SOA Exam ALTAM Study Plan & Practice System
Exam ALTAM is the advanced long-term actuarial mathematics exam for candidates focused on life insurance, annuities, pensions, and long-term health. Follows Exam FAM. Upload your ACTEX digital edition, scanned ASM manual, or your own ALTAM notes and exclam.ai turns them into a fully guided study plan with adaptive flashcards, quizzes, and a weekly schedule.
Exam format
Multiple-choice and written-answer format. Candidates must show work on multi-step problems. Requires deep understanding of life contingencies and profit testing mechanics.
Written-answer questions require showing your work — partial credit is available.
Heavy on profit testing, embedded value, and pension accounting.
Prerequisite: Exam FAM must be completed first.
The advanced life-side exam — ASTAM is the short-term counterpart.
Format details change periodically. Always verify the current exam structure on soa.org before your exam.
Exam ALTAM topic areas
The 5 topic areas tested on Exam ALTAM, with approximate weight bands from the public SOA syllabus. Click any topic for a dedicated study page.
Advanced Mortality Models
15–25%Multi-state mortality models, fractional age assumptions, and select and ultimate tables for advanced applications.
Advanced Life Insurance and Annuity Pricing
20–30%Gross premium pricing, profit testing, embedded value calculations, and universal life product pricing.
Reserves and Risk Management
15–25%Policy reserves under different regulatory frameworks, deferred acquisition costs, and risk management strategies.
Pensions and Retirement Benefits
15–20%Pension plan valuation, funding methods, and accounting for post-employment benefits.
Health Insurance
15–20%Pricing, reserving, and risk management for long-term health insurance and long-term care products.
Topic names and approximate weight bands sourced from the public SOA Exam ALTAM syllabus on soa.org.
How exclam.ai helps with Exam ALTAM
Upload your study manual
Drop in your ACTEX Exam ALTAM digital edition (full-corpus PDF), scanned ASM pages, TIA handouts, or your own notes. exclam.ai parses them into structured content for a fully guided study plan.
Generate flashcards & quizzes
AI generates flashcards for formulas and concepts, plus multiple-choice quizzes targeting each of the 5 topic areas. Edit any card.
Get a weekly adaptive plan
Coverage phase, review phase, and mocks — distributed across your ~18-week timeline or whatever you choose.
Exam ALTAM study plan
Pick the timeline that matches your exam date. exclam.ai spreads roughly 300 hours across coverage, review, and mock phases — each reading paired with its own quiz and FSRS flashcards. Switch the plan length to rebalance the schedule instantly.
Approximate milestones
14 weeks- Advanced Mortality Models~wk 2
- Advanced Life Insurance and Annuity Pricing~wk 4
- Reserves and Risk Management~wk 6
- Pensions and Retirement Benefits~wk 7
- Health Insurance~wk 8
Your full plan · 14 weeks to exam day
14 weeks · ~21h/weekSeptember 2026
- Wk 1Sep 21 – Sep 27Advanced Mortality ModelsCoverageReadQuizFlashcards15–25%6 study · 1 buffer
- Wk 2Sep 28 – Oct 4Advanced Mortality ModelsCoverageReadQuizFlashcards15–25%6 study · 1 buffer
October 2026
- Wk 3Oct 5 – Oct 11Advanced Life Insurance and Annuity PricingCoverageReadQuizFlashcards20–30%6 study · 1 buffer
- Wk 4Oct 12 – Oct 18Advanced Life Insurance and Annuity PricingCoverageReadQuizFlashcards20–30%6 study · 1 buffer
- Wk 5Oct 19 – Oct 25Reserves and Risk ManagementCoverageReadQuizFlashcards15–25%6 study · 1 buffer
- Wk 6Oct 26 – Nov 1Reserves and Risk ManagementCoverageReadQuizFlashcards15–25%6 study · 1 buffer
November 2026
- Wk 7Nov 2 – Nov 8Pensions and Retirement BenefitsCoverageReadQuizFlashcards15–20%6 study · 1 buffer
- Wk 8Nov 9 – Nov 15Health InsuranceCoverageReadQuizFlashcards15–20%6 study · 1 buffer
- Wk 9Nov 16 – Nov 22ReviewReviewQuizFlashcards6 study · 1 buffer
- Wk 10Nov 23 – Nov 29ReviewReviewQuizFlashcards6 study · 1 buffer
- Wk 11Nov 30 – Dec 6ReviewReviewQuizFlashcards6 study · 1 buffer
December 2026
- Wk 12Dec 7 – Dec 13MocksMocksQuizFlashcards6 study · 1 buffer
- Wk 13Dec 14 – Dec 20MocksMocksQuizFlashcards6 study · 1 buffer
- Wk 14Dec 21 – Dec 27MocksMocksQuizFlashcards6 study · 1 buffer
Your Exam ALTAM plan
A visual preview of how exclam.ai turns your plan into daily reading, flashcard, quiz, review, and mock streaks across the timeline you pick.
