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Alm

W

WHS

Member
I have been working in a life valuations department for a while and I am thinking about making a move into another practice area.

I am considering getting a job that invloves asset-liability modelling but before I take the plunge I would like to find out more about it.

I would appreciate it if anyone working in this area could tell me about the following:

- A typical day's work
- Software packages used
- Working hours (peak periods as well as normal time)
- Do employers expect you to have some other investment qualification (CFA?)
- How easy it is to move into this kind of work without any investment's experience

Thanks in advance.
 
WHS said:
I have been working in a life valuations department for a while and I am thinking about making a move into another practice area.

I am considering getting a job that invloves asset-liability modelling but before I take the plunge I would like to find out more about it.

I would appreciate it if anyone working in this area could tell me about the following:

- A typical day's work
- Software packages used
- Working hours (peak periods as well as normal time)
- Do employers expect you to have some other investment qualification (CFA?)
- How easy it is to move into this kind of work without any investment's experience

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

I don't work in ALM but I am in contact with colleagues who do.
I wouldn't consider their days work very typical. They could be working on anything from a hedging strategy (i.e. investigating the effects of a derivative or a group of derivatives on one of the company's funds) to deciding on a portfolio of corporate bonds for another of the company's funds and investigating collateral and counterparty/ credit risk. It seems very interesting and diverse from an investment point of view.

As for software packages, not much experience is needed, apart from Excel of course. I've just seen the software package where details of different assets are stored according to the fund they are in and the asset type, etc. My view is that you would pick up knowledge on this software fairly rapidly.

Working hours: in peak periods, a 10 hour day is normal. Off peak, the normal 7.

The employer does not expect any other team members to have any other qualification as all members of the team are qualified or nearly qualified. However, I spoke to one of the members of the team and he is considering taking the CFA exams voluntarily, which the company would offer support for.

In terms of moving into this field, it all really depends on you as a person. If investments is really your thing and show that you can demonstrate a fair amount of knowledge, you'll no doubt fit in well after a while. I would say that the CT series and CA1 would put you in more than a sufficient position to start off in an ALM team - where I am, the people in that team are actively encouraged to take either ST5 or ST6.

Hope this helps and good luck!!:eek:
 
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