Finance · Updated 16 September 2026

Actuary salary and career roadmap

Price and reserve for risk using probability and statistics; pay rises with every exam passed, from about $70,000 with two exams to a $130,000 median and $215,100 at the 90th percentile.

Salary data checked · outlook from BLS projections released · by Bilal Tahir

$130,000 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)Median pay source
$141,480Mean pay source
$215,10090th percentile source
About $70,000 a yearMedian entry salary (1-2 exams) source
1,500Openings per year source
31,200Total US jobs source
9% (2025-35)10-year job growth source
44.7% (May 2026)Exam P pass rate source
What it is
A Actuary is a credentialed professional who prices and reserves for uncertain future events - death, illness, accidents, catastrophes and pension promises - using probability and financial mathematics, and who earns the credential by passing professional exams rather than by taking a degree.
Salary
A Actuary in the United States earns a median of $70,000 entering the field, $105,000 at mid-career and $160,000 at senior level; the top end is $215,100. (BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (SOC 15-2011 Actuaries), widened with the DW Simpson actuarial salary survey and Salary.com entry-level actuarial analyst data, )
Outlook
Employment is projected to grow 9% over the ten years to 2036, with about 1,500 US openings a year. (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 15-2011 Actuaries, )
Time to first job
A career changer starting from zero typically needs 9 to 15 months at 12-18 hours a week to reach a first offer.
Cost to get in
The cheapest verified route in (Internal transfer from an insurance or data role) costs about $600; the most expensive costs about $45,000.
Roadmap
Our Actuary roadmap is 10 steps and about 4,880 study hours; the fastest route in is Pass two exams, then apply cold at about 12 months.
Degree
A bachelor's degree in any quantitative subject is the practical floor and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics lists a bachelor's degree as the typical entry-level education for Actuaries, but no actuarial science major is required and employers screen on exams passed, not on the name of the degree.
Automation exposure
Low. Automation has absorbed the manual calculation and now does much of the model-fitting, which is why the Society of Actuaries added Exam PA and Exam ATPA in predictive analytics to the Associate pathway. What does not automate is the signature: statements of actuarial opinion on loss and life reserves must be signed by a qualified actuary under state insurance law and the Actuarial Standards of Practice, and that signature carries personal professional liability.

What does a Actuary do?

A Actuary is a credentialed professional who prices and reserves for uncertain future events - death, illness, accidents, catastrophes and pension promises - using probability and financial mathematics, and who earns the credential by passing professional exams rather than by taking a degree. An actuary puts a price on uncertain future events. The same work is also posted as Actuarial Analyst, Actuarial Student, Pricing Actuary, Reserving Actuary, Valuation Actuary.

An actuary puts a price on uncertain future events. In life and annuity work that means mortality, longevity and policyholder behavior; in property and casualty it means claim frequency and severity for auto, homeowners, workers' compensation and commercial lines; in health it means medical trend and risk adjustment; in pensions it means funding a promise decades out. The output is concrete: a rate filing, a reserve estimate on a balance sheet, an economic capital number, a valuation certificate signed by a credentialed actuary and relied on by a regulator.

The defining feature of the career is the exam system. There is no way in except through it, and there is no degree that substitutes for it. You sit for a sequence of professional exams administered by the Society of Actuaries (SOA, covering life, health, retirement and general insurance) or the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS, covering property and casualty), passing them one at a time over roughly six to ten years while working full time. Employers pay for the exams and study materials and give paid study hours - typically 80-120 hours per exam - and raise your salary each time you pass. That structure is unusually good for a career switcher: the credential is fully portable, entirely merit-based, and does not require a graduate degree or a particular alma mater.

Who thrives: people who are genuinely comfortable with probability and calculus, who can sustain a multi-year study habit while working, and who like being the person whose number has to be defensible. It is a quiet, technical, low-drama profession with excellent work-life balance outside of study time. The honest tradeoffs are that the exams are long and hard (Exam P passed 44.7% in May 2026, Exam FM 46.0% in June 2026), the field is small - only 31,200 jobs in the US - so entry-level competition is sharp, and the first job is genuinely the hardest part. Most people who quit do so after two or three failed sittings, not because the work is unpleasant.

Why Actuary pay is high

Insurance is a business of selling a promise today and finding out decades later whether the price was right. Get the assumptions wrong by a small margin and a large company becomes insolvent, which is why state insurance regulators require that reserve opinions and rate filings be signed by a credentialed actuary. That legal requirement creates inelastic demand for a very small pool of people: there are only about 31,200 actuaries in the United States, and each credential takes six to ten years of exams with roughly a 45% pass rate per sitting to earn. The result is a market where supply is throttled by an examination system that no amount of tuition can shortcut, while demand is mandated by statute and growing 9% over the decade. The exam ladder also makes the wage progression unusually legible - each pass triggers a raise, and attaining ASA/ACAS commonly triggers a 15-25% base increase.

