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I support this post. What I’m highlighting here is the inherent problem with exams as a “value differentiator”. The exam process itself serves two things: as a way to limit the pool of applicants, and as a way to fund several ancillary activities of the SOA/CAS.
The fact that actuaries are highly-paid for their work and that they take a load of exams to be “fully qualified” are correlational, not causational.
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What is this gold mine of a career path?
Also, Tiffany already has two f’s, one more f doesn’t buy happiness. No one on their death bed ever said “I should a been an F”.
I’m an F and respect your decision, it is your life to live.
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Go ahead.
It’s not that big of a deal.
We will still love you no matter how you identify yourself as.
And you can apply to get them back should the need arise.
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What all is involved in this? I was thinking maybe some or all of the back dues plus a year or two of CE? Is my recollection correct? Anyone actually done this? Just curious.
No idea. I’m pretty sure it’s not all that difficult, in that the SOA or others will be appreciative of the $500+ in dues. She might not be able to sign SOP’s immediately, but there will be a process.
I let my credentials lapse while I pursued a non-actuarial freelance writing career for a couple of years. After I decided to return, I had to pay some back dues. The continuing education credits I couldn’t back-date, so for the first year I was listed in the directory as “ce non-compliant” or whatever their designation is.
Didn’t affect my actual employment status in the least.
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based on Bro’s confirmation of ease of re-entry (if needed) I’d be more agreeable to drop them if I were @Tiffany .
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Similar experience. I dropped ASA and MAAA for a little over 2 years. I can’t remember if I paid 2 years of back dues + current year or 2 years total. It may have differed between SOA and AAA. Plus I needed 30 hours of CE before I could issue an SAO for that year plus 30 hours to be qualified to issue SAOs for the following year.
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Couldn’t you just do the CE and then be compliant?
You can be compliant but I’m pretty sure the attestation only occurs once per year.
Oh, so you can sign SAOs but the directory will look like you can’t?
I assumed that you could change your attestation from non-compliant to compliant, but I’ve never actually tried.
The attestation is for a 2 year period, in arrears. IMO, getting up-to-date on your CE in early 2023 (to issue SAOs for the rest of 2023) does nothing to change your compliance status for 2021 or 2022. But it looks like you can change your CPD status pretty easily in your profile.
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I don’t see this as remotely rare. I’m not sure the area you work in, but in all the commercial/specialty roles I have had, career ACAS was pretty common. I have seen this with people in very senior positions. Not to mention isn’t Brian Duperreault an ACAS? Generally career ACAS has been seen as roughly equivalent to FCAS if you have experience (not quite equal for younger folks) in terms of career opportunity. I know there are certain companies that put outsized weight on exams and getting your FCAS but I figured that was only a few specific large employers.
I’ve seen fewer ASAs in senior positions but that is probably because I work in P&C and so know fewer ASAs. My impression was always that it was a shorter process to get ASA than ACAS, and many people got ASA relatively young, so it had a bit less respect than ACAS in terms of signifying knowledge and experience.
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That somewhat aligns with my observation. There are a lot of career ACASes, but it might not seem like it from some viewpoints because (and this varies by actuary or company) we tend to land in specialty positions or non-actuarial positions.
At large carriers and (I assume) large consulting practices, presumably the mainstream bread-and-butter actuarial silos are FCAS-heavy, which might give observers a biased view on the state of the world. That could be a result of company culture or it could be a case of ACASes having found themselves in less-actuarial positions, or positions that weren’t conducive to study time.
Part of the reason I stopped taking exams after Associateship was I was in a position that I enjoyed, but was sufficiently demanding that I stressed over not being able to take time to study. Then my career took me into specialty work, and more recently into risk management. I wish I had my FCAS…but not enough to cut back on work and family activities to find time to grind through study material.
There are a couple of insurer CEOs who are career associates. However, I suspect that their stories involve moving out of pure “actuarial” roles, thereby making pursuit of fellowship less relevant to their career trajectories. (At least one is more of a “finance guy” than an actuary, despite having ACAS.)
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