this issue” were instrumental in offering key early stage insights and opened up their networks for Penguin Benefits. “I am so grateful for the support of everyone who has helped, and that is also what motivates me to keep going” she says, “to turn their help into meaningful progress and build something useful for families!”

Moments of positive feedback and collecting validating data points provides the motivation needed to keep moving forward. Chengchen cites happy customers, helpful reviews and interviews with parents or employers that helps her validate the product.

Advice for others who want to forge their own paths? “Follow your heart, ask why you’re really doing this,” Chengchen suggests. Getting support and understanding from family is crucial too. Finally, she suggests finding a way to dip your toes in the water—explore ideas with friends, consider joining a startup to learn the ropes. Getting a feel for it before committing to it is a great way to know what you’re up against.

Chengchen is looking forward to what’s next for Penguin Benefits. After having launched a tool to help parents navigate the world of parental leave planning, Chengchen and her team are working passionately to take the product to the next level—by integrating with employers and insurance carriers to bring a seamless, tech enabled, user friendly experience to new parents.

Chengchen Li, FSA, MAAA, CLMS, can be reached at ccli@penguin-benefits.com.

Aneesha Deshpande, FSA, CERA, MAAA, is the head of Insurance Product Innovation for Haven Life. She can be contacted at aneesha@havenlife.com.