Ram Kelkar

CFA

Principal, Managing Director, Financial Risk Management, Capital Markets

Chicago, IL, US

Ram Kelkar is a principal and managing director, and heads up the Capital Markets and Trading Group of Milliman’s Financial Risk Management Practice (FRM). He manages the trading teams in Sydney, London, Amsterdam, and Chicago that trade cash securities and derivatives, including both exchange-traded and OTC derivatives, in equity, fixed income, FX, credit, and other markets on behalf of investment advisory clients, including insurance companies, funds, ETF issuers, and other financial institutions.

Milliman FRM is a global leader in providing risk management services to the retirement savings industry. Milliman FRM provides investment advisory, hedging, and consulting services on approximately $176.1 billion in global assets (31 December 2021). Key focus areas include risk management and outsourced hedging of life insurance liabilities, including variable annuities (VAs), fixed indexed annuities (FIAs), and RILAs and Buffered/Defined Outcome strategies; sub-advisory services for managed volatility funds and Milliman’s Managed Risk and Risk Parity strategies; MARC5 (Multi-Asset Risk Control) Index for FIAs; and sub-advisory services for ETF issuers and for ETF Managed Portfolios.

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Experience

Ram has 30+ years of experience in the capital markets, having previously worked for Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, and Allstate. He was responsible for ALM and derivatives strategy at Allstate Insurance in Northbrook, Illinois, and a managing director in the capital markets and derivatives group at Merrill Lynch in New York. He started his career in the capital markets at Citigroup, where he was a managing director in the structured finance and derivatives areas in New York and London.

Professional Designations

Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)

Education

BTech, EE, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay
MS, Computer Science, University of Wisconsin–Madison
MBA, Finance, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Publications

Read their latest work

Article

Introducing InnovatIV™: A forward-looking volatility control index methodology anchored in option-implied risk

06 March 2026 - by Rodrigo Dufeu, Ram Kelkar, Reggie Xu

To address the shortcomings of volatility control index product design for index-linked annuities, we introduce a forward-looking methodology anchored in option-implied risk.

Article

Milliman Derivatives Survey 2024

18 November 2024 - by Neil Dissanayake, Victor Huang, Ram Kelkar, Jeanne Russo, Nima Shahroozi

This report sets out the key findings of the 2024 update to Milliman’s survey of derivative usage for risk management in the global life insurance industry.

Article

Overnight trading strategies

21 March 2024 - by Neil Dissanayake, Victor Huang, Ram Kelkar, Nima Shahroozi, David Schreiner, Brendan Tease, Bas Polder

The real-time risk management of futures-based hedging programs can benefit materially by expanding trading coverage to the overnight markets.

Article

Considerations for LIBOR transition and U.S. Annuity Valuations

22 November 2021 - by Poojan Shah, Ram Kelkar, Brian J Olson

There are significant implications of the impending discontinuation of LIBOR and transition to SOFR for U.S. annuity liability valuations.

Article

Life RBC C-1 factors: 2021 update

18 November 2021 - by Ram Kelkar, Fiona Ng, Michelle Shen, James Stoltzfus

On average, we expect the C-1 amounts to increase in the range of 5% to 20%.

Article

Considerations for LIBOR transition and U.S. Variable Annuity Guarantee Valuations

04 January 2021 - by Ram Kelkar, Poojan Shah

This paper discusses risk-free curve selection and setting of the discounting spread (over the risk-free rate) for variable annuity fair valuation.

Article

Milliman Derivatives Survey 2020: Key findings

16 December 2020 - by Neil Dissanayake, Victor Huang, Ram Kelkar, Peter Lin, David Schreiner, Nima Shahroozi, Brendan Tease

This report summarizes key findings from the 2020 update to Milliman's survey of derivative usage for risk management in the global life insurance industry.

Article

Investment risk reduction: Milliman Financial Risk Management white paper Q1 2020

16 October 2020 - by Adam Schenck, Jeff Greco, Joe Becker, Ram Kelkar

The market contraction at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in Q1 2020 was the biggest test of risk-managed investment products since the 2008 financial crisis. This paper puts the downturn into historical context and examines how Milliman FRM's products performed.

Article

Variable Annuity Guarantee Hedging maintains its effectiveness during COVID-19 market turmoil

12 August 2020 - by Peter H. Sun, Chunpu Song, Victor Huang, Ram Kelkar

This paper examines the hedge effectiveness of a wide range of Variable Annuity carriers.

