A View from Two Sides

When preparing for their first jobs, one of the top considerations entry-level candidates may have is whether they want to work for an insurance company or a consulting firm. They likely consider which environment will be more interesting, which will be more demanding, which type of company culture they will like better, and which environment will give them the best support for the actuarial exam process. Some actuaries spend their entire careers in either insurance or consulting, while some move back and forth and elsewhere during the course of their careers.

While actuaries pursue careers in many settings, including insurers, consulting firms, government, providers, reinsurers, startups, and other organizations, insurance and consulting remain two common career paths. In this interview, Brian Lake, ASA, MAAA, a health actuary with 20 years of experience, reflects on his personal experiences working in both environments and discusses the challenges and skills needed to succeed, the importance of technical skills, and offers advice for actuaries beginning their careers.

Can you give a brief overview of your work experience?

Brian Lake: I began my career as a health actuary at Humana, where I built pricing models for Medicare Advantage bids. Later, I also did rotations in Valuation, where I worked on reserves and financial statements, and Network Pricing Analytics, where I worked on contracts and network discounts.

I decided I wanted to try consulting and joined Milliman’s Minneapolis practice, where I primarily worked on Medicare and Commercial ACA health plan pricing. I next joined UnitedHealth Group’s services and advisory arm, Optum, where I have worked in three different departments. They included internal and external consulting first, Healthcare Economics and affordability spaces second, and in 2026, I joined a new team focused on trend insights and forecasting.

What led you to begin your career in insurance and later move into consulting?

Brian: My first role out of college was a natural progression of the work I had been doing at my university’s computer science department. This allowed me to leverage my technical background while learning the actuarial space. At that phase of life, I also wanted to stay closer to home, which my first job allowed me to do. Later, I decided to try something new after seeing what an impact the Affordable Care Act had on the health insurance industry.

Based on your experience, what challenges did you encounter working in an insurance company?

Brian: In the insurance part of my career, I only worked at a large carrier. Early in your career, it can be challenging to try to learn about how everything works in a big company. Relationships and influence are important, but can be tricky to figure out the nuances of. Learning the right tools, processes and how to communicate your work to others are all separate skills worth investing in.

Based on your experience, what aspects of consulting did you find most challenging?

Brian: I have worked extra hours on Medicare bids in both insurance and consulting environments. However, the pace, independence and organizational discipline of a consulting environment stood out to me the most. Someone once told me I would learn as much in a year or two of consulting as I would in multiple rotations at an insurance company. My experience was somewhere in the middle, which I view as both a pro and a con.

Based on your experience, which skills have been most valuable in insurance, consulting and in both settings?

Brian: For insurance, I think the most important skills are in building relationships, curiosity and patience. Sometimes a process exists for a reason you don’t yet understand. That doesn’t make it right or wrong—it just means you don’t have all the information yet.

For consulting, it’s most important to be a learner who is adaptable at a fast pace, and to learn how to say “yes” and “no” at the right times. Also, remember to step back and make sure you are solving the right problem.

For both, intellectual curiosity pays significant dividends, so don’t stop at the end of your assigned task. Stop to ask why and learn to identify the right answer rather than the convenient answer. Developing relationships is vital and can open doors for you in the future. You will almost certainly work with your former colleagues and clients again in another role, team, department or company.

Looking back, what experiences from your time in insurance proved most valuable when you moved into consulting?

Brian: Technical skills and having seen the core financial reporting interplay as part of a valuation team at an insurer vs. as an external consultant. Also, knowing how to speak and collaborate effectively with a cross-functional team, beyond actuarial employers.

What was the biggest adjustment you had to make when you transitioned from insurance to consulting?

Brian: I had to put some effort into re-learning or un-learning habits from the former, as I made my way into the latter. A consulting firm naturally runs much leaner than a large health plan, so you may only have one point of contact with a client. Making a decision with limited information forces you to be creative.

What surprised you most positively about working in insurance, and what surprised you most positively about consulting?

Brian: I started in insurance, so it skews my judgment a little since it was so early in my career. I appreciate that actuaries have a well-respected place within the insurance industry, across multiple functions, even nontraditional ones. This also means expectations are high on the caliber of work we perform.

In consulting, despite the fast-paced nature of the work, I appreciated the camaraderie within and across the groups that worked together. Even if pockets of a practice focus on different things, those of us in-person and remote were able to pick things up quickly and work together well to get the task done. In my experience, consultants like to work hard and play hard – I routinely find myself networking with other consultants, current and former, at society meetings.

Based on your experience, what advice would you give someone deciding between insurance and consulting, or just starting an actuarial career?

Brian: Technical skills are a great thing to learn early, so that you don’t have to pick them up later when you have more responsibilities. Actuarial exams teach you how to learn something complex in a limited window. Remember that “learning how to learn” applies to pretty much everything in the actuarial career!

In closing, from the author

I hope this article has given some insight into what it’s like to be an actuary working in insurance or in consulting. I have met countless actuaries who have been happy in one of the two throughout their careers, and others who have gone back and forth between the two. No matter which of the two settings an actuary chooses, the actuarial career is sure to include learning, challenges, lots of math and problem-solving and the chance to work with very smart people on interesting business situations.

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