The amount of free time that an actuary has largely depends on three factors: the area of work, the amount of time spent in the role and the level of experience.
The area of work influences how often an actuary will have a full workload, as well as how long each such period will last. For example, an actuary working in ‘valuations’ - where the main objective is to place a value on a company - will have the most amount of work just before the company needs to publish it’s financial results to the market, regulators and other stakeholders.
The actuary is likely to be involved in other streams of work as well, e.g. ‘capital management’ - where the objectives might relate to the company aiming to hold enough money to be able to make good on it’s promises, even if highly unexpected (negative) events occur. There will usually be conventions as to when, in the month or year, most of this work will be clustered as well as to the level of rigour required for each task that is to be completed.
However, note that I’ve provided only one example among hundreds of different functions that different actuaries could have in practice.
The amount of time spent in the role will influence how quickly an actuary can solve routine and ad hoc tasks that come along. This can make a significant difference to how often they’ll have a full workload. For example, some tasks may take weeks to complete when you’re new to a role, whereas they may take two or three days when you’ve been in the role a while.
Lastly, the level of experience influences the level of responsibility an actuary is likely to have. Responsibility means work; work means less free time.