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IFoA members voted to adopt Chartered Actuary designation in late 2022. The proposal was approved by the Privy Council, which is an interdepartmental part of the UK government and adviser to the King.
Chartered status is already well established in other professions, including insurers, surveyors, architects, engineers, and accountants. Extending chartered designation to actuaries will increase recognition of the qualification level achieved by actuaries and the standards they work to.
The introduction of chartered status will help better communicate the level of training, professionalism and expertise actuaries bring to the table, especially outside of the traditional actuarial practice areas of insurance and pensions.
Chartered status is legally protected. Anyone carrying out actuarial work may call themselves an actuary, regardless of their qualifications. Only someone who is a qualified member of the IFoA will be able to call themselves a Chartered Actuary.
The Chartered Actuary designation will assure the public that they are engaging with a regulated, qualified professional who operates to high levels of expertise.
Chartered status is a widely recognised mark of regulatory distinction. It shows that you have achieved exceptional levels of expertise and adhere to stringent professional standards.
It’s a way to distinguish yourself. Currently, anyone doing actuarial work may call themselves an actuary, regardless of their qualifications.
Chartered status is only available to IFoA members who have achieved Fellowship and Associateship qualifications.
As a Fellow or Associate of the IFoA, you can claim chartered status in a few short steps:
1. Log into your member portal.
2. Select “Membership”, then “Chartered status” from the left hand menu.
3. Select “Claim chartered status” (the form may take a few moments to load):
a. The form will display your current post nominal. You’ll be asked to choose whether to keep it or update it to include the chartered (C.Act) post nominal.
b. Choose “I wish to change to [your current post nominal] C.Act” and click “submit”.
4. You will receive a confirmation email and your member record will be updated with your new postnominals.
Once you’ve adopted chartered status, you can use the designation Chartered Actuary (Associate) or Chartered Actuary (Fellow), and the C.Act post-nominal.
You will also be provided with a digital badge that can be used on email signatures or digital resumes, and on social media sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and X/Twitter.
You will receive an email to the address listed on your member portal within three to five working days of completing the “Claim chartered status” form in your member portal. The email will be sent from admin@credly.com with the sender name “Institute and Faculty of Actuaries via Credly”.
The email will include the subject line “You just earned a badge from Institute and Faculty of Actuaries” and will include instructions on how to claim your badge and set up your Credly account.
We recommend adding admin@credly.com to your safe senders list in advance.
You can also view a brief video explainer
Yes. The chartered designation retains the essential distinction between Fellows and Associates, in both long-form title and post-nominals:
As before, Associateship recognises qualification as an actuary at a generalist level and Fellowship remains our ‘gold standard’ qualification.
This two-level chartered designation is an established practice in certain other professions, such as HR, architecture, and accountancy, whose professional bodies use variations on chartered associate, chartered member, and chartered fellow.
Yes. We are working closely with employers and recruiters globally to make sure they are aware of the Chartered Actuary designation and its value in assuring clients, stakeholders and wider audiences that their actuarial employees meet and adhere to globally recognised professional standards.
Yes. Anybody admitted as an Associate or Fellow by an MRA will be entitled to use the claim chartered status, just like any other Associate or Fellow.
An MRA means that IFoA accepts qualifications or credentials awarded by another body as equivalent to our own. So these actuaries have passed examinations and accrued experience just as IFoA-qualified actuaries have done.
MRAs are currently in place with Actuaries Institute (Australia), Actuarial Society of South Africa, Institute of Actuaries India, and Israel Association of Actuaries.
Once you’ve adopted chartered status, you can use the designation Chartered Actuary (Associate) or Chartered Actuary (Fellow).
You can also use your new post nominals:
You can also use digital badges to show your chartered status on your professional profiles.
You can find further information and some frequently asked questions and answers on our Credly webpage. Full guides, further information and “how to” videos are at support.credly.com
No. It’s up to you whether you choose to use the Chartered Actuary designation.
While chartered status is a widely recognised mark of regulatory distinction, if you prefer to continuing referring to yourself as a Fellow or Associate of the IFoA, rather than a Chartered Actuary (Fellow) or Chartered Actuary (Associate), you are absolutely welcome to do so.
No. It’s up to you whether you change your post nominals to include the Chartered Actuary designation.
While Chartered status is a widely recognised mark of regulatory distinction, if you would prefer to keep your current post nominals (AIA, FIA, AFA or FFA) you are welcome to do so.
No. While chartered status is legally protected and the Chartered Actuary designation signifies that holders adhere to high operational standards and codes of practice, there is no change to how you are regulated.
We have been engaging with regulatory bodies including the PRA, FRC, TPR and FAC throughout our journey to adopt and launch the Chartered Actuary designation.
Chartered status is awarded by an authorised accrediting body. To claim to be a chartered professional without this accreditation would amount to fraud and be actionable in law.
The word ‘actuary’ is currently afforded no such legal protection. Many actuarial roles are unregulated, so there is currently no legal protection to prevent under-qualified, or even completely unqualified, individuals from fulfilling them.
We believe that the combination of increasing economic pressures and technological advances, such as artificial intelligence, may bring a growing risk that employers accept lower standards of qualification in exchange for lower salaries.
The Chartered Actuary designation counters this, by emphasising and protecting the distinction between individuals we accredit as qualified to undertake actuarial work and those we do not. This means employers and the public can have confidence and peace of mind knowing the standards of the person they are relying on.
No. The IFoA is the only actuarial body in the world awarding chartered status to actuaries.
Chartered status originated in the UK, though it has been adopted in some other countries. It is possible that other national actuarial bodies might follow our lead in future and award chartered status to their actuaries.
But the IFoA charter is issued by the British Crown on the basis of standards that are widely recognised to be world-leading, so we are confident that the value of the accreditation will endure.
If you change your mind after you have completed the form in your member portal, confirming whether or not you want to adopt chartered status, please email our member services team at: memberservices@actuaries.org.uk.
They will need to amend your member record to reflect your new preference around adopting chartered status.
A Royal Charter is an instrument of incorporation, granted by the Sovereign on the advice of the Privy Council, and have a history dating back to the 13th century.
Charters confer independent legal personality on an organisation and define its objectives, constitution and powers to govern its own affairs. The terms of each Charter are therefore somewhat different, depending on the individual requirements of the type of organisation that is being incorporated.
When legislation was introduced in the 19th century facilitating the incorporation of commercial enterprises, and with the advent of charities legislation, the occasion for incorporation by the grant of a Charter became much reduced, and the grant of a Charter came to be seen more as a mark of distinction.
As such, it came to be limited to bodies pre-eminent in their field and satisfying certain criteria, which varied according to the category in which the applicant fell, and since the 1950s one of these criteria has been that the petitioner shall exist not solely to advance the interests of its members but also, and primarily, to advance the public interest.
The IFoA Charter was issued by the British Crown on 29 July 1884 on the basis of standards that are widely recognised to be world leading.
Under our Charter we have a duty to regulate the actuarial profession “in the public interest”. This means that in carrying out our regulatory role, our foremost consideration is what is required to protect the public and how we can ensure that the public has confidence in the work of actuaries.
The Charter allows the IFoA to confer chartered status on relevant members, as many other qualified professions do, such as insurers, surveyors, architects, engineers, and accountants.