What's good

  • Pay rises mechanically with exams passed - one of the clearest, most transparent compensation ladders in any profession.
  • Employers pay for exams, study materials and give 80-120 paid study hours per sitting, plus a cash bonus on each pass.
  • Excellent work-life balance outside of study time: 40-45 hour weeks are the norm in insurance roles.
  • 9% projected growth 2025-2035, much faster than average, with very low automation risk because the opinion requires a credentialed signature.
  • No graduate degree, no target school, no network required - the exams are the entire credential and they are blind.
  • Fully portable across employers, states and to a large degree across countries.
  • High median pay ($130,000) and a strong tail ($215,100 at the 90th percentile; FSAs commonly $220,000+).
  • Intellectually substantive work with a clear connection between your analysis and a real financial outcome.
  • Unusual job security: reserve opinions and rate filings are legally required regardless of the economic cycle.

What's hard

  • Six to ten years of exams while working full time, with pass rates around 45% per sitting - Exam P was 44.7% in May 2026.
  • The first job is genuinely hard to get: about 1,500 openings a year in a profession of only 31,200.
  • Your evenings and weekends belong to studying for the better part of a decade.
  • Failing a sitting costs three to six months and the fee, and repeated failure stalls promotions outright.
  • Small field means fewer employers, fewer cities and less leverage if you dislike your team.
  • The work is narrow. If you want variety of subject matter, this is the wrong profession.
  • Later exams are expensive: PA is $1,234, ATPA $1,255, FSA track exams $1,150 each - painful if self-funded.
  • BLS's 10th percentile of $78,570 understates the true entry point; expect roughly $70,000 with one to two exams.
  • Career progression stalls hard if you stop passing exams, regardless of how good your work is.

What a Actuary does all day

  • 8:30am: pull the month's paid-loss triangle from the data warehouse in SQL and check it against last month's for development anomalies.
  • 9:30am: reserving meeting - present the indicated reserve range for commercial auto and defend why you moved the tail factor.
  • 10:30am: rebuild a GLM in R for a homeowners rate revision, testing whether a new territory grouping improves lift without tripping a regulatory fairness concern.
  • 12:00pm: lunch. This is a 40-45 hour-a-week profession most of the year, and people actually take lunch.
  • 1:00pm: paid study time - two of the 100 hours your employer gives you for the next exam, sitting in a conference room working Adapt problems.
  • 3:00pm: work with underwriting on a large commercial account; they want to know what the loss cost looks like if the insured adds a $250,000 deductible.
  • 4:00pm: document assumptions in the model memo. Everything you do has to be reproducible by a reviewer and defensible to a regulator two years from now.
  • 5:00pm: leave. Genuinely - the hours are one of the profession's real advantages, and the tradeoff is that your evenings belong to exams for six to ten years.
  • Quarter-end instead: statutory reserve roll-forward, actuarial opinion support, and the analysis-of-change exhibit for the CFO.
  • In consulting: the same work but for four clients at once, with travel and 50-60 hour weeks in exchange for 10-25% more pay.

Actuary salary in 2026: by level

US, annual, USD. Base plus typical bonus where the source reports it.

A US Actuary earns a median of $70,000 entering the field, $105,000 at two to four years and $160,000 at senior level, with the top end at $215,100. These are total cash figures in US dollars as of August 2026, synthesised from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (SOC 15-2011 Actuaries), widened with the DW Simpson actuarial salary survey and Salary.com entry-level actuarial analyst data. Pay varies about 10-20% by metro.

BLS OEWS May 2025 for Actuaries (SOC 15-2011): mean $141,480, 10th percentile $78,570, 25th $97,680, median $130,000, 75th $170,650, 90th $215,100, on employment of 26,670 (BLS OOH reports 31,200 jobs for 2025 on a slightly broader basis). Note that the BLS 10th percentile of $78,570 is above the true entry point because the survey undercounts first- and second-year analysts still titled 'analyst' rather than 'actuary' - entry-level actuarial analysts with one to two exams average roughly $70,000-$71,000 (Salary.com and Payscale, August 2026), and $65,000-$85,000 is the common starting band. Pay is explicitly exam-driven: most employers pay a per-exam raise plus a cash bonus on each pass, and DW Simpson's salary survey data shows roughly $70,000 at entry with one to two exams, about $125,000 median at ASA with a top decile near $180,000, and about $220,000 median for a life/health FSA reaching roughly $400,000 at the top. Consulting (Milliman, Oliver Wyman, WTW, Mercer, Aon) pays 10-25% above insurance-company roles at the same credential level with longer hours. Geography is a modest factor: Hartford, New York, Chicago, Des Moines, Philadelphia and Columbus are the dense markets, and remote actuarial work is now common.

9%projected 10-year growth
1,500openings per year
lowautomation exposure

BLS projects 9% employment growth for actuaries from 2025 to 2035 - much faster than average - adding 2,900 jobs on a base of 31,200, with about 1,500 openings per year. Read those two numbers together: the growth rate is excellent but the absolute number of openings is tiny compared to accounting (115,300) or management analysis (94,100). This is a small, high-barrier profession, and the scarcity is exactly what sustains the pay. Automation risk is low. Machine learning has expanded what actuaries do - predictive modeling in pricing and underwriting is now core, which is why the SOA added Predictive Analytics (PA) and Advanced Topics in Predictive Analytics (ATPA) to the ASA pathway - but it has not displaced the credentialed signature. Statements of actuarial opinion on loss reserves and life reserves must be signed by a qualified actuary under state insurance law and the Actuarial Standards of Practice; an algorithm cannot take on that professional liability. Demand drivers beyond insurance include longevity risk in pensions, climate and catastrophe modeling in property lines, and healthcare cost trend.

