The growing complexity of insurance products is making people who have a talent for working with numbers a hot commodity.

Stuart Klugman, Principal Financial Group professor of actuarial science at Drake University, receives a steady stream of e-mails from companies looking to hire his students. Actuaries are the people who help determine insurance premiums by evaluating the likelihood of future events. They are sometimes referred to as the “analytical backbone of society’s financial security programs” and are in high demand.

“It’s not unusual for students to have multiple job offers,” Klugman said. “That has been the case for some time, but we’re seeing it even more now because the insurance products have gotten more complicated than they used to be.”

According to Klugman, newer insurance products, such as ones that include an investment component, require a deeper level of understanding to get them priced right and keep them working as intended.

“We are learning that every time you figure out a product, a new twist is added, and you need actuaries who can understand the new mathematical models,” Klugman said.

AmerUs Group Co., which was acquired last November by Aviva plc, is one local company that is expanding its actuarial staff in Des Moines. According to Rhonda Elming, a senior vice president at AmerUs in its life product management group, the company expects to hire 20 to 25 actuaries by the end of the year.

Jim McClure, an actuary with American Equity Investment Life Holding Co. and a Drake graduate, said his company has one job open in its small department of a half-dozen actuaries. Mike Palmer, a spokesman for Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. whose subsidiaries include Allied Insurance Cos., said his company works closely with Drake, and also with the University of Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa, to recruit actuaries.

“We have actuaries in several different product lines,” Palmer said. “And as our business continues to grow, which it has been, that is one area that grows along with it.”

According to Klugman, the number of students studying to be actuaries at any time is rather small because “not everyone has the ability to do this type of work.”

Not only must actuaries possess a high aptitude in mathematics, but also strong communications skills for their role in working closely with others in the company. Drake’s program, which is the only private actuarial science program in the Midwest, has about 180 students enrolled.

“Years ago, you could get away with just being a ‘math geek,'” Klugman said. “But that no longer cuts it because everything is done in teams these days, and you have to be able to present your ideas clearly to other people in the company who don’t do math, such as the marketing people.”

American Equity’s McClure said he likes the fact that he interacts with many people at his company through his job.

“We work with marketing and the accounting area and investments,” he said. “It’s hard to say an area that we don’t have contact with because we’re so much in the middle of everything.”

McClure said the interaction with other departments gives him a better sense of how market changes affect the company in different ways. For reasons such as this, Klugman said, actuaries are often promoted to top leadership positions. For example, FBL Financial Group Inc.’s new CEO, Jim Noyce, majored in actuarial science at Drake. Other local executives with actuarial backgrounds include Bruce Kelley, president and CEO of EMC Insurance Group Inc.; Roger Brooks, retired chairman and CEO of AmerUs; Jim Wallace, president and CEO of GuideOne Insurance; and Larry Zimpleman, Principal’s president and chief operating officer.

“Lots of actuaries end up in top management roles as part of their training, because they have a lot of expertise in other areas,” Klugman said.

Compensation is generally high for actuaries. Entry-level positions usually pay between $45,000 and $58,000, according to a salary survey by D.W. Simpson & Co., a Chicago-based actuary recruiting company. Pay acceleration is rapid as actuaries achieve various levels of certification. An actuarial fellow, a designation typically achieved by age 30, has a salary range of $100,000 to $125,000.

“Actuaries work really hard and have a series of exams they must pass,” Klugman said, “but on the other side, the pay is good.”