Enterprise Risk Management (ERM)

Candidates pursuing the CERA credential or an ERM specialization, and analysts moving from technical pricing roles into risk oversight. It rewards people who can connect quantitative results to business decisions, so some work exposure to capital, governance, or model review helps considerably before you sit.

Two equally weighted domains: Enterprise Risk Management, covering frameworks, governance, risk appetite, culture, and communication; and Risk Management and Modeling, covering model design, validation, aggregation, dependency, and capital modeling. Expect written discussion questions, not just calculations, so practise explaining your reasoning concisely.

Most candidates find the mathematics less computational than the quantitative exams but the breadth and writing demands greater. The difficulty lies in structuring arguments quickly and covering enough syllabus ground. Strong candidates read widely across the specified readings rather than drilling a single textbook.

Retake rules, waiting periods, and any attempt limits are set by the SOA and are not stated on this page. Check the SOA exam registration and results pages for the current policy before assuming you can re-register for the next sitting.

The SOA does not publish a required study hours figure here, so treat any number you hear as anecdotal. A practical approach is to budget several months, split your weeks between the two domains from the start, and reserve the final weeks for timed written practice rather than new reading.

Study them in parallel. The ERM framework material gives you the vocabulary that the modeling domain assumes, but leaving modeling until the end compresses the quantitative practice too tightly. Alternate weeks, and revisit framework topics whenever a modeling question forces you to justify a decision.

Three recurring causes: ignoring the written-answer style and never practising under time pressure; memorizing frameworks without being able to apply them to a scenario; and neglecting the modeling domain because it feels less familiar. Answer the question asked, state assumptions, and show your reasoning chain.

Only on the SOA's own site, under Exams & Registration and Past Exams and Solutions. This page deliberately does not state a question count, duration, fee, or passing score, because those details are not confirmed in our source and change between sittings.