Capitalise on your analytical and communication skills in one of the UK's leading AIMS practices. You’ll deal with all sorts of issues affecting our clients' ability to manage risk.
Find out more about Actuarial & Insurance Management Solutions
Actuarial
What we do
AIMS works with the insurance industry. We advise a host of institutions and insurers on key topics like solvency, economic capital, underwriting, new legislation, the viability of new products and the efficiency of their claims processes.
Around 200 specialists provide life and non-life advisory services - making us the largest non-life actuarial consultancy in the UK. In total, we have around 900 retirement, benefits and actuarial services experts in 63 countries worldwide.
Globally, we've developed strategic and operational solutions to emerging issues, such as new solvency and regulatory regimes, the non-life insurance cycle downturn and improved claims function performance within insurers. We advise clients on traditional actuarial work like reserving, M&A and capital modelling. What’s more, we are the leading provider of support to companies implementing reporting mechanisms such as International Financial Reporting Standards and US GAAP.
Our Culture
Actuarial work is demanding. Your first few years will be intense, especially as you begin work towards your qualification. But the more committed you are, and the harder you work, the faster you will see the rewards.
You won't be tied to a desk. Client interaction is high and there will always be team and client meetings to prepare for and attend. The atmosphere is supportive – vital when you’re juggling your job with demanding studies. And as long as you complete your work, we’re flexible about when you take your study leave.
What you'll do
During your first few years, you'll split your time between office, clients and college, where you'll study for Institute of Actuaries (or Faculty of Actuaries) exams. You might work on insolvency cases where we've been appointed as liquidators; or revise business projections to make sure our clients have adequate reserves. Whatever the project, you'll capitalise on your analytical skills to deliver real commercial insights. Insights that will help our clients prepare for events you might see regularly on the news.
Choose to start in life insurance and you’ll focus on using mathematical models to identify trends within large data pools. A typical issue might be the fact that improvements in medical science mean we're living longer – directly impacting clients who supply financial products.
Opt for non-life and you might work on car and home insurance, or events as far-reaching as global warming and natural disasters - weighing up the odds of what might happen to help clients plan strategically.
Working in AIMS means spending time out of the office. Clients could be a few streets away or in another city so travel will be a big part of your working life. Projects typically last three to four weeks - so you'll enjoy plenty of variety.
Training & Development
Your training combines on-the-job coaching and formal courses with study for professional qualifications.
During your first few years, you'll divide your time between working in the office, visiting clients and studying to qualify as an Actuary with the Institute of Actuaries (or the Faculty of Actuaries). You start working towards this during your induction training and it's a hefty commitment, calling for a great deal of self-discipline and motivation.
You’ll benefit from:
- a structured induction programme that helps you pick up basic but vital technical and soft skills and gives you the chance to settle in and meet your new colleagues
- a competitive study package that includes both financial support and a mentor to guide you through the exams
- internal tutorials, often led by former examiners from the Actuarial Profession. These help reinforce certain aspects of the study material and give you the extra edge needed to perform well in your exams. While on average it takes five years to become a fully qualified actuary, we aim for our graduates to qualify in less than four
- a pay rise each time you pass an exam as a further incentive and to reward all your hard work
- practical experience of working with multi-disciplinary PwC practices such as Tax, Business Recovery or deal experts on a wide range of client projects. This develops your analytical, technical, communication, project management and networking skills while building your business awareness and industry knowledge.
Ultimately, however, your development is down to you. At every stage of your career, including coming up to qualification, we'll encourage you to identify your development needs and the training solutions that meet them. These incorporate secondment opportunities.
About you
Actuarial work is highly analytical and technical. And as many of our clients are in HR, finance or on the board, the terminology we use isn't something they're usually familiar with. That’s why we need people who can convey ideas and solutions to non-actuaries in plain English - making communication skills and good all-round commercial awareness both crucial.
Above all, you must be highly numerate as you'll be involved in complex financial calculations and modelling work.
You'll also need a 2.1 in any discipline plus 320 UCAS points (or equivalent), including an ‘A’ in Maths at A level.
If you love challenging yourself academically, and want to use your mathematical prowess in a business and commercial context, AIMS could be for you. Apply now to find out more.
Next Steps