Meet the actuaries

Sunit Patel

FSA, CFA
Senior Vice President
Fidelity Investments

Sunit Patel enjoys a good challenge; something that he says is what initially attracted him to the actuarial profession. "I liked that the profession required a combination of both analytical skills and business acumen," says Sunit. "Also, the fact that it was considered a challenging process to go through interested me."

Now, as the senior vice president of Fidelity Investments, Sunit manages the health care consulting practice. His team is responsible for the various aspects of delivering client engagements, including sales, marketing, strategy, financial analysis, research staffing and other areas. "The entire process is similar to running a small independent firm, but with the support of a large company," he explained.

Sunit enjoys seeing something develop from start to finish and considers working with start-up companies to help launch their healthcare businesses to have been the most exciting experience of his career to date. "Providing expertise and skills to individuals who typically have a strong passion for their undertaking is often contagious," Sunit says of helping start-up owners.

And while he loves sharing his expertise with people starting new companies, Sunit says he finds it most rewarding to use his actuarial skills to help others by working to improve the efficiency and outcomes of the health care system. When asked what aspect of his job is most gratifying, he says it's working with Medicaid HMOs and other plans to improve health care delivery for the sickest and neediest segment of the population.

A proud alumnus of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Sunit majored in Actuarial Science. But, those thinking of joining the profession might be interested to know that his favorite class wasn't actually about math or statistics – instead, it was a psychology class, which he says he enjoyed because people and their intrinsic differences fascinate him. "I'm naturally inclined to wonder what makes people do, say, and act as they do," Sunit explains. "I think that this is important as it helps to relate to individuals sometimes differently, building strong relationships among diverse people and that is useful in both personal and business life."

As advice to aspiring actuaries, Sunit offered this: "When you're young, try different things and see what you like best. Be critical in assessing your strengths and weaknesses." As for the future of the profession, Sunit foresees an increasing range of career options for actuaries in the traditional as well as non-traditional fields. Looks like the challenging nature of the profession continues!