Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society (FCAS)

FCAS is the fellowship credential of the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS) — the senior of its two designations, and the one most property and casualty actuarial careers are pointed at. A Fellow has completed everything required of an Associate and three further exams covering the advanced end of the same material: reserving, ratemaking, and the capital and risk questions an insurer's management and regulator actually argue about.

Requirements

The FCAS pathway

Every ACAS requirement

VEE, Exams 1 and 2, the DISCs, MAS-I, MAS-II, Exam 5, PCPA, Exam 6, and the Course on Professionalism.

Exam 7 — Advanced Estimation of Claims Liabilities

Where reserving stops being a single triangle: unpaid claim estimation, stochastic reserving methods and the uncertainty around the ultimate, and reinsurance reserving.

Exam 8 — Advanced Ratemaking

Classification ratemaking models, credibility, and excess, deductible and individual risk rating.

Exam 9 — Risk Management for Actuaries

Catastrophe modelling, reinsurance pricing, financial risk management and enterprise risk management — how an insurer earns a return for the capital it puts behind a policy.

The three fellowship exams are written-answer papers rather than multiple choice, and are sat less often in the year than the associateship exams, so the calendar is part of the planning.

What a Fellow can do

Fellowship is the level at which the profession expects an actuary to sign for the numbers. In practice it is the qualification associated with senior reserving, pricing and capital roles, and — together with the local regulator's own requirements, such as the Canadian Institute of Actuaries (CIA) Fellowship in Canada — with holding an Appointed Actuary role and issuing a Statement of Actuarial Opinion. Fellows also hold the CAS's governance roles: standing for the Board and chairing the committees that write the syllabus and the research.

Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society (FCAS)