Day in the Life of an Actuary

In any job, the first years are often the hardest. Adjusting from college to corporate life is difficult anywhere, but in an actuarial department, with the need to pass a long, long series of exams, it can become doubly difficult.

We wanted to know what life on the job for actuarial candidates is really like. So we asked some pre-Associate candidates about their jobs and the nature of work in life insurance, property/casualty insurance, health care benefits, and big firm consulting.

Life Insurance
Name: Stephanie Williams
Title: Actuarial Associate
Firm: London Life Insurance / London, Ontario
Years with current firm: 3

It was the environment as much as the work that appealed to Stephanie. As a student at the University of Western Ontario, Stephanie spent a summer working at London Life and discovered she liked both job and atmosphere.

Her summer included a stint with group insurance in the underwriting area. She worked as part of a team on an expense study project and on a project to streamline an administrative process for renewals. What she loved was the dual nature of the work: first, figure out how to solve the problem, then implement your solution. "You get the feeling your input is valuable in addition to your technical skills, " she said.

Stephanie also found the approach taken to training actuarial candidates at the large life insurer attractive. "There's an opportunity to work on several different tasks and utilize several sets of skills," she said. "At London Life, which has maybe 10 or 11 actuarial students, you rotate every one to two years and progress through several different departments. You don't have to leave the company to try something new. And, learning all the departments from the inside helps position candidates for senior management positions later in their careers."

Stephanie spent two years working with group insurance, and for the past year she has worked with retirement products in the individual insurance department. She estimates about half her time is spent on routine activities and half is spent working on special projects. It's a balance she appreciates. Her favorite assignments have been in product development, though she has also spent a lot of time with regular financial reporting.

Property / Casualty
Name: Timothy McCarthy
Title: Senior Actuary
Firm: Texas Farm Bureau Mutual / Waco, TX
Years with current firm: 5

"I think of myself as a blue collar actuary," Timothy said of his highly unusual role in a small property-casualty firm. "I really like some of the more egg-headed aspects of actuarial science, but it's the problem-solving I enjoy most."

What makes his experience rare is that while not yet an Associate, he literally started the actuarial department at his company. When he was hired away from a much larger national company, he had no idea what he would be doing. "I was the first actuary they hired," he explained. "Since my arrival I've hired another student and a secretary. We are the actuarial department."

And how does he like life at the center of his small company pressure cooker? "I love it! I consider myself extremely lucky to get up and go to a job I love every day."

Timothy said he spends most of his time doing pricing and reserving and special studies. His biggest frustration is the lack of time to study for exams. "I would not recommend this job to someone who is focused on getting their credentials. My work week is about 60 hours, so management is very understanding about the rate at which I've been passing exams. But that might not be acceptable to other actuarial candidates."

To succeed in this type of environment, Timothy said the ideal candidate would be someone with business experience who already has an ACAS or an FCAS. Flexibility and communication skills are also vital, he said. "It's such a cliché but you have to get outside the actuarial box when you talk to your colleagues. I'm regarded as the 'numbers geek' but I can't talk to others like that. I have to find ways of going into meetings and helping the rest of the company understand what I'm doing. It's like Einstein said, 'Make everything as simple as possible . . . but no simpler.' When they trust you and understand what you are saying, they will buy in to it."

Health Care
Name: Warren Manners
Title: Actuarial Associate
Firm: CIGNA Health Care, Hartford / CT
Years with current firm: 2

"Health care was the field I was most interested in coming out of college. It still is a burgeoning industry. I believe most opportunities for actuaries in the future lie in the health care field. In the new century, the U.S. Medicare trust fund will start to strain under the pressure of the retiring Baby Boomers. And, the field of medicine is ever-changing."

In describing his first years at CIGNA, Warren said the rotation system allows actuarial students to sharpen skills in a variety of different disciplines. "Since many new hires are not sure where they would like to work, the rotation program allows them to test the waters in numerous departments," he said.

There is plenty of exam support in CIGNA's huge actuarial department. The giant insurer has nearly 70 candidates. The company brings in instructors to help candidates prepare for exams. It also pays for seminars and has a first-rate library available to candidates.

Day-to-day activities include pricing HMOs by building and using models in Lotus. "We start with a database of medical experience from our health plans, make sure that the data is as good as we can get it, and then project costs into next year," Warren explained.

He also works on special projects, many involving extensive interaction with other CIGNA departments. "We recently developed a model to help us more accurately rate our large cases. We frequently coordinate with marketing, underwriting, sales, and the health plans in determining the best way to approach our markets. The myth of an insurance company actuary holed up in his cube all day is just that, a myth."

Warren would recommend that students entering this field have some past business experience, time management skills, and communication skills. Quick-thinking, adaptable people will succeed, he said, because frequent legislative and regulatory changes make those traits highly desirable.

Consulting
Name: Yori Rubinson
Firm: William M. Mercer, Inc. / Chicago, IL
Years with current firm: 2

Yori, who graduated from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, interned at a property/casualty firm before making the leap to consulting. "I found I liked the much more dynamic, hectic consulting environment. The typical day is that there isn't a typical day. You have to like working like that. And you have to like tight deadlines," he said.

In working with clients, Yori has found, "You really have to learn the ins and outs of each client. Familiarize yourself with everything pertaining to both the client and the industry it is in."

Mercer has about 30 students in its Chicago office and offers extensive exam support. Mercer pays for all costs, seminars, and travel. It also brings in instructors for seminars and classes.

Rubinson estimates weekly study time takes between 20 - 30 hours and his work week 40-45 hours. Most candidates at Mercer independently break into small groups to study.

He also points out the exam material for candidates with an insurance company is different from consulting. "Sets of materials, math applications, financial applications, how a pension company uses its assets vs. a life company, are all different," he said. "The work we do relates directly to the EA (Enrolled Actuary) exams. We see a lot of the material covered in those exams applied on a day-to-day level. The broader exams, the FSA exams, give good solid background knowledge," said Rubinson.

For students still in college or university, he recommends internships and co-ops along with a wide variety of classes. "Focus on the finance side and get as broad a liberal arts background as you can. I spend a lot of time marking up and editing memos to clients. Communication skills are at least as important as the tech side."