“Employment of actuaries is projected to grow 9 percent from 2025 to 2035, much faster than the average for all occupations.”

— US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Actuaries, source,

Adjust for your city and level

Actuary salary by city

National bands scaled by metro wage differentials from the BLS May 2025 OEWS release.

Actuary pay is highest in San Jose / Silicon Valley (mid-career median about $149,100, ×1.42 the national figure) and lowest among large metros in Salt Lake City (about $99,750). The multiplier moves the offer, not what you keep after rent and state tax.

Actuary median pay by US metro, 2026, USD per year, derived from the national bands above.
MetroEntryMidSeniorvs national
San Jose / Silicon Valley$99,400$149,100$227,200×1.42
San Francisco Bay Area$94,500$141,750$216,000×1.35
New York City$89,600$134,400$204,800×1.28
Seattle$84,000$126,000$192,000×1.2
Boston$80,500$120,750$184,000×1.15
Washington DC metro$78,400$117,600$179,200×1.12
Los Angeles$75,600$113,400$172,800×1.08
Chicago$73,500$110,250$168,000×1.05
Austin$73,500$110,250$168,000×1.05
San Diego$72,800$109,200$166,400×1.04
Denver$71,400$107,100$163,200×1.02
Philadelphia$71,400$107,100$163,200×1.02
Dallas$70,000$105,000$160,000×1.0
Minneapolis$70,000$105,000$160,000×1.0
Raleigh-Durham$70,000$105,000$160,000×1.0
Houston$69,300$103,950$158,400×0.99
Atlanta$68,600$102,900$156,800×0.98
Phoenix$66,500$99,750$152,000×0.95
Miami$66,500$99,750$152,000×0.95
Salt Lake City$66,500$99,750$152,000×0.95

A multiplier raises the number on the offer letter, not what you keep. San Francisco pays about 35% more than the national median for these roles, but median Bay Area rent and California state income tax eat most of that for anyone below the senior rung. Texas, Florida, Washington, Tennessee and Nevada levy no state income tax, which is worth roughly 4-10% of take-home versus California or New York City, where city tax stacks on top of state tax. Run the comparison on after-tax income minus housing before you move. Fully remote roles are the edge case worth chasing: a national pay band spent in a 0.88 cost market beats a 1.35 salary spent in a 1.6 cost market for most people.

How the multipliers are derived

Anchor: the BLS May 2025 OEWS national mean wage across all occupations is $33.54/hr ($69,770/yr). Metro all-occupation means from the same release: San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara $57.32 (1.71x national), San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont $48.19 (1.44x), Washington-Arlington-Alexandria $44.20 (1.32x), Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue $44.13 (1.32x), Boston-Cambridge-Newton $43.09 (1.28x), New York-Newark-Jersey City $41.50 (1.24x), Denver-Aurora-Centennial $39.28 (1.17x), Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell $34.57 (1.03x), Chicago-Naperville-Elgin $34.42 (1.03x, May 2024), Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington $33.96 (1.01x), Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler $33.48 (1.00x). We damp the top end of those raw ratios. All-occupation means exaggerate the gap for the careers on this site, because national pay bands, remote hiring and company-wide equity grids compress geographic spread for high-skill professional roles more than they do for service and hourly work. Levels.fyi shows the same damping: its Bay Area software engineer average total compensation of about $291k sits roughly 1.3x-1.4x the US median, not 1.7x. Non-US multipliers convert local market rates to USD and are directional, not survey-grade.

How to become a Actuary

Every route we could verify, with honest time, cost and difficulty.

There are 5 routes we could verify into Actuary work. The fastest is Pass two exams, then apply cold at about 12 months; the cheapest is Internal transfer from an insurance or data role at about $600. Most career-changer hires come from one of two routes: passing Exam P and Exam FM and applying cold to actuarial analyst roles, or transferring internally from an underwriting, claims, finance or data seat at an insurer, which is the highest-probability route of all because the employer already knows you and starts paying for your exams the day you move.

Pass two exams, then apply cold

The standard switcher route and the only one that reliably works without an actuarial degree. Pass Exam P and Exam FM, put them at the top of your resume, and apply to entry-level actuarial analyst roles at insurers, consultancies and state insurance departments. Two exams plus a quantitative background is the de facto minimum screen; three exams makes you competitive. Total out of pocket: roughly $550 in exam fees plus $400-$1,200 in study materials.

12 months$2k cost

Internal transfer from an insurance or data role

If you already work at an insurer in underwriting, claims, finance, IT or data analytics, ask to move to the actuarial department. Companies routinely convert internal candidates with one or two exams because they already know the systems and the business. This is by far the highest-probability path if it is available to you, and the company usually starts paying for your exams the day you transfer.

12 months$600 cost

Quantitative master's or actuarial science program

A one-to-two-year MS in actuarial science, statistics or financial mathematics at a SOA Center of Actuarial Excellence gives you the VEE credits, exam preparation, a campus recruiting pipeline and an internship. Expensive ($25,000-$70,000) and unnecessary if you can pass exams on your own, but it solves the first-job problem, which is the hardest part.

