Stronger Than Ever …

I have had thousands of meaningful conversations with Society of Actuaries (SOA) stakeholders in Canada over the last eight years while serving as a member of the SOA staff. A wide array of ideas and questions have been directed my way by Canadian actuaries during that time. In the last few years, a pair of parallel and somewhat surprising questions have occasionally been raised: “Does Canada still need the SOA?” and “Does the SOA still value Canada?” This article is intended to address those questions head-on for you—our members and candidates in Canada.

Canada Needs the SOA

The question of whether Canada needs the SOA is usually rooted in our education system, which provides Canadian-specific content. The Canadian Institute of Actuaries (CIA) now provides options for earning their designations that bypass some or all SOA (or Casualty Actuarial Society [CAS]) exams, so the question arises naturally.

The first-blush answer to the question is that there are many worthy university students in Canada who are not eligible for the new university program-based pathway toward an actuarial credential. These students either attend universities that are not eligible, or they are enrolled in adjacent, broader-based programs other than actuarial science (whether math, statistics, data science, computer science, or otherwise) within eligible universities.

Our analysis shows that roughly 30% of actuaries credentialed over the past five years in Canada did not obtain an actuarial degree at an eligible Canadian university. Those students clearly need a program such as the SOA’s to allow them to gain an actuarial credential.

However, Canada’s need for the SOA goes deeper than this 30% of candidates who would be ineligible under the new program-based approach. For those students who are currently eligible for the university program-based credential, the SOA exams offer a strong opportunity for them to differentiate themselves for potential employers locally and abroad in a very competitive job market. Recent research done for the SOA by a leading consulting organization indicates that the actuarial job market within most of Canada is very competitive, which should be no surprise given the long-established profession here and the many excellent universities training students for the field.

Consider the following advantages of the SOA pathway to students and employers:

1. When comparing otherwise similar students, potential employers typically value the commitment and demonstrated capability of a student who has passed rigorous professional actuarial exams more highly than one who has not.
2. Students are able to demonstrate success relative to a global pool of candidates through SOA exams, not just success in obtaining a degree from their local university actuarial program.
3. Students can show early potential for passing later professional actuarial exams, regardless of the organization through which they’re pursued.
4. If students begin writing professional exams during their university years, they benefit from having coursework to supplement their SOA study efforts.
5. Students are able to pursue multiple designations for greater global flexibility and recognition with employers worldwide. This point is key—the FSA is the most widely used and recognized actuarial professional credential in the world, and any candidate earning it is instantly recognized as belonging to an elite group. The FSA is truly a professional “passport” to actuarial work in multiple practice areas across the globe.
6. SOA candidates need not worry about whether they will be able to achieve the national actuarial experience requirements needed to earn an actuarial credential. The FSA designation is an educational credential, and it can be paired with requirements from most national associations in the jurisdiction in which the actuary chooses to work. This feature can be extremely valuable for international students educated in Canada but wishing to practice abroad, or unable to obtain immigration status to work in Canada.
7. The SOA has invested heavily in adding data science, communication, and decision-making skills to its curriculum, exactly the type of skills employers most want to see in their actuaries. Candidates can use early SOA modules to develop business, analytical, and communication skills while receiving credit and feedback from a professional actuary. Employers thus benefit from SOA candidates being more prepared to enter the workplace having already mastered these skills under the guidance of actuaries engaged in professional practice.

Alongside the advantages of the SOA’s exam pathway, there is also the recent emergence of the SOA’s University Earned Credit (UEC) program as a means to begin progress toward an SOA credential. Under this program, students from SOA Centers of Actuarial Excellence (CAE) who have applied for and been granted accreditation under the UEC program may be granted credit for specific SOA exams by meeting threshold proficiency requirements in approved university courses. There are eight CAE universities in Canada. We are extremely pleased that two such schools—the University of Waterloo and the University of Manitoba—have been granted UEC status for the fall of 2024. Ideally, we will welcome additional Canadian CAE universities to the UEC program in the near future.

For those students who qualify for UEC credit for exams with the SOA, a similar level of rigor to SOA exams is demonstrated to employers through the high threshold of proficiency required of students and through the external oversight and interaction with faculty by the UEC program leadership.

In more general terms beyond our education system, most of our stakeholders in Canada value our size, global breadth, and diversity. The SOA is the world’s largest actuarial organization, with more than 34,000 members and a similar number of candidates, covering 107 countries across the globe, including over 5,000 members and close to 4,000 candidates in Canada. We have regional offices and offer local support in Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Dubai to complement our North American operations. We provide SOA support in emerging countries through our international Ambassador Program. We have the critical mass to cover a wide array of practice areas, and a vibrant network of nearly 4,000 global volunteers—of whom nearly 800 are based in Canada—to serve an increasingly global profession within their local contexts.

