Actuarial Science
Actuaries apply rigorous mathematics to model matters of uncertainty.
What is Actuarial Science?
Actuarial science is the discipline that applies mathematical and statistical methods to assess risk in insurance, finance, and other industries and professions. More generally, actuaries apply rigorous mathematics to model matters of uncertainty.
Actuaries are professionals trained in this discipline. In many countries, actuaries must demonstrate their competence by passing a series of rigorous professional examinations.
Actuarial science includes a number of interrelated subjects, including mathematics, probability theory, statistics, finance, economics, and computer science. Historically, actuarial science used deterministic models in the construction of tables and premiums. The science has gone through revolutionary changes since the 1980s due to the proliferation of high speed computers and the union of stochastic actuarial models with modern financial theory.
Why Consider Actuarial Science?
Actuaries are very high in-demand in the job market, so it is easy to get a job as an actuarial scientist. Not only that, it provides one of the highest pay for a fresh graduate.
Since it’s a job that’s very high in-demand, companies would ofcourse want to keep people with this profession.
Actuarial science is suitable for those who like to rely on cold hard facts to solve a problem. With that being said, besides using mathematics and statistics, you need to use economics, finance, risk management, computer science, and extensive research to solve crises. Using all these tools will keep your mind constantly stimulated so it means you will never get bored.
Even though you need concrete information to solve a problem, most actuarial challenges are almost never by the book! So this is when your creative and critical thinking comes into play as you need to think far out of the box to solve some difficult problems. This challenges your mind and will stretch your thinking process, keeping your mind sharp at all times!
Fields of Actuarial Science
Enterprise risk management is a process of identifying critical risks faced by an organization, prioritizing them, quantifying their financial impact and developing organizational solutions to address them.
Investment actuary is an actuary that either manages investments directly or provides an advice on how to manage investments. As with all the actuaries, their main focus tends to be on risk management.
Valuation actuaries are responsible for calculating the reserves for life insurance and annuity companies, calculating the liabilities for financial statements and determining the valuation of the companies involved in mergers and acquisitions.
Corporate actuary is mostly involved either with product development or with financial reporting and valuation. They have special financial knowledge to analyze the results, feedback and the product pricing process. Corporate actuaries also involved in corporate mergers and acquisitions, expense management, risk management, capital management, asset liability management and also in developing new performance measures for the company.
