For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow

Miller & Newberg is proud to announce that our very own Sam Ellis, a valued member of the team since he began his actuarial career in 2015, has attained the top professional qualification in our industry: Fellow of the Society of Actuaries.

Attaining this designation requires passing a series of examinations over a period that can last 10 years or more, each requiring hundreds of hours of self-directed study and thousands of hours of growing professional experience in order to be able to master.


Successfully completing all the exams requires substantial perseverance, as the pass rate on each exam is typically less than 50%, among tough competition – the entire candidate pool being experienced in the actuarial field. Thus, failures along the way are a regular occurrence, requiring the aspiring Fellow to spend even more time and effort to reach the required level of expertise.


Per the Wall Street Journal, only 10% of those who begin taking exams from the Society of Actuaries eventually manage to become a Fellow. Stuart Klugman, an official at the Society of Actuaries, said it took one man 50 years to become a Fellow. (WSJ article: Want to Be an Actuary? Odds Are, You’ll Fail the Test)


Sam, we are thrilled for you, having achieved this coveted professional designation.


Your fellow Fellows,

Trevor, Chris, Ed, Tim, Kent, Eric, and Lori