Salary and Outlook
According to the US Department of Labor, there are 28,300 people employed as actuaries in
the United States.
The median annual salary is $105,900.
Entry level employees earn approximately $63,260 per year and senior employees earn approximately $206,820
(or more)
per year.
Estimates do not include other potential benefits such as health insurance, overtime, or retirement benefits that may be offered by employers.
Job Duties
- Explain changes in contract provisions to customers.
- Ascertain premium rates required and cash reserves and liabilities necessary to ensure payment of future benefits.
- Manage credit and help price corporate security offerings.
- Design, review, and help administer insurance, annuity and pension plans, determining financial soundness and calculating premiums.
- Determine, or help determine, company policy, and explain complex technical matters to company executives, government officials, shareholders, policyholders, or the public.
- Provide advice to clients on a contract basis, working as a consultant.
- Analyze statistical information to estimate mortality, accident, sickness, disability, and retirement rates.
- Construct probability tables for events such as fires, natural disasters, and unemployment, based on analysis of statistical data and other pertinent information.
- Negotiate terms and conditions of reinsurance with other companies.
- Collaborate with programmers, underwriters, accounts, claims experts, and senior management to help companies develop plans for new lines of business or improvements to existing business.
- Determine equitable basis for distributing surplus earnings under participating insurance and annuity contracts in mutual companies.
- Testify before public agencies on proposed legislation affecting businesses.
- Determine policy contract provisions for each type of insurance.
- Testify in court as expert witness or to provide legal evidence on matters such as the value of potential lifetime earnings of a person disabled or killed in an accident.
- Provide expertise to help financial institutions manage risks and maximize returns associated with investment products or credit offerings.