Last Updated on July 29, 2023 by Vishnu Nambiar
In Actuarial Science course, the aspirants get to learn about the discipline that applies statistical and mathematical methods that assess risks in finance, insurance, industries and other companies. The courses include a number of relevant subjects like probability theory, mathematics, economics, statistics, finance, and computer science. There are many universities in India that provide graduate and undergraduate degree programs.
About Actuary Professionals
Actuaries are basically professionals who work in the insurance sector. The work of Actuary is to predict the final impact if any kind of uncertain future event is to occur. In case of uncertain disaster to the company, the Actuaries decides that what amount of money should be returned to the policy-holder or what amount of money pension should be paid to them. They also predict and correct the policy-holder as what amount of money should be paid to them as premium. In other sense, they have the responsibility to calculate all the financial risks of the company as well the premiums with their excellent skills as economists, statisticians, and financier. They use all the mathematical and scientific techniques of compound interest, law, probability, marketing management and etc. These skills help them in predicting all the future emergencies and make the company ready in order to rationalize the financial severity of all such events. The Actuary profession came into existence since the year 1948 when many institutes of actuaries were established in England. During the early days, the actuaries were restricted to life insurance companies only. As there is an increase in the world trade and globalization, all of these professionals started to get hired by the non-life insurance company as well as the stock exchange, banks etc.
Importance Of Actuary Professionals
Since there is an increase in the globalization, so the demand for the expert actuaries is way behind the supply. Most of the common people even don’t know about this profession. So, the demand for the experience actuary is increasing at a very fast rate. However, the work of the actuary is not an easy one as it needs a lot of numbers to be crunched and the character of this job is a demanding one both mentally and physically. None the less, the professionals get the reward by status, intellectual challenge, and from all the above you get the job satisfaction. As the job of these professionals is to make decisions for the business activities, the career path of these professionals more or not leads to executive positions and upper management. In order to reach the top and get experienced, the professionals have to carry out their work as best as they can.
Eligibility Criteria To Study Actuary
If one wants to do the course of actuarial science then the aspirant must be aware of the eligibility criteria and check if they meet it or not. Those who have met all of these then they can easily go for the actuarial science course.
1. Educational Qualification
An aspirant will only be considered for education if he or she has satisfied the following criteria –
- The aspirant should have passed HSC or its equivalent with a minimum of 85% marks in Statistics and Mathematics
- Candidates of Post Graduates and Graduates should have a minimum mark of 55% in Mathematics. It can be the mathematics of any branch like Statistics or any of its sub classification such as Applied Statistics or Mathematical Statistics, Subjects in Science such as Physics or any of its branch, Computer Science, Engineering
- Candidates who have a degree in CS, CA, MBA in Finance, ICWA, and PGDBA can also apply for this post
- Qualified member of professional institutes such as the Institutes of Cost And Account Works Of India, Institutes of Chartered Accountants of India, Fellow Insurance Institutes of India as well as a Certified Institute of Final Analyst of India can also apply for admission
2. Age
The minimum age for an aspirant to become an actuary should not be less than 18 years.
Skills Required In Actuary
- It is not so easy to become a successful actuary right from the beginning. Well, no one gets success right from the start. Here are few skills that an aspirant should have in order to become a successful actuary
- It is important that the candidate should be hard working and dedicate himself to the job. This is the most basic requirement of an actuary job. One has to look for the inside depth of the field and should have an intensive foresight
- The candidate should be ready to work hard and dedicate himself to the job. The candidate should have an open mind and work with honesty
- The candidate should have excellent communication skills along with excellent academics. They should have the ability to differentiate between unimportant and important things
Actuarial Science Courses
The Actuarial Science course basically has 15 subjects out of which 14 of them are compulsory and 1 is optional. The subjects are grouped in 100 Series(CT), 200 Series (CA), 300 Series (ST) and 400 Series(SA). The subjects that are in the CT Series covers Statistical, Mathematical, economic and financial techniques, those are applicable. There are a total of nine subjects in this series. The CA series basically contains questions that are from the general actuarial interest. This series also has the aim to test the communication skills of the students. It consists of three subjects such as Core Application Concepts Consisting of assets and liabilities, Communication, Modelling. The ST series consists of Life Insurance, Investment, Pensions, General Insurance and many other benefits of employment. The ST series has a total of six subjects and are Health and Care Insurance, Life Insurance, Finance and Investment A, Pension and Other Employment benefits, and Finance and Investment B. The subjects of the SA series focus on the practical application of the Principles that are covered on the corresponding ST series and all other earlier subjects. The series contains a total of six subjects. After the student has passed all the subjects of the CT Series then he or she becomes eligible to receive a Certificate in Actuarial Techniques. In addition to that when the students pass all the subjects of the ST series then they are eligible to be an Associate Member of the Society. The candidates can use AASI against their name. However, after the student has passed all the subject of the actuarial science course then he/ she is eligible to be a Fellow member of the Society. They are allowed to use FASI against their name.
Duration Of The Course
There is no particular duration fixed for the course. The candidates can complete whenever they want to. The sooner the better. All they have to do is to clear the Entrance Examination and clear all the 15 subjects that are prescribed to the candidates. The best thing about the course is that the students are allowed to attend any number of subjects at a time and in any manner. However, it will be better if the students take all the subjects in a numerical sequence. In this sequence, they can take two to three subjects at a time. This way they can score better and get to know more about the subjects. The examinations of the course (ACET) is held every year during the month of May/June and October/November. The centers of the examination in India are Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Lucknow, Coimbatore, Cuttack, Kanpur, and Hyderabad.
Career Prospects Of Actuaries
Due to the economic activities of globalization, the scope and importance of the actuary professionals are increasing at a very fast rate. The scope of the career growth for the actuaries in not only in India but in many other developed countries as well. In the field of Life Insurance, actuaries can look for the companies like Aviva Life Insurance Co.Ltd, HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co.Ltd, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co.Ltd, and Met Life Insurance Co.Ltd, etc. While in the field of non-life insurance actuaries can look for Bajaj Alliance, Reliance GIF, Cholamandalam GIC, TATA AIG, Oriental Insurance, National Insurance Co, New India Assurance Company etc. Also check – Ca course and CS course. However, in the case of Life Insurance Corporation of India, they conduct a written examination test to take in the candidates. The candidate should be graduate or postgraduate and should pass with a minimum of 60% marks in Statistics and Mathematics. The age should not more than 25 of the candidate.
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B.Sc. Actuarial Science course
Salary Of Actuary Professionals
Since there is a lack of Actuaries over the globe and the demand rate is very high, the actuaries can actually bargain huge amount of package from the company. On the basis of this demand, the actuary profession is rated as one of the best jobs in the US economy. As in India, there are many openings of the insurance and the financial sectors, the investors are picking up the trend too. In India, an actuarial trainee is a stipend with an amount of Rs. 25000 per month. While this is not in the case of qualified and experienced professionals. They can demand a package ranging from 8 lakhs for the beginners to around 40 lakhs for those in the senior positions.
I am Vishnu Nambiar a career and educational blogger from India. I am also a full time educational consultant having more than 12 years of experience in the educational sector.
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