On the Road with the CAS President: My Visit to DePaul University

CAS President Brian Brown writes about his visit to DePaul University, highlighting questions and topics that came up during his presentation to the actuarial club.

I recently spoke at DePaul University located in the heart of Chicago, and host to the High School Actuarial Day event discussed in a recent LinkedIn update. DePaul is very involved with local high schools, and was a great help in recruiting students to attend the event. DePaul also has a summer program for talented high schools students. These fortunate students spend a week living and going to class on DePaul’s campus to learn about the actuarial profession.

The audience for my talk was the DePaul University Actuarial Club, and the event was organized by its president, Michaela Fossberg, who volunteered and spoke at High School Actuarial Day. Below is a picture of Michaela and me along with many of the other speakers at the Actuarial Day for High School Students.

I spoke to the actuarial club about the CAS’s impressive membership growth rate of between 6% and 8% over the last several years. This clearly implies that employers are valuing the CAS credential. I also spoke about different types of actuarial jobs, the exam process and the CAS Student Central program and resources.

I answered a number of questions on why I chose the casualty profession and what area of actuarial work is in highest demand. I said I chose casualty work as it appeared more statistically oriented and I always loved statistics; additionally I found all of the different types of casualty coverages very interesting. Based on our growth rates, casualty members are in high demand. I also mentioned that based on my general knowledge, health actuaries are also in high demand.

Several students were interested and intrigued by the use of telematics in auto insurance. They thought that this type of information will dramatically change auto insurance products and pricing. I think they are correct.

We had an extended discussion on the number of employers in Chicago that hire actuaries. Chicago actually has over 70 companies that employ actuaries. Allstate and CNA are well known but there are also several large companies that have regional offices and several small and medium size companies. The attached exhibit displays a list of companies that employ actuaries in Chicago.

I appreciate DePaul’s strong support of the actuarial profession and their support for the High School day in Chicago, and I enjoyed speaking with their students. Thank you, DePaul.