Meet the actuaries

James A. Miles

FSA, MAAA
Actuarial Education Consultant
Society of Actuaries

Jim Miles knows that the actuarial profession requires a degree of reliance on others in the profession for training and insight. For that reason, Jim applies his 30 years of experience in the life and property and casualty fields to several roles: an actuarial education consultant for the Society of Actuaries, an adjunct professor and an independent consultant, constantly making his expertise and services readily available to his peers and future actuaries.

Jim first learned about the actuarial profession during the latter part of his junior year at Greenville College. His interest in the actuarial profession peaked when he discovered that he could combine his interest and aptitude in mathematics with a professional job that was in high demand. Looking back on his actuarial experiences since that time, Jim notes that his most exciting experiences were working on projects that directly impact a major decision because of the immediacy of the results and the intensity of the work. "The keen interest of senior management and others in the results enhances the excitement. Excitement is usually characterized as feeling over relatively short periods of time but the most exciting experience in my professional experience took place over several months as we worked on the formation of a closed block of life insurance policies. The complexity of the modeling, the investigation of issues, the high-profile nature, and the real time impact of the results all contributed to maintaining a level of excitement through the project."

Jim recognizes the challenges in delivering services to clients while staying on top of industry trends. "New methodologies, changes in regulations and laws, new insurance products, and advances in technology are appearing at an increasing frequency. The level of the challenge is increasing because the complexity of the work and the frequency of changes are both increasing." However, Jim stresses that it's important that today’s actuaries are aware of current trends as the role of the profession is changing: "Actuaries have been trained to identify, quantify, and manage risk. The profession is evolving from one that specialized in certain specific risks encountered by insurance companies and pension plans to a profession that deals with a wide range of risks. In the future, actuaries will be not be characterized as insurance professionals but as risk professionals and actuaries will have an impact in a number of industries beyond insurance and pensions."

Jim is a magna cum laude graduate of Greenville College (BA Mathematics) and a graduate of the University of Iowa (MS Statistics). He is also a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries. Currently, Jim works as an actuarial education consultant at the Society of Actuaries, an adjunct lecturer at Butler University, and an independent actuarial consultant.