SOA Vs. CAS

[atif]

Assalaam-u-Alaikum,
I want to ask if any body can tell whether CAS is more beneficial or SOA while living in Pakistan?
Is CAS tough compared to SOA?

Not ignorance but ignorance of ignorance is the death of knowledge.

[derivativetrader]

Atif, when you say SOA, which specialisation are you referring - Life, Pension, Investment etc.?

DT

[atif]

I expected only you to reply. Thanks!
I referred to life. However, for generality, you may include all of specializations of SOA.

Not ignorance but ignorance of ignorance is the death of knowledge.

[derivativetrader]

I don't have a clear scope for actuaries in Pakistan. I have couple of arguments. I've known 2 actuaries (SOA qualified) who had been practising in Pakistan but always wanted to move abroad - for money and to get better exposure to quality work.

There aren't many firms who employ trainee actuaries so what's one probability for success?

However, I know couple of UK based consultancies who recently acquired services of their member firms in India to carry out Reserving exercise for few of their General Insurance clients - It's apparently a cheap way to get the same output. If this argument over-weighs the previous one then I think there is some hope for actuaries in Pakistan.

If you are sure that you want to specialise in GI then by all means go for CAS - I would rate CAS higher than GI from IOA. Exams for CAS may be harder and the material might somewhat be in more in-depth but it has the prestige in the GI sphere.

But if you are unsure whether GI is the place you want to end up in then why not go for IOA and specialise in anything. I think it would give you more flexibility abd IOA hassame repute as far as Pakistan is concerned. But if you have plans to go US in LT then consider one of the US qualification, CAS or SOA.

Please come back should you want more help.

DT

[Actuary2B]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial" id="quote">quote<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by atif</i>
<br />Assalaam-u-Alaikum,
I want to ask if any body can tell whether CAS is more beneficial or SOA while living in Pakistan?
Is CAS tough compared to SOA?

Not ignorance but ignorance of ignorance is the death of knowledge.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

General Insurance industry is not "that" sophisticated in Pakistan. There is much more LITIGATION involved in General Insurance than in Life/Pension in most developed Western countries. I think in Pakistan, the more recognized qualification in General Insurance industry is FCII (Chartered Insurance Institute,UK) than an FCAS.

If you've plans to stick in Pakistan, go for Life/Pension SoA track.

As far as toughness is concerned, you're trying to compare entirely different Upper level examination systems. Upper level exams are different under both tracks. CAS has 5 upper level exams, SoA has 3 upper level exams with PDs and Seminar. SoA upper level exams are famous for having 5-6 hrs of duration. Although, CAS sticks to a 4 hr exam policy but they incorporate -ve marking in their exams unlike SoA. So you can't decide which one is easier or difficult than another.

Most of the time, the line of insurance you're working in dictates your choice of exam path. You just can't compare Apples to Oranges.

[jafcbs]

I would say SOA is preferred. If you like the banking, investment or fund management sector, you may explore the investment or enterprise risk management track. More portable across the region and lays a very good foundation for working in risk functions in insurance, asset management or banking industry.

On the GI side we would like to believe that there is tremendous scope but the industry in general is too slow when it comes to responding to change, risk management, regulatory reporting or product dev work. Adamjee used to have one consulting actuary on board but since his death has still not replaced him. The other general players are primarily group captive companies who are happy with the status quo.

Hope this helps

[Actuary2B]

I believe in Pakistan "whatever" "Actuarial involvement" in GI is going, is also restricted to Actuaries that have specialized in SoA/IoA tracks.

http//www.naumanassociates.com/ServicesDetail.html#GIns_services

e.g Nauman Associates offer GI services like UEPR calculations for their GI clients, but I don't see any qualified (or student) CAS actuaries in their company profile. Probably FIAs and student IoA actuaries who have dealt with a 1 or 2 GI papers in IoA system are quite capable of whatever GI is all about here.

As for difference between IoA(G.I) and CAS, CAS seems far better than IoA when it somes to specific Property/Casualty line. CAS is probably the world's "only" professional body that exclusively focuses on Property/Casualty issues. The difference is apparent by looking at their respective exam paths.

IoA used to have 1-2 GI specific exams(out of 13-14).CAS on the other hand has 6/9 exams focusing primarily on P/C. 6/9 includes 5 upper level CAS exams and a new CAS specific Exam3.

Hope it helps abit further...