Sample activity — your own streaks, study time, and module milestones appear here once you upload.
Sign in to unlock your full 14 weeks plan
Every module dated to your exam, with quizzes and FSRS flashcards generated from your own materials.
Unlock my full plan freeWeek-by-week module breakdown
Your Exam ALTAM plan walks the syllabus module-by-module before transitioning into review and mock phases. Module weeks are allocated proportional to SOA topic weights — heavier-weighted modules get more time, lighter ones either get a single week or pair with adjacent topics on intensive paces. Change the plan length above to see the schedule rebalance.
Multi-state mortality models, fractional age assumptions, and select and ultimate tables for advanced applications. Build flashcards covering every learning objective and quiz yourself before moving to the next module.
Gross premium pricing, profit testing, embedded value calculations, and universal life product pricing. Build flashcards covering every learning objective and quiz yourself before moving to the next module.
Policy reserves under different regulatory frameworks, deferred acquisition costs, and risk management strategies. Build flashcards covering every learning objective and quiz yourself before moving to the next module.
Pension plan valuation, funding methods, and accounting for post-employment benefits. Build flashcards covering every learning objective and quiz yourself before moving to the next module.
Pricing, reserving, and risk management for long-term health insurance and long-term care products. Build flashcards covering every learning objective and quiz yourself before moving to the next module.
Review
Weak-topic drilling. exclam.ai surfaces topics where you underperformed during coverage and re-quizzes them. Daily FSRS flashcard reps across all 5 topics to prevent decay. Start doing timed question batches focused on the heaviest-weight sections.
Mocks
Full-length Exam ALTAM practice exams under timed conditions. Target one mock every 3–5 days. Same-day error review: for every question you miss, re-derive the solution from scratch. Taper in the final 3 days — light flashcards only.
Popular Exam ALTAM study manuals
exclam.ai works alongside any of these vendors. Upload paths vary, ACTEX sells full digital editions as downloadable PDFs (cleanest upload), ASM print manuals can be scanned for the full corpus, and The Infinite Actuary provides downloadable PDF handouts alongside their videos. For ASM digital (app-locked) and Coaching Actuaries (online platform), upload your own notes taken while studying. We do not distribute or reproduce any vendor content, your manual stays with the publisher.
Exam ALTAM questions
Should I take ALTAM or ASTAM?
Depends on your career direction. Life insurance, annuities, pensions, and long-term health → ALTAM. Property/casualty, short-term health, or general insurance → ASTAM. You only need one to reach ASA.
How much harder is ALTAM than FAM?
Candidates generally rate ALTAM as significantly harder than FAM due to the depth of profit testing and pension content plus the written-answer format.
What is the written-answer section like?
Multi-step problems where you show work and receive partial credit. Requires tight time management — practice writing out full solutions under exam conditions.
Start your Exam ALTAM plan today
Upload your ACTEX digital edition, scanned ASM pages, TIA handouts, or your own notes, exclam.ai builds a fully guided study plan around your exam date.