Communication and Persuasion in the Actuarial Field

For those who have never heard of an actuary before: actuaries calculate and minimize the financial consequences of risk, using mathematics, statistics, finance, economics, and other areas dealing with risk management. Most actuaries work for insurance companies or large consulting firms. My interest in the actuarial field resides mostly in the consulting side of the industry, in which communication and persuasion skills are not just valuable but absolutely necessary in becoming a successful consulting actuary.

Consulting actuaries’ most common circumstance for communication will be with clients. Many of these interactions will be through email, phone, or even video calls for the lower level associate actuaries. For the partners or fellowship actuaries, a lot of travel and actual face to face contact with clients is necessary. These face to face interactions is where the persuasion takes place. It is here that the client really needs to feel like they can trust the firm that is analyzing their risk. It is the actuary’s job to persuade them that their company needs their risk minimized by the actuary’s specific consulting firm and why they aren't better off going to another actuarial consulting firm. This interaction between the head actuaries and the clients is at the heart of the business of consulting actuarial work. It is also important that not only skills of persuasion can be applied in these situations, but that clear communication, with respect to the clients understanding of analytical terms, is achieved. Without strong communication and persuasion skills it is harder to accomplish the goals of these personal interactions.

The actuarial field is very unique, especially the consulting side. It requires advanced analytical and interpersonal skills. Communication is mostly deliberative, but judicial and epideictic also play a role in actuarial profession. Those who can master both the required analytical skills, and these genres of communication can become very successful actuaries.

I became interested in becoming an actuary during my first semester of college after my LDS mission. I learned about what they did during a basic accounting class and it seemed to fit what I was looking for at the time. During my mission I saw the power of communication and business. This gave me a desire to find a career where I could combine my mathematical skills, with my growing communication and interpersonal skills. The actuarial field was a perfect fit!

The information I have shared today came from interacting with professionals in the industry, and others in information sessions and internship interviews for actuarial positions. This information is clearly valuable, and only increases my desire to continue pursuing this career path.