Want to be an Actuary or
business Analyst.
Becoming an actuary
Colin O’Hare, Actuarial Studies Director – 2nd August 2015
Actuarial Studies at Monash
1
What is an actuary? Who becomes an actuary?
 “Making financial sense of the future”
 Actuaries are people who evaluate risk and opportunity
 They are people with good mathematical, strategic, problem solving and communication
skills
 They apply modelling and forecasting concepts from mathematics and statistics to real
life scenarios
 Why become an actuary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgSHIvTc5ws
2
Why become an actuary?
Some of the reasons
 Challenging career
 Excellent career opportunities
 Money, money, money
 Travel
 Job security
 Making a difference
 Being an actuary is a globally
recognised profession with high
(increasing) demand and influence
3
A small profession…
4
…with great career prospects
Actuary ranked as the top
career (out of 200 professions)
2015.
Actuarial jobs the most difficult
to fill
Not just life and pensions
insurance any more.
5
A variety of work opportunities
 General insurance reserving and life insurance
 Superannuation advice
 Carbon trading advice
 Car insurance premium
 Data analytics
 Marketing
 Sustainability
Actuaries work across a number of sectors including finance, insurance,
government, health, education, marketing and a range of other industries.
6
The skills that make a good actuary
Some of the skills
 Mathematical skills (problem solving,
probability and statistics, calculus…)
 Computing skills (programming, model
building,…)
 Business awareness (finance,
accounting, management, marketing…)
 Soft skills (Communication, writing
skills, presentational skills…)
 Experience and judgement
 It’s more than just mathematics and
finance
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Broad
knowledge
base
Accredited
program
Actuarial science
Actuarial studies
Econometrics
Identify, quantify and manage financial and other types of risk
Advice on long term and short term liabilities
Define, analyse and solve complex problems
Provide regulatory and high value corporate and trustee advice
Strategic planning ….(and more)
8
Study options at Monash
Commerce Specialist
Bachelor of Commerce
•
Bachelor of Actuarial Science
•
Actuarial studies major
•
Smaller core, more elective space
•
Larger core in year 1
9
What are you learning in actuarial
science?
•
Financial mathematics and discounting of cashflows
•
General finance (asset clsses, terminology, characteristics…)
•
General macro and micro economics
•
Actuarial modelling, single and multi decrement modelling
•
Statistics and application to modelling frequency and severity in short term insurance
•
Contingent events and long term pricing and reserving
•
Financial stochastic modelling and interest rate modelling
10
The profession and Accreditation
Fellow Institute of Actuaries Australia
Associate of Institute of Actuaries Australia
 Parts 1, 2 and 3 must be completed
 Parts 1 and 2 must be completed
 A specialist qualification at the top of the
profession
 A more generalist qualification
 Certain regulatory role reserved for
FIAAs only
 Associates have all the technical
abilities
 ..not necessarily the higher level
business skills
 Monash is fully accredited for part 1 and part 2 of the professional examinations
 Students must achieve a Distinction mark on the corresponding course to receive
exemption from the professional examination
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Accreditation
 FIAA or AIAA (Parts 1,2 and 3 or just Parts 1 and 2)
 FIAA – Specialist AIAA - Generalist
 They apply modelling and forecasting concepts from mathematics and statistics to real
life scenarios
 Actuarial careers landed the top spot in a 2013 study of the best jobs to have by the
Wall Street Journal’s job site Careercast.com.
 Why become an actuary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgSHIvTc5ws
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Monash professional accreditation
Professional exam
Corresponding Monash unit(s)

CT1 - Financial Mathematics

BFC2340

CT2 - Finance and Financial Reporting

ACC1000 (40%), & BFC2140 (60%)

CT3 - Probability and Statistics

ETC1000 (25%) & ETC2520 (75%)

CT4 – Models

ETC2430 (65%) & ETC3430 (35%)

CT5 – Contingencies

ETC3430 (35%) & ETC3530 (65%)

CT6 - Statistical Methods

ETC2420 (50%) & ETC3420 (50%)

CT7 - Business Economics

ECC1000 (55%), ECC1100 (45%)

CT8 - Financial Economics

ETC3460 (50%) & ETC3510 (50%)

Part 2(a) – Actuarial control cycle

ETC4110 (50%) & ETC4120 (50%)

Part 2(b) - Investments

ETC4130 (100%)
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Proposed pathway
Presentation title
14
Must work hard from day one, and what does work hard
mean anyway?
15
Our accreditations include:
Presentation title
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