20 months$45k cost

Actuarial-adjacent first job, then transfer in

Take a role as a pricing analyst, reserving analyst, risk analyst, catastrophe modeler or insurance data analyst - these hire more openly than actuarial student programs and sit next to the actuarial team. Pass exams from that seat and move across within 12-24 months. Slower but it gets you paid and inside the industry immediately.

18 months$1k cost

Government and public sector entry

State insurance departments, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Social Security Administration and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation hire actuarial students with fewer exams and are far more tolerant of nontraditional backgrounds. Pay is 15-30% below private industry, but they fund exams, give generous study time and provide credentialed supervision.

12 months$600 cost

Actuary roadmap: 10 steps, 4,880 hours

Turn it into dates ·

Becoming a Actuary from zero takes about 4,880 study hours across 10 steps, roughly 9 to 15 months at 12-18 hours a week plus a job search. Step one is Verify you have the math, and pick SOA or CAS. The roadmap puts calculus and probability revision before Exam P because the exam is calculus-based and a weak integration habit is the most common reason a first sitting fails, and it puts the job search at step four rather than at the end because once you are employed the company pays the $275-$1,255 exam fees, supplies the study materials and gives 80-120 paid study hours per sitting.

  1. 1

    Before committing, confirm you are solid on three semesters of calculus (including multivariable and improper integrals) and a semester of calculus-based probability. If you are not, fix that first - it is 80-120 hours of work, not a career change. Then choose your track: SOA covers life insurance, annuities, health, retirement and general insurance; CAS covers property and casualty exclusively. The first two exams (P and FM) are jointly administered and count for both, so the decision can wait until exam three - but not longer.

    Why now: Exam P is a calculus-based probability exam with a 44.7% pass rate (May 2026) and it does not forgive weak integration skills. Candidates who try to learn calculus and probability simultaneously from an Exam P study manual almost always fail the first sitting, lose $275 and three months, and a meaningful share quit there. The SOA/CAS choice matters because the tracks diverge completely after FM and switching later costs a year.

    110 h this step110 h cumulative
  2. 2

    Three hours, 30 multiple-choice questions, calculus-based probability: general probability, univariate and multivariate random variables, common distributions, moment generating functions, conditional and marginal distributions, and basic risk-management concepts. Fee $275. Offered roughly every two months (recent sittings: January, March, May, July, September, November).

    Why now: This is the gate. Pass rates have run 43-49% across the last eight sittings (44.7% in May 2026 on 1,952 candidates), and the failure mode is almost never conceptual - it is speed. Six minutes per question means you must recognize the setup instantly, not derive it. Work 700-1,000 practice problems under time, not 300. Employers treat P as the minimum credible signal that you are serious; a resume with zero exams is not screened into an actuarial role.

    300 h this step410 h cumulative
  3. 3

    Three hours, 30 multiple-choice questions: time value of money, annuities, loans, bonds, general cash flows and portfolios, immunization, duration and convexity, and an introduction to derivatives. Fee $275. Offered roughly every two months (recent sittings: October, December, February, April, June).

    Why now: FM is the second half of the entry ticket and is more mechanical than P - the concepts are fewer and the arithmetic is heavier, so the BA II Plus keystrokes matter enormously. Pass rates have run 42-49% recently (46.0% in June 2026 on 2,132 candidates). Two exams is the practical minimum for an entry-level actuarial analyst application; three makes you clearly competitive. Take FM within four months of P so the study habit does not break.

    250 h this step660 h cumulative
  4. 4

    With two exams in hand, apply to actuarial analyst and actuarial student roles at insurers (Progressive, State Farm, Liberty Mutual, MassMutual, Northwestern Mutual, Allstate, Cigna, Elevance), consultancies (Milliman, Oliver Wyman, WTW, Mercer, Aon), reinsurers, state insurance departments, CMS and the PBGC. Apply to 60-100 roles, not 10. Attend a local actuarial club meeting. Recruiters who specialize in this market (DW Simpson, Actuarial Careers, Pryor Associates) will place candidates with two exams.

    Why now: Everything downstream depends on this: once inside, your employer pays for exams, study materials and gives 80-120 paid study hours per exam, and every subsequent pass triggers a raise. Outside, you are self-funding $275-$1,255 per exam with no study time. There are only about 1,500 openings a year in a profession of 31,200, so the entry funnel is narrow - but candidates with two exams and any quantitative work history do get hired, and government and small-insurer roles are much easier entries than the big rotational programs.

    120 h this step780 h cumulative
  5. 5

    Get Validation by Educational Experience credit in three topics - Mathematical Statistics, Economics, and Accounting and Finance - by completing approved coursework (community college, an approved online provider, or an SOA-approved online course) at a sufficient grade, then pay $92 per topic to have the credit applied. Also complete the Pre-Actuarial Foundations and Actuarial Science Foundations modules at $224 each.

    Why now: VEE is not an exam and carries no failure risk, so it is pure schedule risk: candidates routinely finish six exams and then discover they cannot be awarded ASA because a VEE topic is outstanding. Do it in parallel with exam study, ideally during a sitting you are not preparing for. If you already have a bachelor's degree, check your transcript first - existing economics, statistics and accounting courses often qualify with no new work at all.

