Actuary vs actuarial technician

The differences between actuaries and actuarial technicians can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, an actuary has an average salary of $88,255, which is higher than the $79,409 average annual salary of an actuarial technician.

The top three skills for an actuary include risk management, VBA and GAAP. The most important skills for an actuarial technician are projection, financial analysis, and product development.

Actuary vs actuarial technician overview

	Actuary	Actuarial Technician
Yearly salary	$88,255	$79,409
Hourly rate	$42.43	$38.18
Growth rate	21%	21%
Number of jobs	13,566	7,597
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 83%	Bachelor's Degree, 72%
Average age	39	39
Years of experience	-	-

Actuary vs actuarial technician salary

Actuaries and actuarial technicians have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Actuary	Actuarial Technician
Average salary	$88,255	$79,409
Salary range	Between $52,000 And $147,000	Between $44,000 And $141,000
Highest paying City	New York, NY	Hartford, CT
Highest paying state	New York	New York
Best paying company	PayPal	Transamerica Corporation
Best paying industry	Professional	Professional

Differences between actuary and actuarial technician education

There are a few differences between an actuary and an actuarial technician in terms of educational background:

	Actuary	Actuarial Technician
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 83%	Bachelor's Degree, 72%
Most common major	Mathematics	Mathematics
Most common college	University of Notre Dame	University of Pennsylvania

Actuary vs actuarial technician demographics

Here are the differences between actuaries' and actuarial technicians' demographics:

	Actuary	Actuarial Technician
Average age	39	39
Gender ratio	Male, 74.3% Female, 25.7%	Male, 40.2% Female, 59.8%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 3.1% Unknown, 3.0% Hispanic or Latino, 5.1% Asian, 17.3% White, 71.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.0%	Black or African American, 3.1% Unknown, 3.0% Hispanic or Latino, 5.1% Asian, 15.8% White, 73.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.0%
LGBT Percentage	18%	18%

Differences between actuary and actuarial technician duties and responsibilities

Actuary example responsibilities.

Support the development and implementation of manually-rate renewal strategies, lead by a season FSA.
Manage the design, implementation and oversight of all insurance and reinsurancepricing functions and processes for corporation.
Complete several health and group annuities projects.
Administer payroll, conduct accounts reconciliations, and track all A/R and A/P.
Update duration calculation formula to deliver more reasonable behavior of A/E ratio in Alteryx.
Extract and analyze data by state using SAS in order to analyze and project Medicaid costs.

Actuarial technician example responsibilities.

Evaluate capitation agreements between provider groups and manage care plans, including commercial and Medicare populations.
Design the migration of SAS datasets and other data to new UNIX box.
Develop and maintain statistical models to modify policy rates and coverages using SAS.
Compile, analyze and verify census data and information need in the calculation of reinsurance premiums.
Assist in the creation and preside over presentations, utilizing and maintaining the required projection equipment for meetings.
Take ownership of quarterly Medicaid cost benefit ratio dashboard by compiling several state's claim cost/utilization data and premium information.

Actuary vs actuarial technician skills

Common actuary skills

Risk Management, 13%
VBA, 9%
GAAP, 5%
SAS, 5%
Health Insurance, 5%
Financial Reports, 5%

Common actuarial technician skills

Projection, 20%
Financial Analysis, 16%
Product Development, 14%
Data Analysis, 9%
VBA, 8%
SQL, 7%