When you're buying insurance and you find you have to pay a higher rate because of your age, sex or whether you smoke, you can thank, or blame, an actuary for the numbers you see on paper.

More information Society of Actuaries 475 N. Martingale Road Suite 800 Schaumburg, Ill. 60173-2226 (847) 706-3500 Casualty Actuarial Society 1100 N. Glebe Road Suite 600 Arlington, Va. 22201-0425 (703) 276-3100

Actuaries' calculations and projections of future risks and events like births, marriage, retirement, accidental injury and even death, are the basis of the insurance and financial security industries. They also set insurance prices and determine the amount of reserves needed by those companies.

Nearly 80 percent of the 16,411 actuaries in the United States and Canada at the end of 1997 worked for insurance companies and consulting firms. However, "a growing number of actuaries are now working for banks and investment advisers,'' says Linda Heacox of the Society of Actuaries.

Educational background should include a bachelor's degree with not only a strong mathematics and business curriculum, but other subjects such as economics, finance and liberal arts.

Many firms also expect new hires to have highly advanced computer skills as well,'' says Heacox. "Not just knowing spreadsheets, but to be able to write a little code, too.''

Actuaries can receive professional designations by passing a series of tests administered by the Society of Actuaries or the Casualty Actuarial Society. To be hired, prospective actuaries are expected to have completed one or two of these tests. The first test is purely math, testing in areas such as calculus and linear algebra.

Most achieve the "associate'' designation in three to five years following seven such examinations.

The highest professional designation, Fellow, requires several years of work experience and completion of 10 exams. Requirements to receive the designation differ for the SOA and CAS. During the testing process,

Figures from the National Association of Colleges and Employers indicate that starting salaries for actuaries average $36,000. The overall average actuary salary is around $70,000 with the most experienced actuaries making $100,000 per year.

Slower growth and mergers in the insurance industry will make the competition for actuary jobs tougher than for most careers through 2005 according to the 1996-97 edition of the Occupational Outlook Handbook.