02-26-2007, 11:01 PM
With your background, I think you would be quite suited to a career in actuarial science. Assuming you have very little or no knowledge about this profession, I briefly describe the main avenues that an actuarial qualification may lead you to explore.
Actuarial Science is a profession, similar to accountancy in the sense that you have to study part-time to sit a number of exams. These exams are set by actuarial bodies and two of the main bodies are Institute of Actuaries (based in UK) and Society of Actuaries (based in US). IOA has 15 exams, whereas, the SOA has 9 (or there about) exams. The syllabus is approximately the same, so SOA exams may have more material per exam. It takes on average 6 years to qualify as an actuary. To qualify as an actuary means that firstly you have passed all these exams and secondly you have at least 3 years of relevent work experience. The salaries for actuaries in Pakistan are in the region of PKR 100k + but depends on a number of factors, i.e. experience, nature of job etc.
The syllabus covers application of mathematical concepts to solve real world finance problems. There are mainly four areas where actuaries work these days and below I describe briefly what sort of work they are doing these days
If you are working for a life insurance company than an actuarial department might be involved in building models to price and verify different products that the life company might already sell or introduce to the market.
If you are working for a pensions consultancy, you may be working on valuing the pension liabilities for a firm.
If you are working for an investment consultancy (a rare in Pakistan), you may be working alongside investment banks or investment managers in developing investment strategies for a pension fund, i.e. where to invest their assets to get enough returns to match their liabilties.
If you are working for a general insurance organisation, your role will be similar to that of a life insurance actuary (see above) but the only caveat is that you will be focusing on all other insurance sectors but life.
There are some universities (none in Pakistan to date) that are offering degrees in actuarial sciences and allow you to get exemptions from either the IOA or SOA. An exemption mean that you don't have to re-sit an exam and these are normally awarded if there is similarity to their own syllabus and you have performed to a level in your university exam.
I hope the above information would help. Please feel free to post any more question that you might have.
DT
Actuarial Science is a profession, similar to accountancy in the sense that you have to study part-time to sit a number of exams. These exams are set by actuarial bodies and two of the main bodies are Institute of Actuaries (based in UK) and Society of Actuaries (based in US). IOA has 15 exams, whereas, the SOA has 9 (or there about) exams. The syllabus is approximately the same, so SOA exams may have more material per exam. It takes on average 6 years to qualify as an actuary. To qualify as an actuary means that firstly you have passed all these exams and secondly you have at least 3 years of relevent work experience. The salaries for actuaries in Pakistan are in the region of PKR 100k + but depends on a number of factors, i.e. experience, nature of job etc.
The syllabus covers application of mathematical concepts to solve real world finance problems. There are mainly four areas where actuaries work these days and below I describe briefly what sort of work they are doing these days
If you are working for a life insurance company than an actuarial department might be involved in building models to price and verify different products that the life company might already sell or introduce to the market.
If you are working for a pensions consultancy, you may be working on valuing the pension liabilities for a firm.
If you are working for an investment consultancy (a rare in Pakistan), you may be working alongside investment banks or investment managers in developing investment strategies for a pension fund, i.e. where to invest their assets to get enough returns to match their liabilties.
If you are working for a general insurance organisation, your role will be similar to that of a life insurance actuary (see above) but the only caveat is that you will be focusing on all other insurance sectors but life.
There are some universities (none in Pakistan to date) that are offering degrees in actuarial sciences and allow you to get exemptions from either the IOA or SOA. An exemption mean that you don't have to re-sit an exam and these are normally awarded if there is similarity to their own syllabus and you have performed to a level in your university exam.
I hope the above information would help. Please feel free to post any more question that you might have.
DT
