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What is an Actuary?

An actuary is a business professional who analyzes the financial consequences of risk. Actuaries use mathematics, statistics and financial theory to study uncertain future events, especially those of concern to insurance and pension programs. They evaluate the likelihood of those events, design creative ways to reduce the likelihood and decrease the impact of adverse events that actually do occur.

Actuaries are an important part of the management team of the companies that employ them. Their work requires a combination of strong analytical skills, business knowledge and understanding of human behavior to design and manage programs that control risk.

Professional Actuarial Designation

Actuaries earn professional designations based on the organization they belong to and their status in the professional exam system.

When an actuary has met certain professional educational standards by passing a series of exams, he or she achieves the designation of Associate. Actuaries who specialize in property and casualty practice receive the ACAS designation. It stands for Associate of the Casualty Actuarial Society. Actuaries who practice in life, health, finance, investments or pensions receive the Associate of the Society of Actuaries, or ASA, designation.

After achieving the Associate designation, the actuary can elect to continue to take exams to achieve the highest designation, Fellow. Casualty actuaries are Fellows of the Casualty Actuarial Society or FCAS. Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, or FSA, is the designation achieved by life, health, pension, finance and investment actuaries.

Below are the different actuarial designations and organizations that grant them. Check out the actuarial alphabet.

FCAS
Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society
ACAS
Associate of the Casualty Actuarial Society
FSA
Fellow of the Society of Actuaries
ASA
Associate of the Society of Actuaries
MAAA
Member of the American Academy of Actuaries
FSPA
Fellow of the American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries
MSPA
Member of the American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries
FCA
Fellow of the Conference of Consulting Actuaries
ACA
Associate of the Conference of Consulting Actuaries
FCIA
Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries
EA
Enrolled Actuary
(source: beanactuary.org)