Actuary facts for kids

Actuaries are like financial detectives! They are experts in mathematics, probability, economics, and finance. Their main job is to figure out how much money companies should charge. This is for promises they make to pay for things that might happen in the future. For example, they help set prices for insurance or pension plans.

A Look Back: History of Actuaries

Hundreds of years ago, people faced big costs if they got sick or died. People had a clever idea to help each other. They decided to put their money together, which was called pooling. This way, if someone had a problem, there was money to help them.

Over time, some people started businesses to collect this money. Their goal was to help others when big problems happened. But figuring out how much money to collect was tricky. It needed a lot of complex math!

Many smart people from all over the world worked on this problem. They developed the math needed for these calculations over hundreds of years. Today, actuaries use powerful computers to solve these problems. Computers can handle calculations that were too hard to do before.

What Do Actuaries Do?

Actuaries work in many different places today. Most of them work for insurance companies. But you can also find actuaries in all kinds of finance companies.

Actuaries still figure out how much money is needed for life insurance. They also work with other types of money promises. This includes pensions, car insurance, and house insurance.

Actuaries also help businesses make smart decisions. They use their skills to figure out the chances of different business situations happening. This helps companies decide if a new business deal is a good idea or not.

Becoming an Actuary: The Tests

People who want to become actuaries need to take many tests. These tests make sure they have the right skills and knowledge. The exact tests can be different depending on where in the world you live.

Images for kids

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  Mathematician Nathaniel Bowditch was one of America's first insurance actuaries.

See also

In Spanish: Actuaría para niños