Anybody know anything about Actuaries?

Is your roommate a math genius? I don't know much about the career off the top of my head, but most actuaries that I know or know of are quite gifted in the quantitative department. If you've ever seen "Along Came Polly," Ben Stiller's character is an actuary. They help insurance companies determine risk, and I've also heard of actuaries working with pension funds.

I don't think we have any actuaries/actuarial analysts that frequent here so ill give it a go based on researching it myself several years ago.

If he has a semi-quantitative degree or background, there really isn't a need to go back to school for an MS. If he has a decent GPA he should be able to land an entry level gig as long as he is willing to relocate.

The exam process is hella rigorous. Think 5-10 years of CFA exams. He'll work 40-50 hours a week but will probably have to study an additional 20 hours a week consistently if he wants to progress. And progression is apparently important to some firms. It sounded common to include this into people's performance reviews.

From what I here, the work itself isn't too demanding, unless you're a consultant. If you work for an insurance company, the work seemed pretty straight forward. I've heard some call it boring. He'll be a spreadsheet jockey for the first few years but afterwards it seems the work gets more interesting (relatively speaking).

As I said earlier, he will have to be willing to relocate. The jobs are sparsely scattered all across the country but seem to concentrate in Chicago, NYC, ATL, and Conneticut (for reasons I don't understand).

Personally, I was all for it but I didn't want to sign my life away to take the exams. I was already in my MS program and had two small kids, so I was ready to be done with school. But I think I would have liked the work.

Just my two cents based on a little research. Good luck to your bud.

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Think 5-10 years of CFA exams

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See that is insane. He went to UVA and got a degree in econ but only had a 2.3. He is smart but insanely lazy. That is why he's talking of going back for the MS.

5-10 years of exams hardly would make that worth it but I have heard it is lucrative.

Thanks for the insight.

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He is smart but insanely lazy.

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Now that could be a problem. He might get sick of it really quickly and you have to have some serious drive to stick with it. I have no idea what the market is like right now but it has to be really competitive, he I would think he would need to do the MS just to get his GPA up.

Yeah, the exams are intense, and I think 5 years is the minimum amount of time required IIRC.

If he has more than a passing interest, he should probably just sign up for the first exam (it's basically a calc exam) and feel it out. I think it's relatively cheap, compared to the CFA exams.

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IIRC

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Sorry, uncommon acronyms "if I recall correctly".

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So basically you can get the entry level certification with just your bachelors but to move up you would need to continue taking upper level exams to gain a higher level of income is what your saying? 5-10 years to complete all exams?

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That's the gist of it from what I remember. A bachelors, a good GPA (this might vary by major) completion of an exam or two seemed to be enough to get you an interview. However, this was around 04-05 so things might be different now.

I also remember being able to take the first two exams in any order. I believe exam one was "financial risk management" or something like that. Exam two was mostly math I believe, so a lot of people without insurance/finance backgrounds seemed to opt for exam two first.

Haha Hickory NC, is he going to work a part time gig making furniture?

I have no idea if this is true or not, but another parent on my kid's baseball team is a teacher. She said asked me yesterday what I knew about actuaries. She said that one came to talk to her class this past week and she said they found it very interesting. she said that there were only 6 in Louisiana. Any truth to this?

I am trying to get in the actuary field and studying for exams right now. Got done with dinner with the deputy Chief Corporate Actuary /VP of a company that has revenues in excess of $15-20 Billion and he had a lot of insightful comments about the field

Actuaries deal with risk management or uncertainty in business. Insruace companies need to know what to price their product so that their claims won't exceed revenue for instance. Actuaries deal with finding out how many claims to expect for instance.

They can also work for giant financial institutions doing risk analysis of assets. Heard about a guy who works for banks judging the quality of home loans on their balance sheet.

The guy I had dinner with said that according to the SOA (Society of Acturies) that the average person who completes their exams and becomes a fellow does so in about 7 years. They are currently trying to expedite that process by offer more exam testing windows and such.


He said the only thing you need to get into the field is to pass exams. If you pass the exams you are competent in the field even if your degree is in apparel merchandising.

Getting a masters degree in actuarial sciences is kind of a waste of time he made it sound like unless you have a hard time studying on your own. People who pass the exams and fast are dedicated workers who can self motivate/study. Especially since you do this either while in school or while working a full time job.


Most companies give study days. Mercer Consulting for example gives about 3-4 "study" days per exam hour (3 hour exam = 9-12 days).

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she said that there were only 6 in Louisiana.

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I have no trouble believing this.

They usually work in insurance company HQs and pension consulting firms, so six, fully credentialed actuaries in the state sounds about right.

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Hopefully he chimes in. I've said a lot so if any of it is wrong hopefully someone will correct me. I feel good about the fact that what I've said jives with what you posted

I got a lot of info from a message board called "Actuarial Outpost". It seemed pretty popular so I'd guess its still running.

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It is still running and the go to for people trying to get information.