Early Career Profiles: Recent bachelors-level graduates in the mathematical sciences

Terri McNamee
Pension Actuary
Sedgwick Noble Lowndes

Terri McNamee got a B.S. in Math/Philosophy from SUNY-Oswego.  She wanted further training that combined mathematics with business.  So she enrolled in the Stony Brook Applied Mathematics and Statistics graduate program to get her M.S. in Operations Research.

Her investigations about possible jobs after getting the M.S. led her to look into the actuarial field, which also employs many math majors right out of college.  She took and easily passed the first actuarial exam.  In early January, she went to the annual Actuarial Career Day in New York City where she got more information about the three actuarial disciplines: Pension Consulting, Life Insurance, and Property and Casualty.  “Pension Consulting had the most appeal since it seemed like the perfect fit for combining math with business.  To this day, I feel I made the right choice for myself.”  She gave her resume to a few consulting firms at the fair and in a few months had two job offers (she had also passed two more actuarial exams).

Terri started her actuarial career working for Cooper & Lybrand (currently called PriceWaterhouseCoopers) in New York City.  A few years later, she became an Associate of the Society of Actuaries and transferred to Sedgwick Noble Lowndes on Long Island (in Melville).  Subsequently, she became Enrolled Pension Actuary.  She has had the opportunity to be the Manager of the Pension Department, be the Actuary for a handful of pension plans, model different benefit designs, and work on the projection of medical benefits.  Her employer has been flexible in allowing her to balance work and family by working extensively from home.

“What does a Pension Actuary do?  Using actuarial assumptions and principles, we anticipate the total liability, accrued liability and annual cost of a company’s pension plan.”