    200 h this step980 h cumulative
  6. 6

    Exam FAM (Fundamentals of Actuarial Mathematics, $408, $326 student rate) covers short-term and long-term insurance coverages, severity and frequency models, parametric estimation, credibility, survival models, life insurance and annuity valuation, and reserves. Exam SRM (Statistics for Risk Modeling, $357, $286 student rate) covers regression, generalized linear models, time series, principal components, decision trees and cluster analysis.

    Why now: This is where the exams stop being pure mathematics and start being the actual job. FAM is the first exam that maps directly onto reserving and valuation work, and its pass rate is friendlier than P and FM (60.6% in February 2026, 57.0% in July 2025). SRM is the on-ramp to the predictive analytics half of the modern pathway and pays immediate dividends at work. Expect roughly 350-400 hours each, spread over five to six months per exam, using the 80-120 paid study hours your employer provides plus evenings.

    700 h this step1,680 h cumulative
  7. 7

    Choose ALTAM (Advanced Long-Term Actuarial Mathematics - life, annuity and pension valuation) or ASTAM (Advanced Short-Term Actuarial Mathematics - property, casualty and health loss models), each $500 ($400 student rate). Then Exam PA (Predictive Analytics, $1,234), a project-based exam delivered in R, and ATPA (Advanced Topics in Predictive Analytics, $1,255).

    Why now: ALTAM/ASTAM is the choice that determines your practice area for the rest of your career, so make it deliberately based on the work you are actually doing. PA and ATPA are different animals from every exam before them: they are open-ended modeling projects graded on written analysis rather than multiple-choice, so the skill being tested is whether you can build a defensible model and explain it. They are also the most expensive components in the ASA pathway at $1,234 and $1,255, which is another reason to be employed before you reach them.

    800 h this step2,480 h cumulative
  8. 8

    Complete the Fundamentals of Actuarial Practice (FAP) e-learning course - eight modules with two written assessments, $551 for the modules and $1,316 for the Final Assessment - then attend the Associateship Professionalism Course (APC), $658 virtual or $847 in person. With all exams, VEE topics and modules complete, you are awarded ASA.

    Why now: The ASA is the credential that changes your compensation bracket: DW Simpson data puts ASA median total compensation around $125,000 with a top decile near $180,000, and attaining ASA or ACAS commonly triggers a 15-25% base salary increase on its own. FAP is not conceptually hard but it is long and it is the component people postpone indefinitely; the Final Assessment in particular is a multi-week written project. Start FAP modules in parallel with your later exams rather than saving them for the end.

    300 h this step2,780 h cumulative
  9. 9

    For the SOA, pick one of six FSA tracks - Corporate Finance and ERM (CFE), Investment (INV), Individual Life and Annuities (ILA), Retirement Benefits (RET), Group and Health (GH), or General Insurance (GI) - and take its exams at $1,150 each, plus the Decision-Making and Communications module ($337), the Enterprise Risk Management module ($337) and the Fellowship Admissions Course. For CAS, take Exams 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 at $850 each ($680 student rate) to ACAS and FCAS.

    Why now: Fellowship roughly doubles compensation: DW Simpson data puts a life/health FSA at about $220,000 median reaching roughly $400,000 at the top, against about $125,000 at ASA. It is also a prerequisite for signing a statement of actuarial opinion in most contexts, which is what makes you a chief actuary rather than a senior analyst. Be realistic about the difficulty: CAS Exam 7 passed only 23.7% in Spring 2026 and Exam 5 fell 9.6 points to 38.3%, so plan for retakes and expect three to five more years.

    1,800 h this step4,580 h cumulative
  10. 10

    Move beyond Excel: get production-grade in R or Python, learn SQL well enough to pull and validate your own policy and claims data, and get hands-on with the valuation or pricing platform your company runs (Prophet, AXIS, Arius, Earnix). In parallel, deliberately practice presenting a model's assumptions and limitations to non-actuaries - to underwriting, to a CFO, to a regulator.

    Why now: Past the FSA or FCAS, exams stop differentiating people and two things take over: whether you can build and validate a model that other people trust, and whether you can explain it to someone who will make a decision with it. The gap between the BLS median ($130,000) and 90th percentile ($215,100) and the further jump to chief actuary is almost entirely about the second skill. Technically excellent actuaries who cannot present plateau at senior-analyst level for a decade.

    300 h this step4,880 h cumulative

Best certifications for a Actuary

Which ones matter, what they cost, and how often people pass.

The Society of Actuaries or Casualty Actuarial Society exams are not optional: the credential is the only way into the profession, and there is no degree that substitutes for it. Exam P and Exam FM cost $275 each at 2026 Society of Actuaries rates and are the two that actually decide whether you get interviewed; a full Associate of the Society of Actuaries pathway runs roughly $7,400 to $7,800 in first-pass fees and $9,000 to $12,000 with retakes, almost all of it employer-paid once you are hired. The Validation by Educational Experience credits at $92 per topic are administrative rather than a credential, but candidates routinely finish six exams and then stall because a Validation by Educational Experience topic is outstanding.

