How to become an Actuarial Consultant

An Actuarial Consultant is a Statistician, Economist, and forecaster of future probabilities all rolled into one clever mind. You advise insurance companies on appropriate healthcare premiums, and recommend strategies to help a business cut costs on health coverage. Clients rely on you to recommend the best options that will increase profits or lower risks. It comes as no surprise that many actuary professionals are considering working on a contract basis.

Not just the insurance companies, but they are also required by a number of private companies and organizations as well for purposes of significant market analysis. As an actuary, you will be used to managing risk, and if you are thinking about taking your skills and working on a contract basis,

• An Actuarial Consultant uses his mathematical and statistical skills and computer software identify the bits and pieces of information, re-arrange and analyse the data to reach a conclusion. 
• The major responsibility is to evaluate each step taken by the client and/or company with regards to the risk involved in them, keep close monitoring and develop strategies to minimise the potential loss. Working in health insurance field would require an actuarial consultant to predict the accident rate and even the possibilities of natural catastrophes.
• Detailed reports and presentations are made for the evaluations and the summary of which would indicate the implication of each decision, new rules applied by the law and order, the future possibilities and returns/losses of each investment etc. The reports are also made within different time periods such as Annual, Quarterly, Monthly etc. reviewing the company activities, market conditions, Progress/Loss etc.
• To establish connections and to maintain them with the clients, investors, managers, financial directors and external stakeholders
• There are constant updates going on with the software, Technologies etc. Data being the food of an actuary consultant, they are obliged to be updated on the new Technological and financial developments in the business world

The required sets of skills necessary for an individual to embark on successful actuary consultant jobs are,

•     Superior numeracy
•     Good written and verbal communication skills
•     Capacity to distinguish long-term trends
•     Good quality IT skills
•     Capability to build good associations with clients
•     Longing to take untimely responsibility
•     An elevated extent of self-discipline and pledge

Once you clear all the 9 CT papers and all the 3 CA papers, that is 12 papers in total and with 1 year of min work experience you are eligible to become an Associate Member of the IAI.
And once you clear all the 15 papers you can become a Fellow Member of the IAI. However, to become a Fellow member of the Institute one needs to have a min of 3 years of work experience.
So there is no mandatory internship but to become a Fellow one needs a min of 3 years of work experience. So indirectly work experience is mandatory.
Also, you can start your work experience after clearing 10 papers or 3 papers or whatever you decide – There is no rule.
But ideally when one passes 3-5 papers, one should start looking for a job because for the higher papers you need job experience to understand the concepts as they are directly linked with real-life problems.
Without getting practical experience, understanding the concepts of the papers is next to impossible.

• Insurance Sector
• Business Sector
• Banking and Financial Services
• Health and Medical Sector
• Life insurance
• General insurance
• Health insurance
• Reinsurance Companies
• Pension funds
• Consultants
• Investments
• Government
• Academics
• Risk Management