Life & Health October 2009	0-0.5 yrs (excl. sign-on)	0.5- 2.5 yrs	2.5- 4.5 yrs	4.5- 6.5 yrs	6.5- 9.5 yrs	9.5- 14.5 yrs*	14.5-19.5 yrs*	19.5+ yrs*
1 course	46-62	51-66	55-72
2 courses	49-67	55-72	60-77	64-82
3 courses (MLC+MFE=1)	52-69	57-76	63-83	67-88
4 courses	54-71	61-83	67-89	72-96	75-103
5 courses (or 4 + FAP I)		65-88	72-96	80-108	84-118
ASA		73-98	78-108	88-119	93-132	98-146	109-234	115-252+
7 courses					95-137
8 courses					105-147
FSA			95-148	101-158	110-174	127-220	144-324	150-359+

Pension October 2009	0-0.5 yrs (excl. sign-on)	0.5- 2.5 yrs	2.5- 4.5 yrs	4.5- 6.5 yrs	6.5- 9.5 yrs	9.5- 14.5 yrs*	14.5-19.5 yrs*	19.5+ yrs*
1 course	47-62	51-64	55-70
2 courses	51-64	53-66	60-76	63-81
3 courses (MLC+MFE=1)	53-70	58-72	63-85	66-91	72-95
4 courses	55-73	61-79	68-90	73-100	78-106
5 courses (or 4 + FAP I)		67-88	71-94	76-104	80-112
ASA		68-91	74-99	81-111	85-117	103-155	123-237	140-258+
7 courses					89-129
8 courses					103-144
FSA				97-134	108-163	133-205	147-321	150-344+

Life/Health/Pension combined-CEO/CFO/CIO/COO/Pres.-10th-90th% TBD data points - from 2009 SEC Def 14A filings

N/A

Exams:

The first 4 exams are jointly held by SOA & CAS. They are multiple choice questions (in another word, you guess)

From 5 to 9 are easy exams.

Exam 1—Probability
Exam 2—Financial Mathematics
Exam 3—Actuarial Models: (3F) Financial Economics and (3L) Life Contingencies and Statistics
Exam 4—Construction and Evaluation of Actuarial Models
Exam 5—Introduction to Property and Casualty Insurance and Ratemaking
Exam 6—Reserving, Insurance Accounting Principles, Reinsurance, and Enterprise Risk Management
Exam 7—Nation-Specific Examination
        • Canada
        • Taipei
        • United States Fellowship Examinations
Exam 8—Investments and Financial Analysis
Exam 9—Advanced Ratemaking, Rate of Return, and Individual Risk Rating Plans
Starting 2011, the education structure will be changed to:

• Exam 5 Draft: Basic Ratemaking and Reserving
• Exam 6-Canada Draft: Nation-Specific Exam: Regulation and Financial Reporting
• Exam 6-United States Draft: Nation-Specific Exam: Regulation and Financial Reporting
• Exam 7 Draft: Advanced Techniques in Unpaid Claim Estimation, Insurance Company Valuation, and Enterprise Risk Management
• Exam 8 Draft: Advanced Ratemaking
• Exam 9 Draft: Financial Risk and Rate of Return
• Module 1 Topics: Risk Management and Insurance Operations
• Module 2 Topics: Insurance Accounting, Coverage Analysis, Insurance Law, and Insurance Regulation

You guys can cilck the links to get more information about current opening jobs and exam materials.

Thx a lot, that too kind

thanks a lot.

Exam material:

All 10, TIA, GOLDFARB, Hoffman, and MyKenk are companies which prepare study manuals for candidates. Video course is available if you would like to pay more. The cost usually be around $400 - $1000 based on which package you selected.

With my experience, All 10 is the top one of my list except exam 8. Goldfarb is considered as the best for exam 8. Anyway, reading papers is necessary for all exams whatever study manual you use. Otherwise, you learn very little even you may pass the exam without touching any paper.

