For the most part, however, she agreed actuaries come to their roles armed with a thorough understanding of the economics of the insurance business that is partly instilled through a rigorous exam process–one that also makes them quick studies in learning about investment risks and others falling outside of their usual assignments.

For example, Ms. Dalenta noted that actuaries don't tend to have exposure to nonfinancial risks. “That's a learning curve. Do you build a second data center? What kind of backups should you invest in your field operations for site outages? What's your data security strategy?”

“We tend to end up with members that are good at educating themselves,” said Donald Mango, managing director of Guy Carpenter & Company in New York. “You can learn the content of the [CRO] job over time,” he added, noting that while it is not “technically too demanding,” it involves a lot of terminology.

While Kenneth Kurtzman, executive vice president and CRO for Platinum Administrative Services in New York, said that actuarial exams have a heavy emphasis on risks relating to the liability of the balance sheet, he too believes that many actuaries have what it takes to develop a broad understanding of other risks.

“There is truth to the idea that risk is risk. It shouldn't really matter whether it's risk under a general liability contract, a corporate bond [or] an esoteric option. If you understand how risk works, you can…take a stab at measuring [it, and at] adequately incorporating it in your portfolio,” he said.

Still, he and others are quick to point out that while actuaries may be some of the best candidates to be CROs in the insurance industry, not all actuaries fill the bill.

“My guess is that it is actually a relatively small percentage of actuaries that have the interests and the skill set to become effective CROs. But it's probably a higher percentage of actuaries than almost any other group of people,” Mr. Kurtzman said.

“There are a lot of actuaries interested in pure intellectual, mathematical problems–that's not the best outlook for a CRO,” according to Mr. Kurtzman.

“To be a risk officer, you need to have an appreciation of the whole business. What are the products you're selling? What are your markets? What is the motivation to make people choose to buy your products instead of someone else's? That's a different question than 'What is the exact actuarially sound price for this coverage?'” he said.

Personally, Mr. Kurtzman said he was attracted to the idea of being a CRO because he enjoyed strategic planning throughout his career. “I like to be involved in identifying which of our portfolios are most attractive from a risk-reward standpoint, and which we should de-emphasize.”

Wayne Fisher, an actuary and consultant for Zurich Financial Services, said the clear dominant profession for CROs in Europe is the actuarial field, adding that seven of the 13 participants in the CRO Forum–an annual gathering of CROs–are actuaries, with the balance made up of finance professionals, underwriters and others.

(The CRO Forum is organized by The Geneva Association, a nonprofit group of global life and property-casualty insurance executives dedicated to researching the economic importance of insurance.)

While official counts aren't available in the United States, NU tallied roughly two dozen CAS members holding the title CRO based on information from press releases and on the CAS Web site.

Mr. Fisher believes the mathematical and modeling skills needed to analyze risk aggregations and correlations across an enterprise fall uniquely in the province of actuaries. “That's where I think actuaries bring the right technical skills and independence,” he said. “Underwriters aren't going to do that. Claims people aren't going to do that. No one else is going to do that,” he said.