Required

Associate of the Society of Actuaries (ASA)

Society of Actuaries (SOA)

Cost
Exams and modules at 2026 SOA rates (effective 16 December 2025): P $275, FM $275, FAM $408, SRM $357, ALTAM or ASTAM $500, PA $1,234, ATPA $1,255, Pre-Actuarial Foundations module $224, Actuarial Science Foundations module $224, VEE credit $92 per topic (three topics), FAP modules/assessments $551, FAP Final Assessment $1,316, APC $658 virtual or $847 in person. First-pass total roughly $7,400-$7,800; realistically $9,000-$12,000 with retakes. Employers pay almost all of it.
Study
1,800-2,500 hours of study across all components; 4-6 years elapsed for most candidates
Pass rate
Per sitting: Exam P 44.7% (May 2026), Exam FM 46.0% (June 2026), Exam FAM 60.6% (February 2026)
high value

Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA)

Society of Actuaries (SOA)

Cost
On top of the ASA: FSA practice-area exams (CFE, INV, ILA, RET, GH, GI tracks) at $1,150 each, Decision-Making and Communications module $337, Enterprise Risk Management module $337, plus the Fellowship Admissions Course. Roughly $5,000-$8,000 more, again almost always employer-paid.
Study
1,500-2,000 additional hours; 3-5 more years
Pass rate
Roughly 40-60% per fellowship exam depending on track and sitting
high value

Associate / Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society (ACAS / FCAS)

Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS)

Cost
Exams 5, 6 (Canada/International/US), 7, 8 and 9 are $850 each ($680 full-time student rate), on top of the jointly administered preliminary exams and MAS-I/MAS-II. Total from Exam 1 through FCAS, assuming first-time passes, is roughly $6,500-$7,000.
Study
2,000-3,000 hours to ACAS; 3,500-5,000 to FCAS; 6-10 years
Pass rate
Highly variable by sitting: CAS Exam 5 fell 9.6 points to 38.3% in Spring 2026; Exam 7 hit a record-low 23.7% in Spring 2026
Required

Validation by Educational Experience (VEE): Mathematical Statistics, Economics, Accounting and Finance

SOA / CAS (jointly administered)

Cost
$92 per topic to have credit applied, plus the cost of the approved coursework itself (a community college or approved online course typically $300-$1,500 per subject)
Study
120-150 hours per topic if taken as coursework
Pass rate
Not an exam - credit is granted for approved coursework at a sufficient grade

Skills employers screen for

Probability: distributions, moment generating functions, conditional expectation, order statistics (Exam P content)Financial mathematics: annuities, bond pricing, duration, immunization, interest rate swaps (Exam FM content)Life contingencies: survival models, life annuities, life insurance reserves, multi-state modelsShort-term insurance mathematics: loss models, severity and frequency distributions, credibility theoryLoss reserving methods: chain ladder, Bornhuetter-Ferguson, Cape CodRatemaking: pure premium and loss ratio methods, classification, territorial relativitiesStatistical and predictive modeling: GLMs, penalized regression, decision trees, gradient boostingStatutory and GAAP insurance accounting; economic capital and solvency frameworksStochastic modeling and Monte Carlo simulationActuarial Standards of Practice (ASOPs) and the statement of actuarial opinionR (the SOA's Predictive Analytics exam is administered in R)Python (pandas, scikit-learn, statsmodels)Excel and VBA (still the daily workhorse in most actuarial departments)SQL for policy and claims data extractionProphet, AXIS, MG-ALFA or GGY ALFA (life and annuity valuation platforms)Arius, ResQ or Milliman Reserve Analysis (P&C reserving)Earnix, Radar or Emblem (pricing and GLM ratemaking)Coaching Actuaries Adapt (exam practice)Power BI or Tableau for reporting

Soft skills that decide offers: Multi-year study discipline while working full time - the single strongest predictor of who credentials, Explaining a model's assumptions and limitations to underwriters, regulators and executives, Technical writing: memos and opinions that a reviewer and a regulator will read years later, Precision and intellectual honesty about uncertainty, Resilience after a failed sitting (most credentialed actuaries have failed at least one exam), Collaboration with underwriting, claims, finance and IT.

Best courses for a Actuary

Checked on the provider's page on 16 September 2026. Some links are affiliate links.

We list 5 courses for Actuary work, checked on the provider's page. Use one structured probability course to rebuild the mathematics - the MITx probability course or the University of Wisconsin actuarial science professional certificate on edX, both free to audit - and then spend the real money on a timed question bank such as Coaching Actuaries Adapt at about $195 for 180 days of practice access, because Exam P and Exam FM are won on speed at 700 to 1,000 worked problems, not on watching lectures.

Coursera · Johns Hopkins University Data Science Specialization 287 h · Included in Coursera Plus ($59/mo or $399/yr); free to audit individual courses · ★ 4.5 The most statistically rigorous of the big data science programs; take it if you want to be able to defend your model choices, not just call .fit(). Coursera · University of Michigan Statistics with Python Specialization 57 h · Included in Coursera Plus ($59/mo or $399/yr); paid enrollment required · ★ 4.6 The cheapest way to fix the statistics gap that sinks most bootcamp graduates in data science and actuarial interviews. Coursera · Imperial College London Mathematics for Machine Learning Specialization 58 h · Included in Coursera Plus ($59/mo or $399/yr); free to enroll · ★ 4.6 The prerequisite everyone skips: three courses that make the notation in every ML and quant paper readable instead of intimidating. Coursera · Columbia University Financial Engineering and Risk Management Specialization 90 h · Included in Coursera Plus ($59/mo or $399/yr); financial aid available · ★ 4.6 The closest thing to an MFE curriculum on an open platform: real derivatives pricing and model calibration, not a survey course. other · Coaching Actuaries Coaching Actuaries Exam P (Probability) ADAPT Practice (ADAPT only) $195 for 180 days with Pass Guarantee; Learn Complete + Practice $618 for 180 days; free trial available ADAPT's earned-level system tells you, numerically, when you are ready to sit Exam P, and the 180-day tiers include a pass guarantee renewal.

