Category: Uncategorized

Where do you work and what is your position?
I’m currently Group Chief Risk Officer at Everest, a global P&C insurance and reinsurance company headquartered in Warren, NJ.

Why did you decide to become an actuary?
I majored in actuarial sciences in college because I really enjoyed math and wanted to eventually be in the financial sector. But I decided to start my career as a teacher before I moved into the actuarial field. Teaching was a passion of mine and I loved my years teaching, but ultimately the actuarial career path did provide greater stability and long-term viability for me and my family.

What aspects of the field do you love?
I love the problem-solving nature of what we do. While I can geek out with math problems all day, I more so enjoy putting the tools to task and making a strong business impact.

What is the best career advice you have ever received?
Don’t view your career path as linear. Many entrants into the field think that career trajectories are clearly defined paths where each subsequent step is perfectly predictable. I’ve found my career takes many different forms from insurance to reinsurance, reserving to pricing, and individual contributor to departmental oversight. But the steps weren’t necessarily down a specific pathway that I traversed through and sometimes the opportunities arose in my peripheral vision. It’s important to be at a company that supports non-linear career paths and ultimately can give you the most opportunities. I’ve personally spent over ten years working at Everest within which I’ve had many different zigs and zags, included moving away from being the Chief Pricing Actuary into roles beyond traditional actuarial such as Chief Operations Officer and more recently Group Chief Risk Officer.

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
Always offer to be involved with different projects at work. Raise your hand if someone needs assistance with something and if they don’t need assistance then raise your hand anyway! Opportunities don’t just fall onto your desk and sometimes you need to put yourself out there to find them. This includes being willing to stretch outside your comfort zone to be involved with new types of work which may require new skills or doing work which may not seem as exciting but will allow you to see aspects of your company that you wouldn’t have seen in your role otherwise.

Why would you recommend a career in the insurance industry to current college students? 
The insurance industry is constantly evolving as the world’s risk environment constantly shifts and the method of transferring risk via insurance also changes. This offers great opportunities for future actuaries to blend strong technical skills with creativity for problem solving and innovation.

What can students do now to prepare for a career in the industry?
Since actuaries work with people across many parts of a company, it’s good to complement your math skills with other important business needs like finance, economics, programming, and communications.

CAS Profile – Allison Barnes
Allison Barnes is a Career Changer.

Where do you work and what is your position?
Actuarial Analyst, CNA Insurance

In what field or actuarial concentration do you work in now?
Specialty Pricing, Financial Institutions

What job did you do or industry did you work in before becoming an actuary?
I was a high school math teacher for 5 years.

Why did you decide to change careers and become an actuary?
While I loved being a teacher, I knew I was seeking more in my career than teaching the same material and lessons over and over again. I was seeking a greater challenge in a career where I could use the skills I had for math and problem solving to make actual changes in the business world, a topic I would often discuss with my own students. Through investigating the actuarial field and talking to other actuaries, I came to see this is a profession with highly intelligent and motivated professionals who are applying those problem solving skills every day. In this career, I have the best of both worlds in which I experience growing in my technical skills, completing projects that I put my hard work into, but also communicating with business partners, giving presentations, and interacting with a great group of coworkers. It is truly a career for all sorts of personalities which I had never known before I met a wide variety of actuarial professionals.

What advice do you have for others who are considering a similar career change?
Don’t be afraid to network with people in the profession. The actuarial community is incredibly supportive. These conversations can show you what this career offers.

Where do you work and what is your position?
I am President and Consulting Actuary at Liscord, Ward & Roy, Inc., a property/casualty actuarial consulting firm located in Manchester, NH.

Why did you decide to become an actuary?
A week before I finished college, a recruiter from Aetna Insurance was on campus talking to students about the actuarial career. I was intrigued by what I heard and thought it would be a good fit for me. Prior to that, I knew very little about the actuarial career. This is what has driven my passion to help students learn more about the career at an earlier stage than I did. That is why I have volunteered with the University Liaison program, the University Engagement Committee, and mentoring students at CAS meetings.

What aspects of the field do you love?
I have spent most of my career in consulting. I love the diversity of assignments and clients that I have had the opportunity to be involved with. I get to work on several different projects, for various types of clients, covering many casualty lines of coverage. It keeps it interesting and makes me want to go to work every day.

What is the best career advice you have ever received?
My first job was with a consulting firm, and it was stressed that accuracy and attention to detail is paramount. Making sure that things get done right is important to maintaining the respect of the clients. But when mistakes are made, and everyone makes them occasionally, it is also important to own them and make corrections as soon as the mistakes are found.

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
Network! The actuarial profession is relatively small, and it is surprising how often your path crosses with those of other actuaries throughout your career. An actuary’s network is useful in many ways – from lifelong friendships, to future job opportunities, to sources for advice on projects, to recommendations for committee assignments, to dinner companions at CAS meetings, and many others.

