SOA or CAS?

The Society of Actuaries (SOA) and the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS) are the two primary professional organizations in North America for actuaries, but they have distinct focuses and credentialing pathways.

Area of Specialization

SOA

  • Primarily focuses on life insurance, health insurance, pensions, investments, and enterprise risk management.

  • It offers credentials for actuaries working in life and health insurance companies, pension consulting, and financial risk management.

Credentialing Paths

SOA

  • ASA (Associate of the Society of Actuaries)

  • FSA (Fellow of the Society of Actuaries) with different tracks such as Life, Health, Retirement, and Risk Management.

  • CERA (Chartered Enterprise Risk Analyst) for risk management professionals.

Exam Structure

SOA

  • Has a broader set of pathways after the preliminary exams.

  • Includes specialized modules and Validation by Educational Experience (VEE) credits.

  • Emphasizes more financial mathematics and long-term insurance modeling.

SOA actuaries often work in

  • Life and Health Insurance companies

  • Pension consulting firms

  • Investment and risk management firms

  • Government agencies (e.g., Social Security, Medicare)

  • Financial planning and banking sectors

CAS

  • Specializes in property and casualty (P&C) insurance, which includes automobile, homeowners, commercial liability, workers’ compensation, and reinsurance.

  • CAS actuaries work on pricing, reserving, and risk modeling for general insurance products.

CAS

  • ACAS (Associate of the Casualty Actuarial Society)

  • FCAS (Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society)

CAS

  • Requires more probability-based and statistical modeling knowledge.

  • Has a strong focus on loss modeling, risk analysis, and regulatory compliance in property-casualty insurance.

Career Path and Job Market

CAS actuaries often work in

  • P&C insurance companies

  • Reinsurance firms

  • Risk management departments

  • Catastrophe modeling firms

  • Government regulatory agencies (e.g., NAIC)

Geographic Influence

  • In North America, CAS is the dominant credential for P&C actuaries.

  • Outside North America, SOA actuaries often work across multiple sectors, sometimes overlapping with P&C roles.

  • In other countries such as Canada, the UK, and Australia, the Institute & Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) and Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS) exams can be used to obtain similar designation

Which one should you choose?

  • If you're more interested in health, life insurance, retirement, or financial modeling, SOA is a better fit.

  • If you prefer property & casualty insurance, risk analytics, and statistical modeling, CAS is the way to go.

Written by Yash Mittal