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From: Casey Abell
Sent: Saturday, September 13, 1997 9:39 AM
To: CAS
Subject: What's the Difference?
>> I've been thinking about the actuarial profession for about a =
year now, and I have signed up to take the first exam in November.
After the first two exams I will need to decide which track to
follow, SoA or CAS...Basically I am curious to know why you chose
the CAS -- why you decided to be a P/C actuary and not a pension
actuary or a life actuary. Are there any substantial differences
in the work you do? Any advice for someone just starting out? <<
I'm one of those weirdos who are members of both the SOA and the
CAS. Right now, believe it or not, there's a tempest in a teapot
between the two groups. The CAS published some (IMO) asinine attacks
on the SOA in its quarterly newsletter, The Actuarial Review. The
president of the SOA responded with a letter to the entire membership
of the SOA complaining about the (IMO) asinine attacks.
The whole mess reflects just swell on the profession. I'll confess
that I don't know WHY there are separate North American societies
for life and property-casualty actuaries. Nowhere else in the world
do such separate societies exist. The North American situation
simply breeds stupid feuds like the one we're witnessing now,
without contributing anything to the progress of actuarial science.
Off the soapbox and onto the question...the SOA exams seem to
emphasize more pure mathematics. (The 50% figure sounds really fishy
to me, too.) The CAS exams include lots of stuff on laws, insurance
forms, regulations, etc. This is only a generalization: the
credibility math on the CAS exams is probably more intricate than
anything on the SOA exams.
Since I've practiced all my career in property-casualty, I would
suggest you follow the CAS track. The employment situation definitely
favors property-casualty right now, and I think the CAS exams are more
in touch with the workaday insurance world.
Casey Abell
a.k.a. "Ralph L. Abell" in the big book
Visit the CAS Web Site at http://www.casact.org
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