Salary and Outlook

According to the US Department of Labor, there are 27,700 people employed as actuaries in the United States. The median annual salary is $111,000. Entry level employees earn approximately $66,030 per year and senior employees earn approximately $196,010 per year.

Estimates do not include other potential benefits such as health insurance, overtime pay, or retirement benefits that may be offered by employers.

Job Duties

• Explain changes in contract provisions to customers.
• Ascertain premium rates required and cash reserves and liabilities necessary to ensure payment of future benefits.
• Manage credit and help price corporate security offerings.
• Design, review, and help administer insurance, annuity and pension plans, determining financial soundness and calculating premiums.
• Determine, or help determine, company policy, and explain complex technical matters to company executives, government officials, shareholders, policyholders, or the public.
• Provide advice to clients on a contract basis, working as a consultant.
• Analyze statistical information to estimate mortality, accident, sickness, disability, and retirement rates.
• Construct probability tables for events such as fires, natural disasters, and unemployment, based on analysis of statistical data and other pertinent information.
• Negotiate terms and conditions of reinsurance with other companies.
• Collaborate with programmers, underwriters, accounts, claims experts, and senior management to help companies develop plans for new lines of business or improvements to existing business.
• Determine equitable basis for distributing surplus earnings under participating insurance and annuity contracts in mutual companies.
• Testify before public agencies on proposed legislation affecting businesses.
• Determine policy contract provisions for each type of insurance.
• Testify in court as expert witness or to provide legal evidence on matters such as the value of potential lifetime earnings of a person disabled or killed in an accident.
• Provide expertise to help financial institutions manage risks and maximize returns associated with investment products or credit offerings.

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