Browse more Actuary courses on Coursera Coursera Plus covers most of the courses above for one monthly fee.

Actuary interview questions and format

An Actuary hiring loop is typically four stages over four to eight weeks: a recruiter screen that counts exams passed, a technical phone screen on probability and financial mathematics with sometimes an Excel or SQL exercise, a case or modeling exercise, and a final round of three to five behavioral interviews with actuaries and a hiring manager. The stage that filters most candidates is the first one, because a resume with zero exam passes is not screened into an actuarial role at all.

Entry-level actuarial hiring is exam-gated first: a recruiter screens for how many exams you have passed and whether your transcript shows the math. Then typically a technical phone screen (probability and financial mathematics questions, sometimes an Excel or SQL exercise), a case or modeling exercise, and a final round of three to five behavioral interviews with actuaries and a hiring manager. Large insurers run structured rotational-program interviews with a heavy behavioral component; consultancies add a client-communication component and sometimes a written exercise. Expect explicit questions about your exam plan - which exam next, which sitting, how many hours a week - because the employer is buying a multi-year study commitment, not just this year's work.

Questions that come up

  • How many exams have you passed, which sitting, and what is your plan for the next one?
  • Why actuarial work rather than data science, and why are you switching careers now?
  • Explain the difference between frequency and severity and why we model them separately.
  • What is the law of total expectation and where would you use it in pricing?
  • How would you explain a confidence interval to an underwriter who has never taken statistics?
  • Walk me through the chain-ladder method for estimating loss reserves.
  • Why is a generalized linear model preferred over ordinary least squares for claim frequency?
  • A block of business is running 15% above expected loss ratio. How would you investigate?
  • What is adverse selection and how does product design mitigate it?
  • Tell me about a time you found an error in your own analysis after you had presented it.
  • You have 100 study hours and a sitting in ten weeks. How do you allocate them?
  • Walk me through a model you built. What did you assume, and where was it most likely wrong?

Prep

Actuary FAQ

Do I need an actuarial science degree to become an Actuary in 2026?

No. Employers hire on exams passed, not on major. Mathematics, statistics, economics, physics, engineering and computer science backgrounds are all common, and career switchers from data analysis, teaching and engineering get hired regularly. What you do need is calculus through multivariable integration and calculus-based probability, because Exam P assumes both. An actuarial science degree helps only in that it packages the VEE credits and gives you campus recruiting access - both of which you can replicate on your own.

How many actuarial exams do I need to pass before I can get hired?

Two is the practical minimum - Exam P and Exam FM - and three makes you clearly competitive. Below two exams you will generally not clear the resume screen for an actuarial analyst role. Above four, employers sometimes worry that you are over-credentialed for an entry salary. The sweet spot for a switcher is two or three exams plus demonstrable Excel and SQL skill and any quantitative work history.

What does the whole Actuary credentialing process cost in 2026, including exams and study materials?

At 2026 SOA rates (effective 16 December 2025), a first-pass ASA is roughly $7,400-$7,800 in fees: P $275, FM $275, FAM $408, SRM $357, ALTAM or ASTAM $500, PA $1,234, ATPA $1,255, PAF and ASF modules $224 each, three VEE credits at $92, FAP modules $551, FAP Final Assessment $1,316, and the APC at $658 virtual or $847 in person. Retakes push the realistic figure to $9,000-$12,000. FSA adds $1,150 per track exam plus $337 each for the DMAC and ERM modules. The CAS route runs roughly $6,500-$7,000 from Exam 1 through FCAS with Exams 5-9 at $850 each. Add $400-$1,200 per exam for study materials. The critical point: employers pay nearly all of this once you are hired, which is why the first two exams are the only ones you should expect to self-fund.

Should I choose the Society of Actuaries or the Casualty Actuarial Society exam track?

SOA covers life insurance, annuities, health, retirement and general insurance; CAS covers property and casualty exclusively (auto, home, workers' comp, commercial lines, catastrophe). Exams P and FM are jointly administered and count for both, so you can defer the decision until exam three but not longer, because the tracks diverge completely afterward. Practical guidance: CAS work is more statistical and modeling-heavy with faster feedback loops; SOA work is more valuation- and product-oriented with longer time horizons. SOA is the larger pathway with more employers; CAS credentials carry a slight pay premium in some markets. Choose based on the jobs actually available in your city.

How long does it take to become a fully credentialed Actuary while working full time?

Roughly one year to pass P and FM and land a first job, four to six years to ASA or ACAS, and three to five more to FSA or FCAS - so six to ten years to fellowship. You are employed and earning a rising salary for almost all of it. Most candidates pass two exams a year once employed, because the employer's 80-120 paid study hours per exam plus evenings is about what one sitting demands.

