The Seattle Times has run a profile of the actuarial profession, centered around an interview with Margaret Meister, FSA, CFO of Symetra. Here’s a sample:
As chief financial officer, executive vice president and chief actuary at Symetra Financial, Meister oversees a 50-member actuary team that handles a $20 billion investment portfolio. But Meister dispels any myth that their job requires her peers to “eat, sleep and breathe numbers,” as she put it.
“I think people sometimes instinctively associate insurance with just a car or homeowners policy,” she says.
But today’s actuaries are responsible for a “much broader set of financial services — things like retirement income, 401(k) plans and wealth protection,” she said. “We provide the sort of financial services that are integral to peoples’ lives. Plus, ours is a trillion-dollar industry worldwide, so there is a lot of upside potential for smart, aspiring math whizzes out there.”