What does an actuary do?
An actuary specializes in performing research and analysis to assess risks and help companies prepare for any financial disadvantages or impact it may bring. Their responsibilities revolve around coordinating with different departments to gather accurate data, maintain records of all transactions, evaluate the data through various processes, and develop new strategies to cut down costs and risks. An actuary is also responsible for performing clerical tasks such as producing reports through graphs and charts, preparing presentations, answering inquiries and concern, all while adhering to the company's policies and regulations.
Actuary responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real actuary resumes:
- 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.
- Prepare reports and PowerPoint slides for executive leadership.
- Provide analysis and forecasting of investment and crediting rate experience to management on agreed- upon dates and maintain ALM modeling.
- Compute actuarial cost projections and annual plan valuations base on salary, interest rate and plan funding assumptions.
- Compile population statistics to determine projections for future claims.
- Assist with migration and re-development of APL programs.
- Lead actuarial consultant on NALIS to Cyberlife traditional life conversion.
- Administer payroll, conduct accounts reconciliations, and track all A/R and A/P.
Actuary skills and personality traits
We calculated that 13% of Actuaries are proficient in Risk Management, VBA, and GAAP. They’re also known for soft skills such as Analytical skills, Communication skills, and Computer skills.
We break down the percentage of Actuaries that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Risk Management, 13%
Support the development of underwriting risk selection and risk management tools to be used by Nationwide Management Liability and Specialty senior management
- VBA, 9%
Created presentation template in VBA to facilitate communication of results.
- GAAP, 5%
Created GAAP monthly financial statements, projections and reserves for all company products and Advance Insurance Company's dental products.
- SAS, 5%
Gathered and presented analytical information for the Reserving Department and Executive Monthly Reserving Meeting using SAS, Excel and Access.
- Health Insurance, 5%
Work in team quotations, managing the risks and pricing of Group Life and Health Insurance.
- Financial Reports, 5%
Interpret account performance to create customized rate plans Create monthly and quarterly financial reports
Common skills that an actuary uses to do their job include "risk management," "vba," and "gaap." You can find details on the most important actuary responsibilities below.
Analytical skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for an actuary to have is analytical skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "actuaries identify patterns and trends in complex sets of data to determine the factors that affect certain types of events." Actuaries often use analytical skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "perform quarterly current accident loss ratio bridging analysis. "
Communication skills. Another essential skill to perform actuary duties is communication skills. Actuaries responsibilities require that "actuaries must be able to explain complex technical matters to those without an actuarial background." Actuaries also use communication skills in their role according to a real resume snippet: "exhibited task management and communication while providing support for rate filings with various state departments of insurance. "
Computer skills. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of actuaries is computer skills. This skill is critical to many everyday actuary duties, as "actuaries must know programming languages and be able to use and develop spreadsheets, databases, and statistical analysis tools." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "enhanced existing computer programs to simplify the collection, calculation, and analysis of statistical data. "
Math skills. A big part of what actuaries do relies on "math skills." You can see how essential it is to actuary responsibilities because "actuaries quantify risk by using the principles of calculus, statistics, and probability." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical actuary tasks: "developed monthly financial reports, generated loss statistics, and summarized monthly claim activity for the group insurance division. "
Problem-solving skills. Another common skill required for actuary responsibilities is "problem-solving skills." This skill comes up in the duties of actuaries all the time, as "actuaries identify risks and develop ways for businesses to manage those risks." An excerpt from a real actuary resume shows how this skill is central to what an actuary does: "compared forecasted data with actual financial data to provide insightful explanations, identify problems, and develop solutions for identified problems. "
The three companies that hire the most actuarys are:
- Highmark52 actuaries jobs
- Humana47 actuaries jobs
- DW Simpson Global Actuarial Recruitment32 actuaries jobs
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Compare different actuaries
Actuary vs. Product development actuary
The job of actuarial interns involves the roles of graduate actuaries featuring the challenges of a full-time actuary. Interns are given opportunities to work on projects from the offices of the firm or client. They improve the efficiency of the existing MS Excel workbooks through the automation of routine functions using VBA Macros. Their job includes the creation of comparative corporate financial statement reports on a monthly basis. Also, they maintain and document demographics every month.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, actuary responsibilities require skills like "risk management," "vba," "gaap," and "sas." Meanwhile a typical product development actuary has skills in areas such as "fsa," "administration system," "sql," and "uw." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
Product development actuaries tend to reach higher levels of education than actuaries. In fact, product development actuaries are 17.9% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 1.1% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Actuary vs. Actuarial internship
An actuarial consultant is a financial professional who is responsible for advising clients on investments, insurance, and pension-related decisions using a variety of measurements. Actuarial consultants must apply an extensive use of statistics and large amounts of data to formulate a plan that is best suited to clients. They are required to complete risk and cost analysis and determine financial uncertainties using the skills of a statistician and economist to dispense financial advice to their clients. Actuarial consultants can also work with insurance companies or with clients in the investment world.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that actuary responsibilities requires skills like "risk management," "term care," "projection," and "ltc." But an actuarial internship might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "competitive analysis," "analyze data," "sql," and "strong analytical."
Actuarial interns earn similar levels of education than actuaries in general. They're 3.1% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 1.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Actuary vs. Actuarial consultant
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, an actuary is likely to be skilled in "risk management," "term care," "ltc," and "portfolio," while a typical actuarial consultant is skilled in "project management," "client relationships," "sql," and "retirement plan."
Actuarial consultants earn the best pay in the finance industry, where they command an average salary of $101,755. Actuaries earn the highest pay from the professional industry, with an average salary of $104,015.Most actuarial consultants achieve a similar degree level compared to actuaries. For example, they're 4.1% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.4% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Actuary vs. Actuarial technician
Even though a few skill sets overlap between actuaries and actuarial technicians, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, an actuary might have more use for skills like "risk management," "health insurance," "term care," and "ltc." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of actuarial technicians require skills like "sql," "llc," "statistical analysis," and "loss trends. "
The professional industry tends to pay the highest salaries for actuarial technicians, with average annual pay of $99,403. Comparatively, the highest actuary annual salary comes from the professional industry.The average resume of actuarial technicians showed that they earn lower levels of education compared to actuaries. So much so that theyacirc;euro;trade;re 5.0% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree by 1.1%.Types of actuary
Updated January 8, 2025