What are actuarial exam pass rates actually like for Exam P and Exam FM?

Around 45% per sitting on the preliminary exams and lower on some advanced ones. Recent figures: Exam P 44.7% in May 2026, 46.2% in March 2026, 49.2% in January 2026; Exam FM 46.0% in June 2026, 48.8% in April 2026; Exam FAM 60.6% in February 2026, 57.0% in July 2025. On the CAS side, Exam 5 fell 9.6 points to 38.3% in Spring 2026 and Exam 7 hit a record-low 23.7%. These are not weeded-out populations - the people sitting are already self-selected and prepared. Plan for at least one retake somewhere in the sequence and do not treat it as a signal to quit.

Will AI replace Actuaries, and is the exam path still worth starting in 2026?

No, and it is already making the job more interesting. Machine learning expanded what actuaries do - predictive modeling in pricing and underwriting is now core, which is exactly why the SOA added Exam PA and ATPA to the ASA pathway. What cannot be automated is the professional opinion: statements of actuarial opinion on loss and life reserves must be signed by a qualified actuary under state insurance law and the Actuarial Standards of Practice, and that signature carries personal professional liability. BLS rates automation risk here as low and projects 9% growth. Expect to spend more of your career building and validating models and less doing manual calculation.

Is Actuary a good career for someone switching at 35 or 40?

Yes, and people do it every year. The exams are age-blind and employers care only about passes. The real constraints are financial and temporal: you will likely take a pay cut into a roughly $70,000 entry-level analyst role, and you will spend six to ten years studying in your evenings. If you can absorb both, the credential is one of the most reliable high-income paths available without a graduate degree. The people who fail at this switch almost always fail on the study habit, not on the mathematics.

What should I do if I cannot get an actuarial job after passing two exams?

Take an adjacent seat and move in laterally. Pricing analyst, reserving analyst, insurance data analyst, risk analyst, catastrophe modeler and underwriting analyst roles hire much more openly and sit next to the actuarial department; internal transfers with two or three exams are routine within 12-24 months. Government employers - state insurance departments, CMS, the Social Security Administration and the PBGC - hire actuarial students with fewer exams and more tolerance for nontraditional backgrounds, at 15-30% below private pay but with excellent exam support. Also widen geographically: Hartford, Des Moines, Columbus, Philadelphia and Chicago have far more entry seats than coastal tech metros.

What does an Actuary actually do all day at an insurance company?

Mostly data work, meetings about numbers, and study time. A typical day starts with pulling the month's paid-loss triangle in SQL and checking it against last month for development anomalies, then a reserving meeting where you defend the indicated reserve range, then rebuilding a generalized linear model in R for a rate revision. Afternoons bring underwriting questions, model documentation that a regulator could read two years from now, and two hours of the 80 to 120 paid study hours your employer gives you per exam sitting. Insurance-company hours are 40 to 45 a week; consulting runs 50 to 60 for 10 to 25 percent more pay.

Actuary versus Data Scientist: what is the real difference between the two careers?

The difference is the credential and the legal liability, not the mathematics. Both model uncertainty from data, and the Society of Actuaries now examines predictive analytics in R on the Associate pathway. But an Actuary needs six to ten years of exams to sign a statement of actuarial opinion, which state insurance law requires, while a Data Scientist has no gate at all. That shows up in the numbers: the BLS median for Actuaries is $130,000 a year against 31,200 US jobs and 9 percent projected growth to 2035, while Data Scientists are a far larger and faster-growing occupation with no protected scope of practice and much more volatile hiring.

How much does an Actuary make in New York City versus the national median?

Expect roughly 10 to 20 percent above the national figure in New York City, which is less of a premium than most professions get. The BLS national median for Actuaries is $130,000 a year, so a New York City median lands around $145,000 to $156,000, and an entry-level analyst with two exams at about $70,000 nationally lands near $78,000 to $84,000. The reason the spread is narrow is that pay here is set by exam count on a published internal schedule rather than by local bidding, and remote actuarial work is now common. Hartford, Des Moines, Columbus and Philadelphia have more entry seats per capita than New York City does.

Sources

Every number on this page traces to one of these. Page checked 16 September 2026.

  1. bls.gov/oes/current/oes152011.htm
  2. bls.gov/ooh/math/actuaries.htm
  3. soa.org/education/exam-req/edu-asa-req/
  4. soa.org/education/exam-req/syllabus-study-materials/exam-and-module-fees/
  5. soa.org/education/exam-req/syllabus-study-materials/exam-and-module-fees/student-fees/
  6. casact.org/exams-admissions/exams/exam-fees
  7. actuarial-lookup.com/exams/p
  8. actuarial-lookup.com/exams/fm
  9. actuarial-lookup.com/exams/fam
  10. actuary.info/exam-pass-rates/
  11. actuary.info/insights/cas-exam-pathway-2026-complete-guide
  12. coachingactuaries.com/exam-p/pricing
  13. dwsimpson.com/about/salary-survey/
  14. salary.com/research/salary/position/entry-level-actuarial-analyst-salary
  15. edx.org/certificates/professional-certificate/wisconsinx-actuarial-science-financial-math-and-probability
  16. edx.org/learn/probability/massachusetts-institute-of-technology-probability-the-science-of-uncertainty-and-data