Actuarial Science (AS)

AS 5101. Theory of Interest. 3 Credit Hours.

This course covers one of the foundational concepts of actuarial science: the time value of money. Students learn about simple, compound, and effective interest rates, and use them to calculate present values and future values of all forms of deterministic cash flows, both discrete and continuous. These techniques are then applied to value annuities, loans, stocks, and bonds. The course also includes a thorough discussion of interest rate risk, how it can be measured, and how insurers can mitigate this risk through asset-liability management.

Level Registration Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Graduate.

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

AS 5102. Actuarial Modeling I. 3 Credit Hours.

The heart of the traditional actuarial science curriculum, this course examines the pricing of life insurance products by integrating concepts from probability and interest theory. It introduces random variables measuring the future lifetime of a person and the present values of life insurance and life annuity products, in both discrete-time and continuous-time settings. Students learn to calculate and interpret the mean, variance and probability functions for these random variables. In addition, students learn to determine actuarially fair premiums for life insurance and life annuity products as well as other life-contingent payments.

Level Registration Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Graduate.

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

Pre-requisites: Minimum grade of B- in AS 5101 (may be taken concurrently)

AS 5103. Actuarial Modeling II. 3 Credit Hours.

This is a continuation of AS 5102. Students learn to calculate reserves for life insurance and life annuity products. The course then introduces Markov Chains in order to extend the pricing and reserving concepts to multiple lives (e.g. life insurance for a married couple or business partners) and multiple decrements (e.g. modeling different health statuses). The course also includes actuarial applications to pension valuation and profit testing.

Level Registration Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Graduate.

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

Pre-requisites: Minimum grade of B- in AS 5102.

AS 5104. Actuarial Modeling III. 3 Credit Hours.

Focusing on short-term actuarial modeling, the course introduces a variety of frequency, severity, and aggregate loss models. Students learn to select suitable models for a given data set, to parameterize the models to the data, to assess the predictive quality of the models through various measures of confidence, and to estimate losses using credibility theory.

Level Registration Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Graduate.

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

AS 5105. Actuarial Economics. 3 Credit Hours.

This course develops the conceptual framework of microeconomics and macroeconomics with some applications in actuarial science. Topics in microeconomics include interaction between supply and demand, consumer behavior, production choices, different types of competition, factor markets, and market failure. Topics in macroeconomics include business cycles, inflation, unemployment, monetary and fiscal policy, balance of payments, international economics, and economic growth.

Level Registration Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Graduate.

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

AS 5106. Corporate Finance for Actuarial Science. 3 Credit Hours.

This course introduces students to the fundamental principles of accounting and corporate finance, from an actuarial perspective. It covers basic accounting principles and regulations, financial statements, investment decision making, the risk-return trade-off, capital structure, long-term financing and investment risk. This provides students with an understanding of how (insurance) companies and financial markets function.

Level Registration Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Graduate.

Co-requisites: AS 5101.

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

AS 5107. Advanced Theory of Interest. 3 Credit Hours.

Students learn how to price financial derivatives, especially options, and their applications in insurance. Following an introduction to derivatives, the course provides an in-depth coverage of the put-call parity, binomial tree models, the Lognormal distribution, Black-Scholes option-pricing models, option Greeks, financial risk management (especially delta-hedging), and exotic options. In addition, students learn to conduct Monte Carlo simulations and apply this technique to value options as well as financial guarantees embedded in modern life insurance products.

Level Registration Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Graduate.
College Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Colleges: Business & Mngmnt, Fox School.

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

Pre-requisites: Minimum grade of B- in AS 5101.

AS 5108. Actuarial Analytics. 3 Credit Hours.

Predictive analytics is a key component of actuarial work. It helps improve solutions to traditional actuarial problems such as forecasting mortality, setting loss reserves, predicting policyholder behavior, and establishing classification ratemaking schemes. Actuaries also use these techniques for improving insurance operations through data-driven decision making. This course aims to prepare students for and beyond the data analytics needs of entry-level actuarial positions. It introduces students to linear regression models, generalized linear models, and decision tree analysis, and helps students understand the overarching goals of statistical learning. Using the statistical programming language R on real-world insurance and financial data sets, the course focuses on applying these tools to actuarial business decisions in an insurance or consulting environment.

Level Registration Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Graduate.

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

AS 5170. Special Topics. 3 Credit Hours.

Special Topics. Content varies.

Level Registration Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Graduate.

Repeatability: This course may be repeated for additional credit.

AS 5180. Special Topics. 3 Credit Hours.

Special Topics. Content varies.

Level Registration Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Graduate.

Repeatability: This course may be repeated for additional credit.

AS 5182. Independent Study. 1 to 6 Credit Hour.

Special study in a particular aspect of actuarial science under faculty supervision. Maximum of six hours may be counted toward degree requirements.

Level Registration Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Graduate.

Repeatability: This course may be repeated for additional credit.

AS 5190. Special Topics in Actuarial Science. 3 Credit Hours.

Special Topics - Actuarial Science. Content varies.

Level Registration Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Graduate.

Repeatability: This course may be repeated for additional credit.

AS 5196. Casualty Contingencies. 3 Credit Hours.

This highly participative course is designed to broaden perspectives on the business environment in which actuaries work. In addition to analyzing the issues behind daily events, several continuing issues will be analyzed including insurance pricing cycles, regulatory developments, the role of the actuary as an educator, advisor, objective information source and problem solver insurance company financial rating and solvency issues, accounting fraud and questionable financial transactions, insurance and the financial markets managing insurance operations, professional ethics, and the impact of current developments in underwriting, and reinsurance on the actuarial function.

Level Registration Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Graduate.

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

AS 5282. Independent Study. 1 to 3 Credit Hour.

Independent Study. Focus to be determined by instructor and student.

Level Registration Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Graduate.

Repeatability: This course may be repeated for additional credit.