Why would you recommend a career in the insurance industry to current college students?
Insurance provides a safety net that allows businesses and individuals to participate in activities that they might otherwise refrain from.  As such, insurance touches many aspects of our lives and is an important part of society.  The insurance industry is dynamic, ever changing, and an exciting place to work.  The Property / Casualty insurance industry in particular provides a wide range of positions and careers for someone to find their niche, aligning their interests, skills, and qualifications, because of the ever expanding need for coverages to adapt to a rapidly changing world.  I may be biased, but I think a career as a casualty actuary provides the greatest opportunities to be involved – interacting with people from many disciplines, solving challenging problems, and being a part of an industry that is integral to the economy as a whole.

What can students do now to prepare for a career in the industry?
Improve your communication skills.  Great oral and written communication is essential to making your thoughts, solutions, and ideas understandable to others who are in positions of acting on them.  Be well rounded.   Having knowledge in multiple areas makes you more valuable and more adaptable to change.  Be comfortable with math and statistics.  In a world immersed in data, people who can analyze that data, and people who can understand what that analysis means, are the people who will guide the decisions that change the future.

Where do you work and what is your position?
I’m a pricing actuary with Ryan Specialty.

Why did you decide to become an actuary?
I went to a math and science high school (for NUS High we fight!), but I was definitely better at/more interested in math than sciences. I was looking for a math-related major and actuarial science popped up serendipitously.

What aspects of the field do you love?
I love that there are many flavors in the actuarial profession. Even though I have only been in the industry for less than 5 years, I am lucky enough to have worked at an insurance company, in consulting and now in the MGU space. Each role taught me so much about the different aspects of the actuarial profession, and helped me identify my strengths and areas for growth.

What is the best career advice you have ever received?
Be your authentic self. I have always been described as a very bubbly and sweet person, and occasionally it can feel like I’m the odd duck in the corporate world. We all have unique backgrounds and voices, and there is nothing wrong with adding your own shine and sparkle into the profession. Even in the face of unpleasantries, it’s important that we stay true to our values, be humble and respectful expressing our views, while being our stupendous selves!

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
It’s great to ask a lot of questions and it’s okay to make mistakes. Questions help you understand both the technical and the business aspect of your work, and mistakes help you identify your blind spots. What’s truly important is that you learn from your mistakes, focus on your own growth, and grow into the professional that you aspire to be.

Why would you recommend a career in the insurance industry to current college students?
The concept of insurance has always been fascinating to me, since we rarely think about risks or fortuitous events when the days are good. It’s about thinking ahead, which can be a new and interesting concept. A career in insurance gives you more insight into such events and the strategies used to handle risks, allowing creative thinking and development of problem-solving skills. It could be both challenging and rewarding at the same time!

What can students do now to prepare for a career in the industry?
Speaking through the lens of an actuary, internships can offer significant insight and provide more specific context on the day-to-day work of an actuary. Connecting with fellow students in your major, sitting for exams, and going to networking events can also all be great opportunities!

Why did you decide to become an actuary?
One of my neighbors is an actuary and introduced me to the field in high school. I was always good at math but wanted a career in business – and his job as an actuary sounded like a perfect fit! As I learned more about the profession and built my actuarial network, I felt more and more at home.

What aspects of the field do you love?
I really enjoy the level of expertise that every actuary has in our industry and their willingness to share it with the broader actuarial community. No matter which actuary I’ve talked to, I have loved the ability to learn from their unique expertise and perspectives that they bring from their career. To be a recent addition to that community as a new associate of the class that hit 10,000 CAS members is rewarding, and I look forward to continuing to grow our actuarial community in the future.

What is the best career advice you have ever received?
Early on in my career I had a mentor share that it is important to be purposeful about making an impact in the activities and projects you commit to. I’ve taken that mindset on various projects, committees, and other initiatives both at work and as a volunteer with the CAS. I feel this mindset has helped me focus my efforts and really drive towards making an impact on everything that I do.

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
My advice to candidates and new members would be to build your network not only within the actuarial community, but also build your network with other professionals (non-actuaries) in the insurance space. My colleagues who are not actuaries bring a totally different perspective to problems we work together to solve – and this network has helped me understand where they are coming from and how we can amplify our impact on our organization.

Why would you recommend a career in the insurance industry to current college students?
The insurance industry has such a wide breadth of potential careers for you to pursue – and you are able to explore new things constantly! With my background as an actuary, I’ve built new cyber insurance products, evaluated unpaid claim reserves, advised underwriters on how to better assess risk, and a whole lot more! As you enter your career, be prepared to adapt and learn new things every day.

What can students do now to prepare for a career in the industry?
As you prepare to enter the industry – focus on learning about how macroeconomic / broader societal trends can affect the insurance industry. You could learn more about potential bias in pricing and rating plans, evaluate how climate change may impact the affordability and accessibility of insurance, or explore how Generative AI and other advanced analytical methodologies can transform the end-to-end insurance ecosystem. Learning about how these broader macroeconomic trends impact insurance will give you a broader understanding of the insurance sector and enable you to have conversations with insurance professionals of all backgrounds.