B sounds like it might be better for your career, since finance is more related to actuarial pursuits and they're more likely to front you the money (ideally, you should be in insurance, but finance and insurance are closely related).

A does sound better in terms of "work life balance" though.

I actually got turned down from an insurance firm for a 'pricing analyst' role because I was pursuing a career as an Actuary (eventhough there are actuaries in pricing). They consider it high risk and given the pass rate, I'm honestly not surprised. There's even a well known insurance firm who won't pay for study support if you decide to become an actuarial analyst for them.

I've already got a few exemptions and will be taking the first core technical exam in April to get my foot in the door.

I do have a few more interviews with a number of actuarial firms but the start date for the majority of these positions is in September and there's no guarantee that I'd get it given how competitive it is which is why I've decided to accept something for the time-being.

Good luck in any case. At least you've got a lot of options on the table (though i suppose i'm in grad school for a reason...)

From the OP, A Seems like the best choice by far, outside the career aspirations anyway, but such a thing would likely be minimal.

I chose company A at the end. I had a chat with them this morning and they decided to up the salary by another £2k with a 10% bonus. They also told me that it was possible for me to shift in to their actuarial team (turns out that this energy company also has their own insurance business which a lot of people were unaware of)

Sounds like the best of both worlds.