The entirety of this article up to now merely shows that Canada theoretically should need the SOA. But has Canada actually demonstrated its need for the SOA in the post-pandemic actuarial landscape? The proof exists in recent key SOA metrics in Canada:

1. The number of first-time exam candidates with the SOA has increased in every province in Canada except Quebec, as well as in Canada as a whole, in 2022, 2023, and 2024 year-to-date. In 2023, the number of first-time candidates increased by 3.4% year-over-year, and in 2024, it was up a remarkable 33.4% through Q3. We’re seeing this growing and strong interest in the SOA’s pathways at a time when university enrollments in actuarial science programs across Canada have been declining, meaning that we’re attracting students who’ve majored in another discipline but have been attracted to actuarial work and the actuarial profession.
2. The number of SOA members in Canada has increased each year in 2022, 2023, and 2024 and now stands at roughly 5,400. This means that a candidate who becomes an SOA member is joining a rich, vibrant, and growing professional community not only globally but within Canada.
3. The number of SOA volunteers in Canada—including education volunteers—has increased over that same period, demonstrating the strong engagement and commitment the SOA enjoys with its Canadian members and employers.
4. Our new free Affiliate Membership program, which came into existence in October 2021, has attracted nearly 2,000 participants in Canada through Q3 2024. The affiliate program is proving to be an excellent way to help students considering an actuarial career learn about the profession and begin to engage with it by utilizing free resources.
5. The participation of Canadians in SOA continuing professional development (CPD) has increased each year since 2020.

It is evident that Canada needs the SOA not just in theory, but in fact!

The SOA Treasures Its Canadian Heritage

The question of whether the SOA values Canada is linked not only to our present, but to our history and to our future.

The SOA has included members and served stakeholders in Canada since the founding of one of its predecessor organizations in 1889 and since its creation in its modern form in 1949. Because of this history, the SOA has always viewed itself as a binational organization, carrying both the maple leaf and the eagle on its corporate seal. The SOA has also always sought to express and carry out this identity in partnership and collaboration with the CIA since its founding in 1965.

Currently, Canada represents the SOA’s second-largest market in terms of members, candidates, volunteers, and virtually every other measure that is meaningful to the organization. Going forward, Canada is core to our global strategy of bringing the needs of international stakeholders (e.g., members, candidates, employers, and regulators) to the fore; the profession is becoming more global, as are many of our practice areas, such as financial reporting, predictive analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), climate change, and more. Canada itself is strongly supporting the global growth of the profession through the education offered to international students at our globally recognized universities, our early adoption of new global financial reporting standards, and in many other ways.

In the fall of 2025, after two years of global market research with employers, candidates, members, and other key stakeholders, along with the development of careful implementation plans, the SOA will incorporate enhancements into the FSA pathway. These enhancements are directed at creating a better learning experience for candidates, greater individual flexibility, and stronger international relevance of the FSA credential. Because of the importance of Canada to the SOA, we will continue to offer in our updated Fellowship syllabus the same significant Canadian-specific content and courses as we have offered in the past. I know there have been some questions on this last point, and I just want to address it squarely here.

For those wishing to practice in Canada, full Canadian content will be provided and necessary; for those educated in Canada but not wishing to practice in Canada, portions of the Canadian and U.S. content will be optional, allowing candidates to tailor their credentialing path to their individual career and life plans. We are committed to always providing the educational means necessary for our FSAs in Canada to smoothly transition to an FCIA credential if desired, as has always been the case. We launched a series of town halls with Canadian participation in the fall of 2023 and again in spring 2024 to provide information and answer questions about these SOA fellowship track changes. We would be happy to offer more of these town halls in Canada as the implementation process unfolds. You can find out more information about these updates at our dedicated webpage for Evolving the FSA Pathway.

As a further demonstration of the SOA’s commitment to Canada, we’ve also recently announced the appointment of Sally Xu, FSA, FCIA, FRM, as our new Staff Fellow, International Development–Canada. Her appointment represents an important increase in SOA staffing within Canada. In this role, Sally will help our stakeholders in Canada leverage specific SOA international programs, connections, and resources in their professional lives. She will also provide a local presence within Canada for student support, actuarial club collaboration, employer outreach, and member and volunteer engagement.

In this continually evolving world, it is clear that the SOA is committed to Canada—and that Canada is committed to the SOA!

Statements of fact and opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and are not necessarily those of the Society of Actuaries or the respective authors’ employers.

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