Actuarial Career Overview

Some reason must exist for CNN placing actuaries in the top twenty jobs in America, right? And I suppose it doesn’t hurt that CNN also put the career in the ten top-paying jobs, right? If that weren’t enough, the profession’s 22% projected ten-year growth rate, which, keep in mind, triples that of the average American job, would convince you that the actuarial career path is one worth pursuing, right? Hopefully I’ve convinced you to read about this career that clearly garners respect from professionals, businesses, and the media. Now let’s jump into it!

The simplest definition of an actuary as a statistician for businesses overviews the field a bit, but this explanation needs some refining into something that I can work with and that will help you follow along with the next nine blogs a bit easier. More precisely, a typical actuary works in the insurance field and manages the risk a company undertakes by numerically evaluating past, present, and future events, then helps to devise a strategy for the company to mitigate that risk while remaining profitable. For actuaries serving such an important role, companies typically compensate this profession very well. We will delve into more on a field-by-field basis later in the blog, but nearly any path chosen by an actuary will prove relatively lucrative.

Actuaries have the ability to work in quite a few sectors, but about 85% pursue either insurance (including retirement/benefits) or consulting so the focus throughout this blog will remain on these industries.

Generally, the four finance/insurance opportunities for actuaries consist of the following: Health, Life, Property & Casualty, Retirement & Benefits. You can refer to the above matrix for an overview of the basic differences between each field, but most people find health and P&C the most exciting due to the more short-term nature, while many people find a niche in the life department where the actuary has both long-duration and lots of uncertainty to combat. Most people consider Retirement & Benefits a dryer and slower field, but many actuaries do find success and happiness here.

Typically, an actuarial consultant will work for either one of the big four management consulting firms (Deloitte, Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG) in a generalist role with an actuarial specialty, or a boutique actuarial consulting company (Willis Towers Watson, Milliman, Wakely, etc.) in a field specific role. Minimal difference in the magnitude of work exists between the two, but a generalist with an actuarial focus will work distinguishably different cases than will someone in a more industry specific role. For example, an actuarial generalist may help advise a tech company on investment strategy by analyzing the risk relating to its current approach, whereas an actuary in a health specific role will almost always advise a health insurance company in pricing and valuation of its plans and management of the risk within its client base.

The only thing more fun than learning about the paths you can take in the future is the credentialing it will take to get you there, and we will take a look at that in the next post!