Difficulty of exams IMO

7 >> 5 > 6 > 9 > 8

What is more important (add more value), exams, or, experience?

Both are important and they need to be balanced.

For example, if you are a fellow with only 1 year experience, that's an issue; On the other side, if you have over 10 years experience but only 4 exams, that's also a problem. Therefore, you need a balance between number of exams and work experience.

The actuaries working in North America are naturaly in a better position than actuaries working in other country. They attend seminers more often; They change employers more frequently; They have more senior actuaries look over their shoulders ...... They have more chance to practice different theories.

The actuaries working in Europe are very strong in theory. Almost all the advanced actuarial theories were from Europe, for example, credibility, GLM ...... Also, the actuaries in Europe don't have to take exams (except England).

Almost all companies sponsor their actuarial students taking exams.

That includes: study materials, study days, and raise if pass the exam. Some companies also pay for exam seminor fee, flight ticket, and hotel expense.

Study material: All 10, TIA, ......
Study days: first try 15 - 18 days, second try 12 - 15 days, third try 5 - 8 days, ......
Raise: either percentage of base salary or fixed dollar amount

Is that cool?

wanna try the GLM with the Motor Insurance,  any advices? alexbow#msn.com

What's the difference between being an actuary and a PHD. We should take exams life long!

Thank you for your helpful information about the salary data for P&C actuaries, but i guess it tailors for USA market, not in China.

非常感谢你的分享，请问一般你们做数据分析的时候喜欢使用哪些统计软件？ 10# bocm

how many exams do you have? ACAS or FCAS yet?

I just got ASA dsignation, but currently working in P&C and was required to take CAS exams... do you have any suggestion regarding my situation? should i switch to another Life insurance company or continue writing CAS ? i have no preferences to either one.

Thanks.

哪一个line of business你觉得是最有发展的？pricing, reserving您更偏向于哪一个？如果有可能，能不能说说reinsurance, retro的事？谢谢

Hey there~ I'm a rising senior and I'm a math & econ double major. I'm preparing for exam p and FM (well, I know that might be a bit late) It would be really helpful if you can tell me how is  P&C  different from the rest, say pension. How can I get more information about the industry? My college does not offer acturial science and very few alumni work in this field. Thanks a lot~
1# bocm

GLM is hot but there are also many limitations. There are quite some softwares in the market, for example, Emblem (a software for GLM)

E&O and D&O is the hottest. Commercial Line
Usually, people prefer pricing to reserving
For reinsurance, you need reserving skills and also business skills. Keep in mind that reinsurance is not a short term game. As a result, market trend play an important role here.

Property and casualty is very different from the pension/life/health. For the rest, all relate to human (life contigency) somewhat.

When you build a model relates to life, it is easier - cause you usually know how much you pay (though not sure when) and people die only one time.

For property/casualty, you need to model both frequency and severity.

For the first 4 exams, there is no difference between CAS and SOA. And, all exams are multiple choice questions (you can guess even if you have no idea). I would comment the first 4 exams are basic knowledge on statistics/math/finance. They are relatively easy exams.

It would be nice to have a PHD. However, a Bachelor degree is good enough to get an actuarial job.

PHDs usually do a lot of research kind of work but actuaries don't. They focus on application.

19# pengju

Excel
ACCESS
SAS
EMBLEM
@RISK
Essbase
ReservePro
ReserveResQ

18# crymic

You are right. I have no idea about China market.

20# waitinghyhy

There are much more P&C job opportunities in North America than that of Life/Health/Pension but I am not sure about China market.

People usually say P&C is more interesting than Life but I have no clue why.

In order to get ASA, you need only 4 exams plus 2 moudles.

For ACAS you need first 7 (old structure) / first 6 + 2 moudles (new structure). I can tell that any one of the advanced exam (5 - 9) is much more difficult than the sum of the first 4 exams. (I passed exam 2 and 3 in one session but still have one advanced exam 7 left)

要怎樣才可以找到在美國精算師工作阿?   我本身也在P&Cfield作精算