Overview of Actuaries Career
The term “actuaries” refers to the professionals who use statistical methods for analyzing the probability of an event and estimating its economic impact on businesses and individual customers. In other words, these finance professionals are capable of assessing the monetary cost of uncertainties. Actuaries are usually considered to be an important of the insurance and pension industry where they are required to examine and estimate the value of future ambiguity of settlements. Some of the sectors that often employ actuaries for analyzing their underlying business risk are pension funds, healthcare, government departments, investment management, etc.
Career in Actuaries
In this article, we will discuss some of the most sought after job profiles in the actuaries industry that you can pursue in your career. The job profiles are:
1. Health Actuary
As a health actuary, you will be assisting the mid-level managers in building strategies and providing technical consulting services to health plan providers.
Responsibilities
The major responsibilities of a health actuary include:
- Modeling health plans for both individual as well as small group health care
- Preparing SQL models that help in pricing the recent changes in health plan benefits
- Incorporating lapse and retention rates in the models and preparing results for clients
- Creating models for calculating ROI of various health plans
- Preparing incurred but not reported (IBNR) spreadsheets for audit purposes
Educational, Skill and Experience Requirement
A health actuary should have the following education, skill level, and professional background:
- A bachelor’s degree is a must
- More than 2 years of experience in a health plan or insurance company
- Technical knowledge of health actuarial, underwriting and other health care financing
- Strong background in health care plan designing as well as knowledge of the recent developments in the industry
- Must have cleared at least two actuarial exams
Salary
In the US, the annual salary of a health actuary can be as low as $49,000, which can go up to more than $423,000 at the highest level with more work experience and academic success.
Source Link: https://www.dwsimpson.com/about/salary-survey/#health
2. Pension Actuary
As a pension actuary, you will be consulting or suggesting organizations on how to design, manage, administer and communicate various employee retirement plans.
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Responsibilities
The major responsibilities of a pension actuary include:
- Designing, pricing, funding, implementing, and managing various retirement programs
- Conducting a benchmarking analysis to offer a competitive benefit plan
- Executing asset and liability modeling
- Estimating valuation of annual pension and post-retirement medical for different clients by analyzing large volume of data, reconciling plan assets, and determining plan liabilities as well as funding requirements
- Assisting preparation of plan reporting and filing requirements
- Performing tasks such as benefit calculation, review of plan documents, and preparation of benefit statements
Educational, Skill and Experience Requirement
The pension actuary should have the following education, skill level, and professional background:
- Either a bachelor’s or a master’s degree in actuarial science, statistics, mathematics, finance or other related fields
- Strong technical knowledge coupled with excellent client servicing skills
- Good at verbal and written communication
- Completion of one or more actuarial exams is preferable
- Proficiency in MS Office, especially in Excel
Salary
In the US, the annual salary of a pension actuary can be as low as $44,000, which can go up to more than $369,000 at the highest level with more work experience and academic success.
Source Link: https://www.dwsimpson.com/
3. Life Actuary
As a life actuary, you will be dealing with the designing of life insurance products and calculating annuity based on mortality rates, claim rates, etc.
Responsibilities
The major responsibilities of a life actuary include:
- Supporting setting of non-guaranteed features of all products such as annuities, retained asset account etc.
- Analyzing the profitability of all the life insurance products along with the riders
- Supporting implementation of new products by coordinating with other teams
- Developing tools for experience analysis in order to better understand the business operations
Educational, Skill and Experience Requirement
A life actuary should have the following education, skill level, and professional background:
- A bachelor’s degree is a must.
- Candidates with Fellow of Society of Actuaries (FSA) are preferred.
- More than 7 years of experience in life or annuity insurance.
- Strong knowledge of life actuarial practices.
- Good at verbal and written communication.
- Working knowledge of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint skills.
Salary
In the US, the annual salary of a life actuary can be as low as $51,000, which can go up to more than $504,000 at the highest level with more work experience and academic success.
Source Link: http://www.dwsimpson.com/salary#life
4. Casualty Actuary
As a casualty actuary, your primary responsibility will be to assist other actuaries in the analysis of product performance.
Responsibilities
The major responsibilities of a casualty actuary include:
- Building financial projection and valuation software or other tools for actuarial modeling
- Identifying possible issues with the product and then recommending mitigating steps
- Maintaining and improving actuarial experience studies
- Acting as the lead for projects on actuarial studies and pricing or valuation strategies
Educational, Skill and Experience Requirement
A casualty actuary should have the following education, skill level, and professional background:
- A bachelor’s degree in actuarial science, mathematics, statistics, or other related fields.
- More than 4 years of experience in an actuarial setting.
- Associate Casualty Actuarial Society (ACAS) or equivalent qualification is preferred.
- Strong knowledge of insurance products.
- The ability to communicate technical knowledge to non-technical counterparts.
Salary
In the US, the annual salary of a casualty actuary can be as low as $48,000, which can go up to more than $553,000 at the highest level with more work experience and academic success.
Source Link: http://www.dwsimpson.com/salary#casualty
Conclusion
So, it can be seen that actuaries are strategic thinkers who assist companies to better understand the market. Their logical thinking and analytical acumen help the senior management to build a vision for their growth objectives. As such, a career in the actuaries industry is very lucrative given the critical role they play in a company’s success.
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This is a guide to Actuaries Career. Here we discuss job profiles in the actuaries industry along with responsibilities, educational requirements, and salary. You may also look at the following articles to learn more –
