Career in Actuarial Sciences:
These are uncertain times and uncertainty is a part of human life. We don’t know how our next moment is going to be. The best we can do, is a plan for the future, hoping to be prepared in the case of some unforeseen calamity. Yet the question remains the same, how do you prepare yourself? How do you analyze the risks involved or the amount of capital that will be required for recovering from a failed venture?
These are where actuarial science steps in.” Actuaries” refer to the business professionals who do an assessment, measurement, and management of risk and uncertainty. Actuarial science is the field where mathematical and statistical methods are applied to assess risk in insurance, finance, and other industries and professions. Actuarial science includes a number of interrelated subjects, including mathematics, probability theory, statistics, finance, economics, and computer science. Actuarial science originated in the late 17th century as a mathematical discipline and because of the increased demand for long-term insurance coverage such as burial, life insurance, and annuities it slowly evolved into a profession. The actuarial science is used in the traditional life insurance, health insurance, liability insurance, casualty insurance, property insurance, pension industry, and for the social welfare programs. Though there have been few but limited cases where actuarial science has been in dispensing in the time frame in criminal cases.
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The industry comprised of several companies that recruit for a wide variety of profiles from risk management to pension fund consultants. Here they use their super maths and statistics skills to develop financial models that help in taking immediate decisions that affect the balance sheet of the company while taking into account the future uncertainties.
Career in Actuarial Sciences: Cognitive skills and personal characteristics that a candidate must exhibit
- Analytical Skills: Candidate should show strong analytical problem-solving skills. Typically it includes examining complex data and identifying patterns and trends to determine which factors are responsible for particular outcomes. After evaluating and weighing the value of these factors, actuaries look for ways to minimize the probability of occurrence of variable which produces undesirable outcomes.
- Math Skills: Actuaries have a deal with a lot of number crunching, hence candidate should exhibit a strong basic arithmetic skill. Also knowledge of calculus, statistics, and probability and other advanced maths are required since actuaries quantify risk and determine the probable likelihood of certain events.
- Computer Skills: Computers and a multitude of statistical modeling software are parts and parcel of an actuary. As they frequently design and implement models and tables to evaluate large amounts of data. Not only knowledge of basic computing tools like Microsoft Office is essential, but a candidate should be familiar with statistical programming.
- Knowledge of Finance: Businesses, financial institutions, and insurance companies are the ones doing the major employment drives for actuaries. As such, they are responsible for evaluating insurance or pension plans, advising businesses on how to limit exposure to financial risk, and providing expert opinions on different feasible ways of maximizing returns for a wide portfolio of investment products.
- Interpersonal Skills: Actuaries often work with various personnel from different domains like accountants, and senior management, which makes it imperative that they can efficiently communicate their requirements with others. Strong oral communication skills as well as a positive body language help the actuaries to explain complex statistical details to a diverse group of audiences. Actuaries also often lead teams on various projects and thus must be capable of handling a wide range of personalities.
Career in Actuarial Sciences: Personal skills that candidates must possess
- Self-motivation
- Creativity
- Independence
- Ability to work with others
- Healthy Ambition
In addition, candidates must have a wide learning curve, like to solve complicated problems, learn languages for statistical programming, etc. As it is essential to learn new technologies to which will help in more efficient financial modeling. Candidate should work effectively both alone or as part of a team.
Career in Actuarial Sciences: Following are the eligibility criteria to become an actuary in India
- The candidate must be 18 years old.
- Candidate should have already completed their higher secondary (10+2) level examination.
- Candidates who qualify their Graduation/Post graduation with Mathematical subjects.
- Also, candidates with other professional degrees also make their careers in this field.
Candidate must also be a qualified member of these professional bodies:
- Fellow of Insurance Institute of India (III),
- Certified Institute of Financial Analysts of India (IFAI),
- The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI)
- The Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India (ICWAI)
Candidate must pass with the subjects: Mathematical Basis of Insurance and Statistics.
After completing the graduation and post-graduation, the candidate can join below given professional bodies of India as a student member and then became a fellow in IAI.
For admission in IAI candidates have to appear in the Actuarial Common Entrance Test. To become an actuary, the Candidate has to qualify the actuarial science exam that is conducted by the IAI and gain 3 years of practical work experience. After qualifying these examinations, the candidate becomes eligible to be admitted as an Associate Member of the society.
Career in Actuarial Sciences: Top Institutes for studying Actuarial Science
Graduate Level Courses:
- Sc. in Actuarial science
- BA (Hons.) in Insurance & Banking
- Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Actuarial and Financial Mathematics
Post-Graduate Level:
- Sc. in Actuarial science
- Master’s program in Insurance Business
- MBA in Actuarial Science
- Master of Science in Statistics (Actuarial)
Postgraduate diploma level:
- Post Graduate Diploma in Actuarial Science
Top Institutes that offer actuarial Courses in India are as follows:
- Institute of Actuaries of India
- Amity School of Insurance and Actuarial Science, Noida
- NMIMS University, Mumbai
- Delhi University
- The National Insurance Academy, Pune
- Christ University, Bangalore
Career in Actuarial Sciences: Prominent career opportunities
- Life Insurance: In Life Insurance, actuarial science focuses on the analysis of mortality, production of life tables, and the application of compound interest to produce life insurance, endowment policies, etc.
- Health Insurance: In both health insurance and social insurance, actuarial science focuses on analyzing rates of disability, morbidity, mortality, fertility, and other contingencies.
- Pension Industry: In the pension industry, actuarial science compares the costs of alternative strategies with regard to design, funding, accounting, administration, and maintenance or redesign of pension plans. Valuation of short-term and long-term bond rates are decided because of these strategies
- Consultants: An actuarial consultant is a professional who advises clients, with extensive use of statistics, on investment, insurance, and various other pension-related decisions.
Some of the other job profiles offered are in:
- Investments
- Risk Management Sector
- General Insurance Sector
Top firms which recruit from actuarial science:
- WNS Global Services
- PwC Actuarial Services India
- Milliman India Pvt. Ltd.
- Future Generali Insurance
- Max Bupa Health Insurance
- IDBI Bank
- McKinsey Advanced Healthcare Analytics
- Willis Towers Watson
- Directorate of Postal Life Insurance
- Ernst and Young, India
We hope this is going to be helpful if you are planning to pursue a Career in Actuarial Sciences. For more guidance, feel free to connect with us and provide your feedback as well, so that we can also improve in the future.
