Actuaries deal with putting price tags on future risks. They have been called financial architects and applied statisticians because of their unique combination of analytical and business skills allowing them to work in many different business situations.
Actuaries are professionals trained in statistics, operations research, mathematics and economic techniques that allow them to put a financial value on future events. For example, what is the risk that a 16-years-old young boy in the Lahore area will have heart attack in 2009 and what will his average claim be? How much money does a health insurance company need to set aside to pay for all the claims it will have in a given year? How much should homeowners pay for insurance? Actuaries try to answer all of these questions and any other risk-based questions by building and running statistical models. Their calculations and projections are the backbone of the insurance and financial security industries.
The importance of actuaries is profound, and for this reason they are paid extremely well. In addition, the testing process for becoming an actuary is extremely difficult. Because of this, the law of supply and demand says that "finding a job" in this field should not be too difficult.
The Centre for Actuarial Science under the umbrella of Institute of Statistics offers M.Sc. in Actuarial Science, which is the application of Statistics to financial problems with particular emphasis on life insurance, casualty insurance, and employee benefit programs.
Actuaries apply mathematical theories of probability and statistics and the principles of finance to the construction and management of insurance and pension programs.