Actuarial Notes

FAC

The Fellowship Admissions Course (FAC) is the final requirement for the FSA designation. It can be taken only after all other FSA requirements are complete, and only by invitation, which comes from FAC@soa.org. There is no exam. The FAC helps prepare candidates to deal with the issues and situations they may confront as they progress in their organizations. It raises awareness of professional ethical and malpractice issues and identifies strategies to address them. It encourages actuaries to approach problem solving from varied directions and perspectives, and it provides coaching in oral communications.

About the course

The FAC is offered fully remote (an e-Learning module and a virtual session) or hybrid (an e-Learning module and an in-person session), and each runs over approximately six weeks. The SOA listed the fee as 2,305 virtual and 2,953 in person (read 2026-10-17).

With DMAC, it makes up what the SOA calls the FSA Capstone Experience. DMAC's closing assignment is one of the two topics a candidate may present at the FAC.

The second component is either a one-day virtual meeting, where groups of 8–10 candidates and one facilitator meet on a virtual platform, or a two-day in-person meeting with a banquet, in large and small groups. Both include discussion of ethics case studies, which reflect actual situations actuaries have encountered from any specialty or type of practice, and every candidate's oral presentation. The presentation is passed on the appropriateness of its topic, its length, and effort and preparation.

The faculty are actuaries with extensive experience in the actuarial field and in the management of organizations, trained in the case method the course uses. A candidate at a fully remote FAC receives the diploma by mail after completing both components; one at an in-person FAC receives it on site.

Learning Objectives

E-Learning Module

  1. Professionalism
  2. Legal duty
  3. Code of conduct
  4. Ethics
  5. Communication skills, with methods, guidelines and tips for effective presentations

Synchronous Meeting

  1. Discussion of professional ethics case studies.
  2. An oral presentation of 8–12 minutes, on the DMAC project or on an actuarial business case with an actuarial and a non-actuarial stakeholder.

Source Material

Source Material

  • FAC e-Learning Module
    • The SOA publishes no reading list. The course's material is its e-Learning module and the case studies discussed at the meeting.