Career change - moving away from DB?

[kg1128]

i'm a near-asa with 4 years of experience with one of the major pension consulting firms in US. with some experience under my belt and nearing my first actuarial designation, i've been reevaluating my career in terms of long-term outlook and goals.

i'm satisfied with where i am now with my current company - working environment is great; pay and other benefits are great (though it can always be better); i work on huge clients including both corporate and multiemployer plans; even there is a clear potential for me to advance in 1-2 years with attaining EA. however, there are a couple of worries i have that i think will haunt me forever if i don't do anything about it right now.

1. pension = dying industry? a lot of db plans are frozen already, and more companies are moving away from db. every week i hear news about big plans (GM, BoA recently) freezing their DB plan. i'm sure there will be a lot of work for me to do in next 10-15 years, but that's really not enough given my age (late 20s). personally, db looks pretty bleak to me 20,30 years from now seeing what's been happening in the past 10 years. fair assessment?

1.5 if i stay in DB for couple more years, and get EA and FSA with retirement track, i feel like i will be stuck here forever. imo, right now is the best time to switch career direction. thoughts?

2. i believe i'm good at what i'm doing, but hate the fact that there's nothing more to learn. pension actuarial work can get repetitive after you master them in couple of years. i know it's kinda naive to think that there will be more challenging, new work in other industry (life/health/investment) but honestly i'm tired of doing valuations, accounting reports, and benefit calculations.

so i wanna move into investment actuarial field. i know it's not as big as other fields, but i do see positions open for capital market, asset-liability modelling, etc. how's outlook in this field? how does it compare against pension consulting, regarding the worries i mentioned above. does the same concerns apply?

[Runner]

Are you interested in being an investment analyst, or an investment actuary? IMO, there are far more opportunities in the former in consulting. Maybe if you worked for a big insurance company that had insurance products that were tied to investment products there might be opportunities for investment actuaries. In consulting you want a CFA.

[Samantha]

i'm tired of doing valuations, accounting reports, and benefit calculations.

I could probably make you feel better about staying in pensions with respect to your other points, but if this is true, then yeah, you better move.

I would think having a background in the liability side would be a plus in that regard. Best of luck! :tup:

[Duffer]

The next step is up to you. You have been on a technical track, but there still remains other things to learn.
Sales, marketing, management, motivation and training, along with a wide range of community involvement await you.
In addition, remember that valuations, benefit calculations, etc. are the items that get you money... so you can pursue your financial goals as well.

[brandonwnw]

Having made a transition from an EA to investments (sitting for the last CFA exam this June), I'll tell you that it may take quite a while to transition due to very few opportunities. However, I love my job now and I cannot say I ever loved my job doing benefits consulting. The work / life balance is better, career outlook is much improved and I was able to make the transition without a hit to pay. I can't imagine a situation where I would go back to pension work, but the experience of working in DB and DC benefits has served me very well in my new role.

If you are considering this move, here are some things to consider:

- Are you interested in more time spent with clients or would you rather work on spreadsheets / back office? - If you like direct client contact and are comfortable doing lots of presentations and meetings investments may better suit you.
- Are you willing to invest 1-3 years of your life in the transition? - Sounds a bit harsh, but it took me several years from the time I realized I wanted to change until I was at the point employers would bring me in for an interview.
- How do you feel about travel? - If your preference is to be at home then a career as an actuary probably suits you well.
- How important is it to you to get the actuarial credentials? - I've found that lots of actuaries get caught up in the prestige of passing exams / getting their designation. If that's important to you, keep working as an actuary. Outside our little world, nobody cares.
- Are you willing to re-locate to make this work? - Most of the jobs are in a handful of big cities (New York, Chicago, and San Francisco). If you aren't willing to move there, the transition will take longer and be much harder.

Best of luck!