Course co-ordinator(s): Andrew David Stott (Edinburgh).
Aims:
The purpose of the Actuarial Risk Management course is to embed the skills necessary to run:
- a life insurance company; or
- other related enterprise.
The core skills are introduced here and expanded in other courses.
Summary:
- To provide students with a thorough grounding in the strategic concepts required to manage the business activities of financial institutions and programmes.
- To provide students with an understanding of the various types of risk faced and the processes used to manage those risks.
- To enable students to make use of those processes in order to formulate, justify and present plausible and appropriate solutions to business problems.
Detailed Information
Course Description: Link to Official Course Descriptor.
Pre-requisites: none.
Location: Edinburgh.
Semester: 1.
Syllabus:
Professionalism
- The roles and statutory roles actuaries can play
- The professionalism framework of the Actuarial Profession and the Board for Actuarial Standards
- The factors and issues to be taken into account when doing a professional job
- The components of and application of the Actuarial Control Cycle
Stakeholders and Their Needs
- The variety of stakeholders and their needs
- Products, schemes, contracts and other arrangements that can provide benefits on contingent events which meet the needs of clients and other stakeholders
The Environment
- The risk environment, the identification of risks, the classification of risks and related concepts
- The principles and aims/rationale of prudential and market conduct regulatory regimes
- The impact of the external environment
- The investment environment; its behaviour and its contracts
- The impact of capital requirements and their measures
Specifying the Commercial Problem
- The factors to be considered in the design of products, schemes, contracts or other arrangements that provide benefits on contingent events
- Project management and the use of actuarial techniques in the assessment of capital investment projects and cost-benefit analyses
- How risks are taken into account in project management
- What data is required and how it should be handled
- The issues surrounding the management of risk
- Methods of measuring risk
- Risk management tools
Principal Terms
- The principal terms used in financial services and risk management
Learning Outcomes: Subject Mastery
After studying this course, students should be able to:
- know how to behave and present oneself professionally in a commercial environment and take relevant factors and issues into account;
- be able to apply the Actuarial Control Cycle in a practical commercial situation;
- know who all the stakeholders are and how to take appropriate account of their requirements when giving actuarial advice;
- understand the risk, regulatory, external and investment environments in which a company is operating;
- know what should be considered in terms of contract design and project planning and management;
- know how to handle data;
- know how to manage risks; and
- be able to describe/explain the principal terms used in financial services and risk management.
In addition, students will:
- demonstrate the ability to learn independently and as part of a group;
- manage time, work to deadlines and prioritise workloads;
- present results in a way that demonstrates an understanding of the workplace, market place and general environment; and
- understand the importance of risk management.
Reading list:
There is no required reading for the course. However, students are expected to read more widely in order to develop a ‘common sense’ in respect of managing actuarial risks. The following covers the content of the course:
- Understanding Actuarial Management: the actuarial control cycle edited by Clare Bellis, Richard Lyon, Stuart Klugman and John Shepherd, published by The Institute of Actuaries of Australia.
SCQF Level: 11.
Credits: 15.
Other Information
Help: If you have any problems or questions regarding the course, you are encouraged to contact the course leader.
Canvas: further information and course materials are available on Canvas