Article

The end of LIBOR

25 October 2019 - by Josh Dobiac, Ram Kelkar, Jeanne Russo, David Schreiner

Major initiatives are under way to reform interest rate benchmarks and move away from Interbank Offered Rates (IBOR) to overnight near risk-free rates.

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Read their latest work

Article

Introducing InnovatIV™: A forward-looking volatility control index methodology anchored in option-implied risk

06 March 2026 - by Rodrigo Dufeu, Ram Kelkar, Reggie Xu

To address the shortcomings of volatility control index product design for index-linked annuities, we introduce a forward-looking methodology anchored in option-implied risk.

Article

Milliman Derivatives Survey 2024

18 November 2024 - by Neil Dissanayake, Victor Huang, Ram Kelkar, Jeanne Russo, Nima Shahroozi

This report sets out the key findings of the 2024 update to Milliman’s survey of derivative usage for risk management in the global life insurance industry.

Article

Overnight trading strategies

21 March 2024 - by Neil Dissanayake, Victor Huang, Ram Kelkar, Nima Shahroozi, David Schreiner, Brendan Tease, Bas Polder

The real-time risk management of futures-based hedging programs can benefit materially by expanding trading coverage to the overnight markets.

Article

Considerations for LIBOR transition and U.S. Annuity Valuations

22 November 2021 - by Poojan Shah, Ram Kelkar, Brian J Olson

There are significant implications of the impending discontinuation of LIBOR and transition to SOFR for U.S. annuity liability valuations.

Article

Life RBC C-1 factors: 2021 update

18 November 2021 - by Ram Kelkar, Fiona Ng, Michelle Shen, James Stoltzfus

On average, we expect the C-1 amounts to increase in the range of 5% to 20%.

Article

Considerations for LIBOR transition and U.S. Variable Annuity Guarantee Valuations

04 January 2021 - by Ram Kelkar, Poojan Shah

This paper discusses risk-free curve selection and setting of the discounting spread (over the risk-free rate) for variable annuity fair valuation.

Article

Milliman Derivatives Survey 2020: Key findings

16 December 2020 - by Neil Dissanayake, Victor Huang, Ram Kelkar, Peter Lin, David Schreiner, Nima Shahroozi, Brendan Tease

This report summarizes key findings from the 2020 update to Milliman's survey of derivative usage for risk management in the global life insurance industry.

Article

Investment risk reduction: Milliman Financial Risk Management white paper Q1 2020

16 October 2020 - by Adam Schenck, Jeff Greco, Joe Becker, Ram Kelkar

Article

Variable Annuity Guarantee Hedging maintains its effectiveness during COVID-19 market turmoil

12 August 2020 - by Peter H. Sun, Chunpu Song, Victor Huang, Ram Kelkar

This paper examines the hedge effectiveness of a wide range of Variable Annuity carriers.

Article

The end of LIBOR

25 October 2019 - by Josh Dobiac, Ram Kelkar, Jeanne Russo, David Schreiner

Major initiatives are under way to reform interest rate benchmarks and move away from Interbank Offered Rates (IBOR) to overnight near risk-free rates.

Ram Kelkar

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Experience

Read their latest work

Introducing InnovatIV™: A forward-looking volatility control index methodology anchored in option-implied risk

Milliman Derivatives Survey 2024

Overnight trading strategies

Considerations for LIBOR transition and U.S. Annuity Valuations

Life RBC C-1 factors: 2021 update

Considerations for LIBOR transition and U.S. Variable Annuity Guarantee Valuations

Milliman Derivatives Survey 2020: Key findings

Investment risk reduction: Milliman Financial Risk Management white paper Q1 2020

Variable Annuity Guarantee Hedging maintains its effectiveness during COVID-19 market turmoil

The end of LIBOR

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CHOOSE A LOCATION AND LANGUAGE

Ram Kelkar

Read their latest work

Introducing InnovatIV™: A forward-looking volatility control index methodology anchored in option-implied risk

Milliman Derivatives Survey 2024

Overnight trading strategies

Considerations for LIBOR transition and U.S. Annuity Valuations

Life RBC C-1 factors: 2021 update

Considerations for LIBOR transition and U.S. Variable Annuity Guarantee Valuations

Milliman Derivatives Survey 2020: Key findings

Investment risk reduction: Milliman Financial Risk Management white paper Q1 2020

Variable Annuity Guarantee Hedging maintains its effectiveness during COVID-19 market turmoil

The end of LIBOR

CHOOSE A LOCATION AND LANGUAGE