01-05-2004, 01:26 AM
<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote><font size=1 face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial" id=quote>quote<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>
The difference between Actuaries, CFAs and ACIIs is quite minor but not negligible... Actuaries basically specialise in Insurance and Pension funds... ACII is a study almost fully directed towards Insurance... However, a person who has attained BSc in Actuarial Sciences is subject to exemptions from all exams of ACII except the last one...
Sumaaan & Farhan, I have a question for both of you.
When you said, âActuaries basically specialise in Insurance and Pension fundsâ, did you mean literally these two are the practice areas for qualified actuaries?
That may well be true for a developing economy, such as Pakistan, but in more developed countries, people do also qualify as Investment and to differentiate Insurance, as General Insurance and Life Insurance Actuaries.
(I know that you did not mean that but I think the newcomers wishing to gain insight into the matter, could be directed in narrow spectrum, if we do not care about the legitimacy of our comments.)
I also think that the work of an actuary and an insurance professional is different and by no means similar.
I think by insurance professionals, we mean people working in the insurance companies and setting premiums for the customers, in technical language, people working for syndicates. I hope you would know that in the Lloyds of London, the biggest insurance place in the world, where all the big syndicates meet together and negotiate the insurance premiums, has only got 2-3 actuaries.
This is because the actuarial practice in the insurance business is not the same as the insurance professionals. The ACII charter, helps you to gain employment in the insurance sector, but the FIA etc statuses of actuaries help you to work for actuarial departments where they research, analyse and predict the future and give syndicates advice about how much their brokers should set a premium.
So, therefore, the work of insurance professionals, who work as insurance under-writers, is different to the insurance actuaries, who work as research kind of people, selling their expertise in the statistical inferences about the data available.
Sumaaan, please comment if I you have concerns about the above statement.
AHSAN
<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial" size=2 id=quote>
As in Pakistan where Investment Banking is not a huge sector (although is expanding greatly) as compared to other countries, the work of an Actuary is very limited... This is why its true that CFAs have an upperhand as compared to Actuaries in the Investment sector in Pakistan...
But never would I ever underestimate the potential of Actuaries... They have great prospects in the Investment sector as Actuary itself is the study of 'Risk Management'...
I would like to make a statement where you pointed out about only 2-3 Actuaries being employed in Lloyds of London... With all due respect and no intention to spark an argument, this doesn't show that Actuaries don't specialise mainly in Insurance... I reckon those 2-3 Actuaries would be enough for the entity itself no matter how huge it might be... Secondly, employing Actuaries is extremely expensive... With being able to get the same work done through ACIIs, no company would want to hire Actuaries and pay them almost double than what they pay to ACIIs... So a lot of factors have to be taken into account...
You're correct that the work of ACIIs and Actuaries is different... And I might have hinted towards Actuaries specializing in Insurance, but I never meant to understate their potential in Investment... After all, Actuaries is all about Risk Management.
The difference between Actuaries, CFAs and ACIIs is quite minor but not negligible... Actuaries basically specialise in Insurance and Pension funds... ACII is a study almost fully directed towards Insurance... However, a person who has attained BSc in Actuarial Sciences is subject to exemptions from all exams of ACII except the last one...
Sumaaan & Farhan, I have a question for both of you.
When you said, âActuaries basically specialise in Insurance and Pension fundsâ, did you mean literally these two are the practice areas for qualified actuaries?
That may well be true for a developing economy, such as Pakistan, but in more developed countries, people do also qualify as Investment and to differentiate Insurance, as General Insurance and Life Insurance Actuaries.
(I know that you did not mean that but I think the newcomers wishing to gain insight into the matter, could be directed in narrow spectrum, if we do not care about the legitimacy of our comments.)
I also think that the work of an actuary and an insurance professional is different and by no means similar.
I think by insurance professionals, we mean people working in the insurance companies and setting premiums for the customers, in technical language, people working for syndicates. I hope you would know that in the Lloyds of London, the biggest insurance place in the world, where all the big syndicates meet together and negotiate the insurance premiums, has only got 2-3 actuaries.
This is because the actuarial practice in the insurance business is not the same as the insurance professionals. The ACII charter, helps you to gain employment in the insurance sector, but the FIA etc statuses of actuaries help you to work for actuarial departments where they research, analyse and predict the future and give syndicates advice about how much their brokers should set a premium.
So, therefore, the work of insurance professionals, who work as insurance under-writers, is different to the insurance actuaries, who work as research kind of people, selling their expertise in the statistical inferences about the data available.
Sumaaan, please comment if I you have concerns about the above statement.
AHSAN
<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial" size=2 id=quote>
As in Pakistan where Investment Banking is not a huge sector (although is expanding greatly) as compared to other countries, the work of an Actuary is very limited... This is why its true that CFAs have an upperhand as compared to Actuaries in the Investment sector in Pakistan...
But never would I ever underestimate the potential of Actuaries... They have great prospects in the Investment sector as Actuary itself is the study of 'Risk Management'...
I would like to make a statement where you pointed out about only 2-3 Actuaries being employed in Lloyds of London... With all due respect and no intention to spark an argument, this doesn't show that Actuaries don't specialise mainly in Insurance... I reckon those 2-3 Actuaries would be enough for the entity itself no matter how huge it might be... Secondly, employing Actuaries is extremely expensive... With being able to get the same work done through ACIIs, no company would want to hire Actuaries and pay them almost double than what they pay to ACIIs... So a lot of factors have to be taken into account...
You're correct that the work of ACIIs and Actuaries is different... And I might have hinted towards Actuaries specializing in Insurance, but I never meant to understate their potential in Investment... After all, Actuaries is all about Risk Management.
